What has been your experience with BGN grade gear from KEH?

I am surprised that KEH labels one's gear strickly based on their appearance. I hope they must check out the gear's mechanism as well and I guess they do.

I was told by more than rep that they DO check for functionality - however, the grading is based on appearance alone. I was told, unless AS-IS or mentioned in the listing, all features should be present, functional, and usable.

That said, I stay with EX or higher for most things.

Generally they work well and look at lot better than BGN to me. I've bought several over the years. My last M2 was a BGN lever rewind. It was very nice looking to my eyes and worked fine. It actually turned out to be a KS15-4 (basically an M2 with the M4 film load kit and extra dust seals -- an M2R really) but without anything on the outside to indicate that. Strange you'd think that they'd want more for that since lots of people like the M4 loading spool. But I've never been disappointed with BGN gear from KEH. I've never gotten a bad deal from KEH for gear of ANY quality level really. And they're only a couple of miles from where I live and work so I can actually go pick it up if I ask real nice.

I only buy Ex condition lenses from KEH these days.

I got a Canon FL 55mm f/1.2 that was BGN — glass was almost pristine (just dust), with patina on the barrel.

I have a BGN grade MB-23 grip on my F4. It's got a great war correspondent patina, but other than that, it works perfectly. I'd certainly take a punt on BGN gear, as long as it wasn't too pricy.