Thanks to the OP for all the disclosures. As for your baritone being a blemished, I wouldn't let that get in the way of buying a Pono ukulele. I have a "blemished" mahogany 6-string tenor that I bought from Pono on eBay, and I still can't find what might have been wrong with it.
I do have a question, though. (I should disclose here that I myself do not want to buy this ukulele, although I recommend it as an instrument because I have the same model and I love it.) The blemished Pono mahogany 6-string I bought was at a significantly lower price than an unblemished brand new mahogany 6-string (same model) from HMS/ukulelesite would have asked. You mentioned that you bought this baritone Pono from a private party who, if the ukulele was sold to him by Pono as a blemished ukulele, probably paid much less than retail. So when you compare the price you're asking for your apparently blemished ukulele to a brand new unblemished ukulele on the HMS website, I don't find that to be particularly informative. Would you be willing to disclose how the private party who sold the ukulele to you represented it to you, and if he/she told you it was some sort of factory second (Pono also sells manufacturer-refurbished ukuleles at its eBay site), how much you paid for it? Since the ukulele was the subject of a prior transaction that established it's marketplace value, telling potential buyers what they could expect to payu if they bought the same model new doesn't say as much about the value of THIS ukulele as what its value was in an earlier transaction. In fact, many people selling ukuleles here disclose what they paid for the ukulele they're trying to sell. Thanks!