I am not able to convincingly decide between using redirects versus using 404 errors. People are giving varied opinions. Here are my cases

1. Coding errors - we put out a bad link

a. Some people are saying redirect to home page; the user at least has something to do PLUS more importantly it does NOT hurt your SEO ranking.

b. Counter - the page ain't there. Return 404

2. Product removed - link1 to product 1 was out there. We removed product1; so link1 is also gone. It is either lying in people's bookmarks, OR because of coding errors we left it hanging out at some places on our site.