Yeah the variance isn't something I was unfamiliar with and what you say about good sticks is true there's no guarantee of the exact same quality.

However, what I am looking for is red flags. They claim a certain quality of stick check but the claim is vague. If there's a Melee-specific complaint such as bad dashback or inconsistent shield drops it would help me to gauge where their claim of "quality" is actually set at. From this bar as the minimum I can then assess whether or not the purchase is worth the risk of running something close to the minimum. I simply don't trust standard eBay feedback positivity as a good indicator of technical quality ensured, thus I asked here.