Are 500 hours too many for a used hi-end cartridge?

Miller Carbon, You wrote, "Look at it this way. The vast majority of the sound of a cartridge comes from everything other than the stylus. The vast majority of wear on a cartridge is only the stylus. Therefore the one thing most likely to be worn out is also the one thing least likely to matter."  That was at 10:32 PM on Apr 10.  Since your next post after that one was a masterpiece of satire, I assume you must have been joking also when you wrote the above.  It would be easier if you would flag your humorous remarks.

My approach, if I were to be tempted to buy an expensive used cartridge where the seller estimates as much as 500 hours of use, would be to suggest to the seller that the cartridge should be evaluated for stylus wear, etc, by a competent third party professional, like SoundSmith for example.  SS provides such a service for a fee.  You could then work out with the seller who should pay the fee for evaluation.  For example, seller pays if SS says the cartridge needs a rebuild; buyer pays at least a fraction of the cost, if SS (or other) says the cartridge or stylus has at least half of its life remaining (or some other similar fraction of its useful life).  The buyer would probably have to state in advance what amount of wear is "acceptable". There are other details that could be worked out between two reasonable sincere parties.  (I am not a lawyer.)