Apparently he reckons there was no way to see this damage without plugging it in. I'm not really an expert on monitors so I can't quite tell from that photo.
He did say his previous monitor has just **** its pants and died hence this purchase.
I'm no monitor expert either but if I had a monitor with a hole in the side of the screen with a huge crack over it, it'd be pretty blindingly obvious to me it was ******.