Hi everyone! I used to have OCD on my fishing gear, and due to circumstances and life and whatever, I even had rods that never saw the water, they were brand new and sitting on the rod rack!
Upon closer inspection, when I checked the rods this season, I realized that some of them make clicking noise around the guides when I flex them! Go figure!
Having said that, took my curado 200k out of the box, and in the first outing i smashed the cement with it, of course, the paint chips away lol.
The ONLY valid reason to keep your gear scratch free is for resale value, but lets be honest, the value you get in return from resale is not justified for how much you need to baby this gear!
So instead I now have a strong and different opinion, and that is, to get a scratch on every single piece of equipment, the faster I do it, the better! Think of scratches as marks of hunting excellence! The more you get, the more memories you have! Etc.
Just enjoy and remember, this is gear that gets exposed to elements anyway, nothing to worry about!
Good luck and I hope that you find peace with it!
~ Marius!