A “new” or “single” trip container are mostly manufactured in China. They will have made one trip in order to arrive at our shores, and to keep costs down they will have been loaded with cargo for this purpose. Their cosmetic appearance will be far superior to that of a used container, but it is possible that there will be a small amount of evidence of handling from their one trip. A “used” container that come off shipping lines and are available to buy on the storage container market will typically be 10-15yrs old. That’s a lot of trips, and naturally the condition of the container will reflect this. Expect cosmetic damage ranging from dents, scuffs, scrapes, scratches to surface rusting and repair patches. The good news is that shipping containers are built to incredibly strong standards and rarely will the integral structure of a shipping container of this age be affected by its container appearance.