Have you ever broken the needle?

Shame on you, Cornfedboy.

bozo: please accept my apology. my first post was a feeble attempt at humor that obviously was too pointed. i truly meant no personal disrespect but see now how that may be difficult to believe. again, i'm sorry for any ill effects i caused. -kelly

I broke Lyra Lydian Beta stylus(cantilever was OK) just like you during mounting my new cartridge and sent it over to VanDenHul where they charged significantly less money than in Japan. Anyway Lyra uses VanDenHul stylus.
On the other hand I still had Benz Glider(it's already more than 6000 hours on that one with original stylus and cantilever and it doesn't change!!!) so temporarily I could listen for it. Now I've got Helikon and Benz M.9 as a backup.

I broke the needle off my Glider once, but had it re-tipped for 50% of retail. It wasn't a happy moment, but I am glad it was repairable. I think the WB cartridges are also re-tippable, because they're cartridges are modified Benz cartridges, aren't they??

I use a medical hemostat to connect the cartridge clips. HIGHLY recommended...

Regarding the current status of your cartridge, you can probably send it to the manufacturer to be rebuilt. In this case, there's nothing to do but suck it up and spend the money.

If it makes you feeal any better, my dealer told me that he once broke his Koetsu Onyx Platinum in a freak accident. If I recall correctly, his dealer cost for repair was more than $2k. Ouch!