Brass quality varies by company, some of the worse ever was AMERC, the brass quality was so poor, people had ammunition blowups with factory AMERC.
New brass certainly has been fired less. The absolute safest procedure is to fire brass once and not reload. Brass provides the gas seal in the weapon, cartridge cases are not "pressure vessels", they are gas seals and they must be supported by the action of they will rupture. If a case ruptures than what happens afterwards is very unpredictable.
Reloaders, being cheap skates, don't like tossing out brass, want to save money by reusing their brass. There is risk in this as brass does work harden with use, any material flaws in the brass will surface with continued use, but reloaders tend to accept these risks as the cost benefit of reusing brass is substantial.
Good brass, good brass can be reloaded a number of times. Who makes good brass varies unfortunately as all ammunition manufacturers go through periods where posters report problems with their cases. As a general rule, I have had good luck with all American brass cases. I think Starline makes an excellent case. Federal rifle cases are a disappointment as the case heads in my 223, 308, and 30-06 are soft and open up after a couple of reloads. I don't have any more problems with Federal pistol brass than any other brand.
Foreign made brass is a crap shoot. Laupa is as good as it gets, Norma was excellent, but stuff from South East Asia, some good, some substandard.
