Had to play it at 1.5X to avoid dozing off

I guess the "red flag" is the chafing of recoil spring
guide rod tip?

The spring-loaded tip on recoil spring rod is polymer. It
does the usual 3rd Gen job of retaining the slide lock
axis in frame, by seating in a scooped area on the
slide lock.

Mine had some chafing on the polymer nib as well.
I trimmed it off and haven't seen any recurrence.
Doesn't seem like a problem.

The guy said he'd fired over 1,200 rounds thru
it, and didn't sound old enough to be an orginal
purchaser. No telling how many rounds had been
fired prior to his 1,200, but the pistol appeared to
be functioning properly and reliably, despite the
fuzzy guide rod tip.

On most 3rd Gens, btw, the spring loaded tip is
a polished steel cap, so this doesn't apply to
"3rd gen Smiths in general." Maybe all/only the
Value Line guns use the plastic tip...?

I'd red flag the guy for his disassembly narration--
drop magazine, put on 'fire', and no mention of
checking chamber.