How old is your cartridge?

Zavato, so you change out you motor and transmission mounts on your care every 3 years? 
Strut and shock mounts?

As an ME I think you are full of da ....

With my SOTA Sapphire turntable and Premier FT3 arm, I still use a Monster Cable Alpha Genesis 1000 MC cartridge — its output feeding into a McCormack Phono Drive preamp.  I purchased this cartridge in the late 1980s, and, at that time, it was a “leading edge” moving coil cartridge.

Audiophiles normally have many cartridges, an old cartridge can be almost unused if a person have 15 more cartridges in rotation (for example). 

Cartridge can be stored for decades properly, it depends who is the owner. 

I have personal experience with more than 60 different cartridges, most of them are NOS or like new (and very rare), my experience is very positive with 99% of them. 

You can buy a new stylus replacement for your Shure, this is not a rare model (so you can find an original stylus). 

You can also buy a JICO SAS replacement for Shure cartridge! 

But any stylus profile (diamond) have their own life span, this much more important that a cartridge age. If you stylus is worn you must replace it. 

Check your cartridge and if you're not happy with the sound (or there are some problems) you can search for JICO SAS or Original Shure replacement, your cartridge can be inspected by pro for about $30-40 under a microscope. 

 

I have several cartridges that are between 35 and 40 years old:
1) Kondo AN Io ii
2) Fidelity Research Mc-44
3) Fidelity Research Mc-1 Mk.3.
4) Accuphase AC-1
They all still sound good. 

Deteriorated Suspension: I was concerned, decided not to buy a used MC cartridge primarily because of suspension concerns.

I got surprisingly lucky with my 20 year old/hardly used AT440ML, I was expecting to experience problems.

I have a shop light with 30 power glass. Shocking at first sight, the aluminum cantilever was black, even more crud heading toward the intersection with the body. I figured, what the heck, nothing to lose: grab the alcohol, a brush, and my compressor (aimed carefully).

Alcohol didn't do it, seemed like I would need automotive brake cleaner. I grabbed my nearby contact cleaner, even then it took 5 rounds to get all the crud off the cantilever. I figured, the suspension might have been bad, these chemicals must have done harm.

Surprise, the damn thing sounds terrific. Downstairs slightly beats my Shure/Jico SAS, and nearly as good as new AT33PTG/II MC.

It's here in my office sounding terrific.

My first MC, I was going to go for the anniversary limited AT1000MC, but suspension concerns made me go for a new AT. These new AT's have the same performance specs as it had, why risk it?