You know, without being able to play the deck first-hand, all bets are off. Unless, there was verification through recent playback and recording test results by a qualified technician, it's too difficult to make that step up to that kind of cash. It's a lot different when you pick up an inexpensive deck from a friend, or discount store and expect not much, than to pay $500+ for a cassette deck and not get much.
Nando.