[jpgvm]

A re-used rocket should be more reliable than the first go-around. Purely because if anything is likely to go wrong it will either happen on the first run or after N runs that is enough to wear a component out. N is likely much greater than 1.

[rkangel]

That may be true in the long term, but that may not be true for the first few attempts until they understand the sort of things that are stressed/weakened/generally affected by the first launch.

[gozur88]

That's the hope, but we don't have enough experience to know whether or not it's true. The analogy people like to use is airliners, but airliners don't get anything like the g-forces or heat load you see on a returning rocket stage.

[saiya-jin]

unless some significant wearing happens during descent