My experience is there are a number of used intakes in circulation out there have been milled, have stripped threads, ect. The swap meet parts flipper guys are pretty proud of their stuff too so the days of the $100 used 4 barrel intake seem to be gone. Think I'd rather pay the extra $$$ for a new one unless your talking rare no longer made stuff.

I think a street type intake is a safe purchase. A race car type intake and you should really look at that stuff carefully.