Cartridge without serial?

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)

@chakster  Are you suggesting that the manufacturer of a cartridge, who probably is not producing large numbers, will not know if some go missing? Or, that he has no way of knowing which distributor is going through a much larger supply than the others....Plus, is the manufacturer not marking the serial number on each cartridge before supplying to his/her distributor?You think that cartridges are leaving the factory with no serial number attached without their knowledge... I'm having a hard time buying all this....just saying.

We're talking about thousands of cartridges, because the importers are in regions like Asia, Europe, North America covering huge territory with huge population of people and there are many audiophiles and high-end shops. Do you think Nakatsuka-San making 100 cartridges and for the whole Asia they have only 25 cartridges in stock? 

You can't be an importer if you can't sell a lot, you can't buy just like a small shop or private seller, you must buy many cartridges to sell in your country (or several countries).  

For example:

Even if you're buying 100 cartridges and then sell 50 privately to your grey market dealer in Hong Kong who list them for sale on ebay (for the price lower than suggested retail price anywhere in the world) to sell worldwide then you're a cheater, but your samples cannot be identified if you (as a dishonest importer) or your grey market partner decided to remove all serial numbers (or replaced them with fake serial numbers). 

Grey market dealer is a rat in the chain who sell worldwide for very low price, but official dealer can't sell worldwide, because he's a dealer ONLY in one region. They can't sell it lower than suggested retail price, they can't sell it lower than the price they paid, because importer sell to dealers expecting retail price policy from the dealers. 

Grey market dealers ruin the whole system of distribution.  

Just checking ebay for Zyx and what caught my eye is that ones coming from Asia (known seller), and selling as new, are not perfectly packaged, missing the outer cellophane bag with a parallel sticker where cartridge model is printed, type is written by hand (manufacturer?) and serial number stamped. Box should have the serial number as the destination country initials. Both Zyx cartridges i have bought from local distributor here in Athens had serial number on cellophane bag, box and typed on manual, and the country initials (GR). Just check ebay to have a better picture. My simple understanding is that refurbished models are travelling around.

G

@chakster where you get thousands of cartridges being manufactured of the same type and then being distributed is questionable. If a company like Zyx is selling and distributing thousands of cartridges into the world market at anytime, not only would that impress me , but would place me somewhat in disbelief. The whole high end market for a hand built Japanese cartridge, considering the competition and overall demographic of potential customers must be very small...so that even selling hundreds per year would be a significant accomplishment, imo. If you know differently, please point us to this information.