The 12.81 V was probably some surface charge still remaining. I'd say 12.72 V is pretty dog gone good and charged darn near fully to 100%.
The best V I have ever seen, after a day or two of top charge, then an hour or two of equalization, then a day or two of losing the surface charge after EQing, was 12.73V.
I've seen my T-1275 go through 4 or 5 cycles, top charging every single time, then doing an EQ session every single time after doing a 30 to 45% discharge, before all the cells pretty much came up as much as they were going to, and the voltage was at 12.73. The most important part for me was that the range of SG tightened up significantly per cell. I also saw top SG's of 1.285, uncorrected for temperature.
I think doing this sort of treatment before I put my battery away for storage completely disconnected, is the best condition, storage wise, for the battery.
