I just obtained an old mixte frame through eBay. Opening the box, I immediately noticed the one of the long stays from the head tube to the dropout is bent. Not mangled, but there's a noticeable bend on the drive side, probably ~3mm worth of bend, but it's hard to gauge exactly.

So my question is whether I ought to make a big deal of this. It's steel, so I suppose I could bend it back (maybe that's a bad idea?). But why would it be bent in the first place? If it were cold set to accommodate a narrower hub and it had been done properly, should I expect something less noticeable and a more even bend -- i.e. not the one-sided bend I'm observing? The fact that only the long stay is bent, not the seat stay or the chain stay, makes me doubt it has anything to do with intentional setting anyway.

Below is an overhead photo where you can see the bend relative to the seat stay. I generally like to assume good faith, and this seller did have great feedback, but I can't help noticing the photos in the eBay post are all from the front left side of the bike, obscuring the bend ...



Any opinions? It didn't sell for much, but with shipping I paid just enough that I want to make sure this isn't structurally worthless. Thanks.