Can a scratched record...

A scratch that traverses several grooves is impractical to repair (although digital copy and offline software can do wonders for recordings of historic value). However, a simple "dig" that affects only a couple of grooves but causes the record to skip, or worse, repeat, can be fixed by delicate surgery with a sewing needle. Of course the defect will remain audible, but at least the LP is playable.

Playing a LP wet was common among audiophiles 50 years ago. It was a trick we picked up from radio stations, and has the effect of reducing surface noise. It probably also limits HF signal, which was not a problem for AM radio. Its effect is for steady-state noise, and it won't do anything for a scatch.

Albertporter...I note your comment about CDs that skip, and am puzzled. I have never (no never) encountered a CD that wouldn't play, except for one or two that were visibly defective when new. Also, I never clean CDs. I suspect that repeated cleaning may be doing damage. I never touch the silver surface of the disk, always store them in their cases, and there really is no way for them to get dirty. Some players handle read errors better than others. Maybe I have been lucky to have good ones.

Albertporter...With 3500 CDs, your exposure is about ten times mine. Still I wonder about this CD skipping problem which you are not alone in reporting. The error correcting code used by CD should sail through quite prolonged data corruption (I forget the exact duration, but it would seem to be longer than any little scratch or blob of dirt). Perhaps there is something more complex than data drop out. Just a guess, but does the player (some of them) quit if the laser focus servo has a problem, regardless of the data comming in?

Onhwy61...Technically you are correct. But some people would rather listen to a scratched LP than a clean digital copy. I have a few ancient LPs that I keep only for sentimental reasons.