JMO,
I bought a barrel from SARCO, that was advertised as "Shot Out" for around $40 for a .22 upper project and when I got it I couldn't find a thing wrong with it! Nice clean chamber, nice sharp rifling, nice finish on the Pencil type light weight barrel. It even came with the A2 flash hider, the A2 front sight and handguard cap and barrel nut! I looked that barrel over and over again and could find nothing wrong with it -- then I noticed a funny shadow ring just an inch or two back from the muzzle. Sure enough it had a ringed bore. If this barrel was at a gun show with no note on it saying it was "Shot-Out" I might have paid good money for it. I guess what I'm trying to say is sometimes the condition of the barrel is easy to see and sometimes it's not. The only good test, short of sending it to a gunsmith, is try shooting it.