Does it make sense to retip vdH Grasshopper cartridge

Dear @dcaudio: Stay with the vdH Grasshopper, very good performer indeed.
But you only have to send to vdH for the retip ( VDH stylus only VDH has it and till today nothing outperforms ( yet ) it out there. ) and nothing more.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Out of curiosity, when you had VdHul retip in the past, did you provide him with information on what arm you are using? My understanding is that he tunes each cartridge accordingly. (I had a higher output VdHul years ago that was retipped, but wasn't using it in a linear arm). 
There is a thread active here on the 'Gon now about linear arms that has a lot of good info on the ET2, tweaks, etc. 
I have a Kuzma Airline, and just sent my cartridge (an Airtight Supreme) off for a retip. In the meantime, I bought a freshly retipped old Monster Genesis 1000, an entirely different sounding cartridge from the Airtight, to use as a stopgap. One thing I have observed-- the Monster is more of a medium compliance cartridge compared to the Airtight, and in some ways, I like its tracking and compliance behavior better on the arm due to the horizontal forces at play. 
If you do retip (again), you might raise with VdHul the fact that you lost the stylus and have been a repeat customer for a long time. He is not getting any younger, - i think he's near 80, isn't he?-- but he might help you out.  Good luck! 

I don’t think you will do better than the Grasshopper for under $1,000. Use Magic Eraser for cleaning instead of liquid cleaners.

invictus005"Only send it to vdh. Otherwise throw it in the garbage."

There are many competent, qualified, expert re-tippers there is no reason to only return it to VDH although that is certainly a credible, valid, legitimate decision, choice, and option there are many others from which to decide, select, and choose.