What happens when the stylus tip wears out on a $12,000 cartridge?

@daveyf It is such outlooks and intentions that make us all individuals, and I have no issues with anybody that makes inroads to having recorded source material close to them that is of exceptional quality as a production.

All evaluations of ancillaries for replaying vinyl that I take part in are using Vinyl pressings from the Brands known for making these high quality pressings available, along with what the HiFi Group earmarked as High Quality pressings.

For me I've made Old Bones with a large collection of Vinyl and well will be Wed to it to the end, "For better or Worse" 😎. 

You can buy 10 or 12 very nice cartridges for the same money that would probably sound 90 to 95 percent as good. That way you have very many spares to last a lifetime. 

@elliottbnewcombjr I highly doubt, lets say, a denon dl 103 with a spherical/conical stylus is going to be considered worn out or near worn out at 150 hours. 

A potential problem with forgoing an official rebuild from the manufacturer and going with a third party retip service instead is that if/when you really do need a rebuild (for the other internals, etc) the OEM might not want to touch it if a third party worked on it before.

I have two Lyra Atlas Lambda (SL + Mono) and accept that I am on the hook for costly rebuild when the time comes. I might do a 3rd party retip with a $3K cartridge, but not with these.

@elliottbnewcombjr I highly doubt, lets say, a denon dl 103 with a spherical/conical stylus is going to be considered worn out or near worn out at 150 hours. 
 

The Denon 103 is also a nude conical, which puts it a significant cut above the typical (crappy) bonded conical.