I bought a tacklebox from a friend which had a hodge podge of different baits in it.  Among them are about 6 Poes crankbaits.  some are cracked and crazed and others seem to be okay (for now).  I've heard plenty of bad things about the poor quality of their paint and how they are all destined to swell/split/crack, etc. once they are subjected to much water.  My question is pretty straight forward:  Should I be proactive and provide another coat of sealant or, more drastically, should I strip them completely and repaint them?  Or should just fish them hard and ignore the inevitable?

The Poes crankbaits that I use are made of cedar wood, so mine do not swell, split, or crack. Some of the early Poes had problems with paint chipping on them, but I never found it to be a major issue. A thin coat of epoxy seems like it would work well.

A wood crankbait won't swell and crack the finish unless there is water infiltration or the lure is heated.  Poes have a thick white waterproof "build coat" over the raw wood that offers a lot of protection against leakage but areas around the lip and the hardware are less protected.  Another coat of sealant certainly won't hurt.  Stripping finish from wood crankbaits has to be done judiciously and you really don't want to get down to bare wood anywhere, so a light sanding is usually the best way to go if you decide repainting is necessary.