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Would you pay more than 25% of MSRP for a used cartridge?

Seems most seller want to price their "low-hour" used cartridges at 50-80% of MSRP. This seems ridiculous to me because there is no sure way to verify these "low-hour" claims. You need to have specialized microscopes and even then it's a just a guestimate if worn or not. 

 

Another point is even a cartridge with 1000+ hours can still sound very good. A worn stylus will mistrack only on certain passages of certain demanding records. So it is nothing obvious.

 

So why do all these folks price their used cartridges so high? Are folks actually paying these prices?

 

My max. would be 25% of MSRP for any "low-hour" claim. 

12inch45rpm
12inch45rpm OP
18 posts
 

I would only consider upto 50% MSRP for used if:

  1. The cartridge is a current model and no more than 1 year old. I don't want some old thing sitting around for years.
  2. The seller was a retipper or had extensive feedback from selling similar kind of cartridges.

Otherwise I will just assume it needs a retip and not worth more than 25% MSRP.

lewm
12,840 posts
 

Here’s where everyone trots out his or her individual experiences buying used cartridges. As to the issue of cost, I forgot to point out that many cartridges that are out of production are now valued much higher than their original MSRP. For those cartridges, there is virtually no relationship between the used value and the MSRP. In my opinion, it’s foolish to make a hard rule about what the valuation of a used cartridge should be in relation to its MSRP. Each case is unique.

12inch, you have no idea what you’re missing if you completely rule out “old things”.

rsf507
2,298 posts
 

Agree with most that used cartridges are too risky to buy. Many dealers will give you 20% discount so just buy new.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,852 posts
 

Agree with most that used cartridges are too risky to buy. Many dealers will give you 20% discount so just buy new.

Sure, but when I was younger 20 - 25% off a Koetsu still didn’t make it affordable to me. I bought my first Koetsu used, and it gave me a big taste of the high end, which I continue to enjoy today. Bought my next Koetsu used too, and also loved it. At some times the used price of a high end cartridge with "~ 300 hours" has been low enough that even when adding the cost of a factory rebuild, it still comes out to a new cartridge at ~ 20% off list. And the used Koetsu I bought from here definitely didn’t need to be rebuilt for a while. I’ve since bought new ones & had factory rebuilds - the used ones definitely sounded like they should.

As others have stated, it’s fine that so many in this market are reticent to buy a used cartridge - it makes better deals for the rest of us. On the other hand, it sucks when selling, but I don’t do that much 😅

carlsbad's avatar
carlsbad
1,551 posts
 

noted.

 

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