A few weeks ago I sold a Taylor 510 on Ebay. I was happy that I got what I wanted for it and printed a shipping label supplied by ebay for USPS. I printed the label, put it on the box and took it to the post office to be shipped off to Vermont. a couple weeks went by and the buyer wanted to know if I shipped his guitar I gave him the particulars and he said “but I live in Michigan”. I tried to trace it down but they had lost track of it when it couldn’t be delivered….it seems the tracking numbers work till it gets to the destination but not if it is coming back to the one who mailed it. A week later I got a call from the local post office to tell me it was back and I could pick it up. The box looked like it had been through WWIII and under close inspection I found the damage to the finish on the guitar. I had left a 9 volt battery in place inside the body and it came loose and dangled around from the wire inside like a hammer making a ding on each side of the sound hole and a big spider web crack on the shoulder. I found an article on the web about using super glue to fix a finish crack and bought the thin type and gave it three coats waiting a day each coat to make sure it dried well. I put a peace of tape on each side of the repair and scraped it down to the level of the tape and close to the surface before using 400 600 800 1000 grit wet or dry sand paper then polished it out. This method works good on UV finishes and pretty good on lacquer. So my lesson was…. don’t ship USPS and don’t leave a battery inside the body and double check the address by sending a bill of sale to the buyer and wait for a response so you know he is where he is supposed to be.
Here are the before and after pics…
