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Cartridge without serial?

Hey everyone,

Curious as to if anyone has ever purchased a cartridge without a serial number? I'm looking to purchase a cartridge, but the seller has mentioned it doesn't have a serial number, which thus no warranty. Mind filling in my feeble thoughts as to this being a scam? Seller has zero bad reviews and hundreds of positive ones, but isn't based in the US. Any help is appreciated!
128x128j-wall
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@daveyf even if you know your distributors how you can catch one who sold to grey market dealers a bunch of them (if serial numbers replaced with fake number)? This is the only reason to remove or to replace serials, this is ID of the source. 

best-groove's avatar
best-groove
844 posts
 
Okay nowadays it is possible to fake everything, but faking entire cartridges could be pure fantasy.
It could be stolen material and consequently the serial number label is removed if it is not engraved on the same body cartridge.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
If a cartridge sold with fake serial number (or without serial number) then you can only guess if this cart passed quality control or not, the history of this cart is unknown. What is easy to do is to make it looks like sealed and never opened before in the box. On my sample the field for serial number in the manual was blank (it was a grey market sample from juki), but my next sample from Mehran (official US importer) was with serial number also printed in the manual and on cartridge body. 
scm
314 posts
 
chakster...
Based on your comment I got my ZYX manual out.
At the bottom of page 10 there IS a serial number BUT it`s been scribbled over with a pen, but I can still see the numbers nonetheless.
I would look at the box to see if there`s a number on it too but that`s been in NJ for awhile now :( 
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Just checked the manual from my ZYX Premium 4D from Mehran (SoraSound) and there is a serial number field on warranty page with black ink stamp “PD108” and another layer in red “Premium 4D” stamp.

I have another ZYX product (headamp) with same black ink stamp “P1172”, also from SoraSound.


Even my Zyx Live18 headshell comes with serial number (also black ink stamp “S1994” in the manual)
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