Prompts a question, as I've seen many games from Stern over the years have this "wood grain lining" (not planking!) issue. Particularly from 2007/2008 with SM and BDK. My beautiful IM has some lightly visible lines when you look really close.

If a lot of play will minimize the appearance of these lines, is it axiomatic that newer Sterns with highly visible lines have probably been played infrequently? I recently didn't make an offer on a BDK because the play field lines were REALLY pronounced...and it did bother me a little because the seller was asking top $. Maybe I shoulda bought the game under the pre-text that the lines meant less evening of the surface area meaning the game was hardly ever played?

That's good to know and a good tip to boot!