Help me pick a phono, pre and cart

That does look like a good deal. The only issue is shipping to NJ. I messaged the guy and he’s willing. I just need to think about it and maybe contact VPI to see if they'll give it a once over.

@jetson I have heard that VPI is willing to help check out their products.  

@rauliruegas I went back to old gmails to try to remember what year it was that you visited me, & heard my Atma-Sphere MA1 mkII amps and MP-3(Ralph’s most affordable model) preamp/phonopreamp. The preamp was fitted with my personal choices of vintage tubes, which ones exactly escapes my memory at this point. Another variable worth noting is you may recall is that my house was located about 1000ft. from the largest radio tower in my state, and it wreaked havoc on my phono playback at times with a wide variety of phono stages of all design types. 
My gmail goes back to 2008 and the oldest messages we exchanged referenced your visit earlier. So what you heard at my place was 7-8 year old designs back 11 or more years ago. In other words gear designed by @atmasphere about 20 years ago. IME, not a fair comparison to what he offers today. We also listened through my Merlin speakers which while arguably quite revealing in the mids & treble, lack the ability to reproduce very low bass at all. To use that listening session as a testament to the detriment of tube gear or @atmasphere ’s gear in particular just doesn’t hold water IMHO.
@rauliruegas, unless it’s to suggest additional specific ss phono stages for @jetson in his budget, I’d suggest resisting the temptation to reply with more statements about merit of SS vs. tube gear or at least respect @jetson’s kindly worded request for you to take that conversation to a thread about SS vs. tube phono stages or gear in general. In a free world you have the choice to build bridges or burn them. With all due respect, I suggest you do the former.
As an aside, I'm about to go to a Nagra SS battery-powered phono stage in my system. FWIW, my experience is that both design types can be great and it's more about the individual design than just "tube vs. ss". Cheers,
Spencer

@jetson Thought I read someone suggesting to you a VPI TNT V HR on one of the other sites. I just read that ad and want to caution you about it. First, it's not a HR. HR denotes that instead of a separate armboard drilled/screwed into the plinth, that the tonearm attaches directly to the plinth, theoretically eliminating potential additional resonances from the armboard. 
Second the JMW arm is a really early version. I owned a JMW12.6 which similarly had a multi-piece base that attached to the plinth. The pieces of the base have no markings or other guides that will allow you to optimize the placement on the plinth. If you ever need to disassemble the arm(e.g. when I changed the DIN connection box from RCA to a balanced version) there is no way to ensure proper reassembly. Harry realized this and changed to a one piece tonearm base in the 12.7 version of the JMW, a significant improvement.  IMHO that table is far from a bargain, and one I wouldn't want to one even at a better price. Cheers,
Spencer

@sbank and @jetson 

My opinion....

(I was the one making the suggestion on the "other forum."))

I have that early version of the JMW-12.  Nothing at all wrong with it from either a performance or maintenance perspective.  Even have two arm wands.  My Ariea Extended is in the original configuration except for the feet (now three Stillpoint cones instead of the VPI sandals) and placing it on a maple butcher block board.  It's an easy table to set up and when it's set up correctly, on those Stillpoint cones, it is a spectacular performer.  

More opinion....

Without hearing the EXACT table under consideration, I would suggest that at $3500, it is the single best bargain in turntables currently available.  Even if it is not a textbook Hot Rod, it's still a great table priced maybe $1500 below similar models.

And yet another boring opinion....

@sbank   I hear very clearly your concerns.  If the table is kept in its current configuration, it's my opinion that it will be a great performer.  Even if it is converted to balanced outputs from the tonearm, that's a matter of a small box swap-out.  Not sure how Mat / Harry suggests making that change.