Grey market dealers sells original cartridges, but the manufacturer identify them by serial numbers, so they remove serial numbers or replace serial number with fake numbers (if it’s possible), especially for an exotic cartridges that made in a small numbers like ZYX. Once the manufacturer can track down the source used by grey market dealer to buy his stuff they will shut down that source, because every cartridge with real serial number is fully trackable, manufacturer know exactly who bought it from him! Isn’t it so simple to understand or not ?
Once a buyer purchased a cartridge from the grey market dealer like juki on ebay they are ONLY protected by ebay and paypal if the cartridge is not working on the first try, once a brand new cartridge opened and used there is NO extended warranty at all (even manufacturer will not give you such warranty because cartridge has a wear factor and no one replace a cartridge for free, such warranty does not exist in this world), you can’t return a cartridge to grey market seller if it was used for some time and then stopped working or if the owner destroyed the cantilever by mistake. Anyone can return only defective units, but the defect must be recognized in a few weeks or so.
But ZYX owners can return their cartridge using trade-in program anytime they want to (only via distributor like SoraSound in Chicago for example) !
This is simply amazing bonus if the reason to buy some great cartridge is not to safe $1000 once, but to stay with great cartridge forever with ability to change/upgrade it forever, to build a good relations with the distributor, this is a clear benefit for those who can pay for expensive cartridges (and for those who know exactly what they are doing and why).
The problem, as i said earlier, is that exotic cartridges designed with exotic parts made for the manufacturer exclusively,
just look at the ZYX Boron pipe cantilever (image made by myself) then try to find the same cantilever from any re-tippers, they don’t have such cantilevers at all, they can only offer Boron Ron with glued stylus, as you can see ZYX method is completely different and stylus is not glued, do you see any glue
here? This is ZYX Airy 3, same cantilever on ZYX Premium 4D (owned both).
But another problem is that a ZYX has SEALED BODY and someone have to crack it if there is a problem with coil or if the cantilever must be replaced. In the end when it comes to a third party re-tipper it will be completely different cartridge, a Frankenstein that does not perform like the original one any part changed/replaced by some "smart" re-tipper.
ZYX like many other manufacturer does not bother with refurbishing or re-tipping, instead, they are giving to the customer a brand new cartridge with discount if the buyer purchased a cartridge with real serial number via official distributor only. Smart people buy from the manufacturer then trade-in for the next model by sending their used cartridge to the manufacturer. In this scenario they pay only difference between old and new model to get brand new model instead of the old model. Or they can stick to the old model, they will send it back when it’s worn and same model will be 40% cheaper, this is what a manufacturer can offer for their distributors only. End of the story.
Buying an exotic cartridge for $3-8000 to end up with SoundSmith retip is BS. Exotic cartridges are unique in everything, almost every part is unique and this is why some of them are so expensive.
Only people who does not understand anything about cartridge design can argue with it.
P.S.
Why i am talking about ZYX so often is because of my personal experience, it was the most expensive cartridges in my life, this is what i call exotic cartridges. I can not talk about different brands, but i think the situation with exotic cartridges is the same for most of the brands today.
The manufacturers are not idiots, they are giving very special options only to their distributors to support the system they like if they wish to sell worldwide only via distributors.
And they are always against the grey market dealers. Do you understand why ?