Experience purchasing a used high-end cartridge

There is another method and one used by myself.

I sought out a Cart' in need of repair, which was a model I had already agreed a rebuild design for with a Technician from a Third Party Service.

I discovered a donor Cart' at a steal and took the Punt on the purchase.

The Third Party Service evaluation made it known the Cart' was in prime condition to undergo a overhaul but was filthy.

The end product Cart' fully overhauled cost approx' 1/3 of the Donor Cart's new value, and performs much much more to my liking than the Donor Original Model with a few hundred hours usage on it. 

I would like to first, and foremost, express my appreciation again for all of the valuable insights and experiences shared by the A’gon community.

@willy-t and @drmuso your comments were incredibly on-target for me, since the cartridge I was considering was a Kleos from Wayne’s Audio listed on US Audio Mart. Wayne was very responsive to all my inquiries. Based on the advice received here I requested an inspection of the cartridge. Wayne replied this was the first time that anyone had requested inspection and was not willing to risk having his cartridge sent out for inspection--a position I can fully appreciate.

Despite the professional and responsive message exchange, I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Instead, I found a great deal on an open-box Soundsmith Sussorro ES from a highly trusted online retailer that I buy from regularly. They even agreed to mount the cartridge for me on a new Nasotec Swing Headshell that has received glowing reviews.

As @big_greg and others have mentioned., the retipping cost factored into my decision. Soundsmith has I believe the industry’s lowest retipping costs at less than 20% of retail. My only worry now is that before I need the Sussorro retipped Peter may have sold the company to someone focused more on extracting the highest profits than on customer service.

Too critical a part of the signal path to by used. I vote no. 

There are quite a few considerations to have a very good knowledge of when setting up a Cartridge.

If these considerations are not worked with to achieve an optimised interface that is maintained, a very expensive Cart' remains a very expensive Cart', or a discounted high end Cart' depending on the method of Purchase.

When not an optimised set up, there will be a Cart' in service that is not firing on Four Cylinders.

Through usage, the Cart's is being incrementally worn out, not offering near what the design for it, had as the intent for the the Cart's capabilities, as a non-optimised set up for usage, the Cart' will not being offering anything like the design intent has been for the Cart's capabilities.

A Cart' set up using Analog Magic Software not too long ago, whilst in use this weekend, was detected by the Group of listeners to have come of the sweet spot.

The very experienced TT owner has already booked the revisit from the Software owner. These are the type of commitments required, if optimised Cart' usage is to be maintained during the Cart's usage life.

Unless you're very lucky all in all you won't get more value than you pay for. I started in this hobby trying to get some great carts used and had limited success. Then moving up the line got hurt on a couple. One in particular- Airtight Supreme, the suspensions are the weak point and once worn out you're done.