Follow up ....
my wife started talking to me after a couple of days ...
The seller took more than a few days to ship it - the guitar came in a huge box 12 days after the audition ended, using old comforters for packing material!
Pulled it out, seemed to have survived the shipping ok. Then I put on my glasses and inspected it.
Scratches in the top surface above the soundhole - not pick marks.
Back had a deep scratch about 3 inches long, and another couple of marks. Side near the strap button/jack had a series of scratches, deep.
OK, I'm not happy - guy had indicated one (only) mark on bottom surface and had sent a picture of that. I found that and it was on the top, not bottom.
So, I plug it in. Snap*Crackle*Pop. Whole preamp was shot - moving the controls brought more crackling, sound occasionally poppping on for a second. Popped open the preamp, just touching it on the sides made more cracklling.
I didn't wait, filed a 'Buyer Protection' case with Ebay right then. Seller sent a message 'what's wrong with the guitar?', I replied, no answer from him, I sent another reply and included close-up photos of all the scratches - Ebay can look at these - evidence! He had 6 days to reply, never did, so I forwarded the case to Ebay to decide, got the return shipping label (their expense) this morning, so I'll get it shipped back this week and get full credit back to my Paypal when it the seller gets it back.
Lesson learned. I still want a Taylor (it actually sounded really good acoustically), but probably won't jump on another Ebay sale real quick! I'll keep saving up my Paypal money.