Mine had a pretty good nick in them, but they sounded great. I talked to Todd about it and he said JG would fix them. I was worried I would get another set that may sound different so I just blew it off, especially since there are few perfect Grados in the wild, I just figured it wouldn't be a big deal, all in all. . I'll bet that if you had returned yours that they would be in this lot as well.
I don't think they inspected them before they went out the door. Todd handling 500 pairs, no way he looked at them. QC should have been done at the factory anyway, and we know that doesn't really happen. I had to send my GS1000s to them 4 times to get them fixed. JG is a pleasant enough guy to talk to, but their QC blows.