Agree with most that used cartridges are too risky to buy. Many dealers will give you 20% discount so just buy new.
Would you pay more than 25% of MSRP for a used cartridge?
Seems most seller want to price their "low-hour" used cartridges at 50-80% of MSRP. This seems ridiculous to me because there is no sure way to verify these "low-hour" claims. You need to have specialized microscopes and even then it's a just a guestimate if worn or not.
Another point is even a cartridge with 1000+ hours can still sound very good. A worn stylus will mistrack only on certain passages of certain demanding records. So it is nothing obvious.
So why do all these folks price their used cartridges so high? Are folks actually paying these prices?
My max. would be 25% of MSRP for any "low-hour" claim.
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Sure, but when I was younger 20 - 25% off a Koetsu still didn’t make it affordable to me. I bought my first Koetsu used, and it gave me a big taste of the high end, which I continue to enjoy today. Bought my next Koetsu used too, and also loved it. At some times the used price of a high end cartridge with "~ 300 hours" has been low enough that even when adding the cost of a factory rebuild, it still comes out to a new cartridge at ~ 20% off list. And the used Koetsu I bought from here definitely didn’t need to be rebuilt for a while. I’ve since bought new ones & had factory rebuilds - the used ones definitely sounded like they should. As others have stated, it’s fine that so many in this market are reticent to buy a used cartridge - it makes better deals for the rest of us. On the other hand, it sucks when selling, but I don’t do that much 😅 |
@mulveling Thing is nobody pays MSRP. More like 80% MSRP is common. So your used cartridge with rebuild that came out to 80% of MSRP is the same as just buying new but without any warranty and a lot of risk and hassle. |
My point was having the rebuild option as a fallback helps mitigate the risk, IF everything else goes to crap, which it usually doesn’t. And how often is warranty meaningful with cartridges? Most deaths are caused by user error or eventual wear. I suppose you guys have never gambled or bought a lotto ticket either lol. I bought a Koetsu Onyx ~350 hours for $3k when MSRP was 9 or 10, it sounded amazing, got years of use, then I had it rebuilt by Koetsu Japan like new and the total outlay was still less than a discounted new one. It was a GREAT deal. |
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