I dare say that if you did a walk around on almost any 727-200 that had been in service for more than six months if not less you see that they had previously encounterd a tail strike. By this I mean the surface of the skid had been scuffed. Maint would simply replace the crushable cylinder and sign it off as okay to go. Tail scuffs were most common during takeoff. A strike during a landing would be highly unlikely unless someone really screwed up and probably call for some additional investigation off just how this happened.
If the skid did not retract the fuel penalty was significant as ealier noted. In addition part of the non normal checklist required the S/O to go back to the aft lavs and shut off the water so that when it expelled from the sink draink it would no impinge on the tail skid and form an ice glob thus adding to the drag issue and I suppose falling off during descent into warmer air.
You could just barely feel the skid touch the runway but the flight attendents sitting on the drop down jump seats in the very aft of the airplane new right away that something had happend. Usually only took them ten seconds to call the flight deck with the statement, "what just happened?
These encounters were most common with a very heavy takeoff combined with a stong crosswind.
This is all significantly different than todays tail strikes in the 767/777/787/747 aircraft where they do not want you to pressurize the aircraft after a tail strike.