Aircraft buyers value the phrase “no damage history” so highly when searching for a flying machine to buy that it has caused a certain subset of aircraft owners and brokers to take sometimes drastic steps to cover up the fact that the airplane they want to sell has been damaged and repaired. After all, if the seller has to admit to a damage history, the value of the aircraft drops somewhat and some prospective buyers will simply not consider the airplane at all.
Logbook entries following major repairs are often so terse that a reader can’t figure out what work was actually done. Worse, no entry is made and no FAA Form 337 (Major Repair and Alteration) is filed. I’ve even seen owners take advantage of the stupid fact that aircraft and engine logbooks have no page numbers and razor out the page that describes significant repairs after an accident.