Crack in soundboard at bookends

I was out shopping for a Koa top uke. My ear told me a $250 uke was what I was looking for. I found three ukes that fit the bill. The prettiest one was a Cordoba 25CK. There was a problem there was what appeared to be a surface crack at the bookend joint. It runs the length of the lower bout to the soundhole. It might be that there is a crack in the upper bout as well but this wasn't evident. The crack was not ugly and led me to suspect it might have been a bad join The uke was in tune, but I didn't play it. It was offered at a thirty dollar discount.

I talked to a non-uke luthier about this. He thought it sounded like a bad glue join that could be easily repaired. I suggested hot hide glue. Iindicated that Elmers yellow wood glue would work. At the end of the conversation he suggested I might offer the store $100 for the uke.

I will probably buy a $250 Lanakai or Luna but the Cordoba was very pretty. I can afford to buy a uke and offer the $100 for the Cordoba. Maybe parley the cost of the cost of the package down as well.

1. Should I even consider doing this?
2. If the crack is as advertised how many hours labor would a competent luthier require to repair the uke?
3. If I chose to do the repairs myself what are your recommendations? I do have the clamps but little else.
4. If I were to offer a blemished $250 uke for sale what is a reasonable mark-down.

I look forward to your comments.

You should not even consider a new ukulele that is falling apart. That sounds like a very difficult fix depending on what you call repaired.

Like Micheal said. Very difficult repair.

If it's on the existing book match then there will be glue in that joint. Very highly unlikely that it would be HHG in a factory instrument. So for a good lasting repair, that glue needs to be cleaned out.

Thanks guys.