Would you get a brake booster from the junkyard or a rebuild from the store?

Personally, I'm averse to getting used brake parts that I don't have the means to rebuild, but last summer had a crapshoot with rebuilt brake boosters. Since then I figured out I shouldn't have gone with a double diaphragm type and found that one from a 95-99 Sentra would fit my car, but where to get from?

Prices on remans from RockAuto are about the same to junkyard sellers on ebay. There's one at an LKQ near me, easy to check in person before buying. Lower mileage may be better, but does the rubber inside suffer less in a cooler northern climate compared to central TX? Other than holding vacuum and leaks from the brake master cylinder, anything else to check for?

Which would you get?

i'd trust a JY part that doesn't come from a car that was crashed in the front.

I've done this twice. Once after, a remanned master cylinder puked its guts into the booster in under 30 days, and once after, a remanned booster failed. JY part would be my choice.

My wife's oe brake booster failed from a leaking master cylinder at around 60 k on her Acadia.   So now I replace her mc every 70-90k to save the more expensive gm oem booster assuming that first mc was a dud.

My other cars original MC finally leaked at 32years and 250k.  Filled booster w fluid and corroded it.  My feeling is oe boosters last longer than we realize.  It's leaking mc's that take them out.  I took another OE core and rebuilt w nos rebuild kit.  55k later and it's running great.  It cost me 2x over a reman booster to rebuild w nos parts.  But saved me 4x over an nos booster -- nos boosters don't exist anymore for my 87 vehicle.  It was worth my time and piece of mind to rebuilt oe w nos rebuild kit.

so far, my lifetime experience w boosters is a leaking mc causes boosters to corrode.  Protect that oe booster if you keep the car for a long time
 

I'd trust a junkyard part, especially as they have a return policy that would let me bring it back if it didn't work.

You can call me superstitious, but I believe that no one builds them like the factory.   I would trust an OEM part out of a lower/reasonable miles crashed car way more than ANY rebuild.    As mentioned you probably want to check the back of the master when you remove it to make sure it wasn't leaking into the booster, but otherwise if it looks good it probably is good.   

Definitely junk yard. Nothing beats OEM for that kind of part. Even if it's a couple hours round trip to a self service JY, I'd rather do that then pull a reman back out after it failed.

Junkyard part, all day. If it's a common car, you can likely pull 2 of them while you're there

The only replacement brake boosters I've ever had have come from junkyards. They last many decades and unlike a reman, you can be pretty sure they've never failed in the past.

Depends if I'm going to be taking it on the track. I'd rather have fresh seals, depending on car age.