Please take a look at our scratch repair, scratch removal, and scratch prevention products below. If you’ve got a full-size iPod, chances are you’ve got a full-size iPod with scratches—at least on the mirror-like back, but possibly even on the shiny white/black front. Even if you carry your iPod in a protective case, you’ve likely scuffed some part of your player. (We’ve scratched one simply unwrapping its box.)

As a result, one of the most common questions we receive from readers is, "How can I get rid of these blemishes?" (And sometimes people are actually talking about their iPods! I kid.) It turns out that a number of vendors sell products specifically designed to restore your full-size iPod to its original luster. What’s more, rumors have made their way around the Internets touting successful home remedies. We’ve gathered these products together, scratched up our own iPod (a 30GB 3G model) using several shiny metal objects, and gone to town on the offending flaws. Read on to see how each product fared.

Keep in mind that the way any “scratch remover” works is to buff down the surrounding surface so that it’s level with the deepest part of the scratch. This means that the most effective scratch removers also tend to be the most abrasive, requiring subsequent treatment with milder products in order to remove finer scratches left by the scratch removers themselves. Thus, I found that products including several different solutions to be the most effective at removing deeper scratches without leaving your iPod covered in finer blemishes afterwards.