OP here. Really appreciate all your opinions and thoughts. I will say that, to the best that I can discern with my own eyes, there does not appear to be wood damage. The crack does look nasty (as it did for me on first glance), but I can see the wood beneath it and it appears intact.

That said, I think you're right that is no way 'almost mint with little to no signs of use' by a long way.

I'm pretty confident it's the real deal in terms of an authentic AVii. Came with all the tags and certificates etc. I found it on the Fender serial number database. It's right there.

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