Cartridge without serial?

@rdk777   LOL, +1

@chakster  You explanation would apply for a very large conglomerate that sells very high volume.  I highly doubt that any of the cartridge manufacturer's are in that league. Surely they must know all of their distributor's and exactly what product they are shipping to them. I would be surprised if Nakatsuka-San is making and selling a hundred pieces a year-- in total! 
Therefore, it seems odd to me that this situation is going on, unless of course something else is occurring ( which I suspect strongly that it is!).

Does anyone, besides me, wonder how the two vendors in rdk777's post above are able to acquire and sell cartridges with no serial number, and yet seemingly no one else can?

 @chakster  If the manufacturer is NOT supplying into the grey market, and in the case of Nakatsuka-San...how does he explain the availability of his cartridges?? 

@chakster  Are you suggesting that the manufacturer of a cartridge, who probably is not producing large numbers, will not know if some go missing? Or, that he has no way of knowing which distributor is going through a much larger supply than the others....Plus, is the manufacturer not marking the serial number on each cartridge before supplying to his/her distributor?You think that cartridges are leaving the factory with no serial number attached without their knowledge... I'm having a hard time buying all this....just saying.

@chakster where you get thousands of cartridges being manufactured of the same type and then being distributed is questionable. If a company like Zyx is selling and distributing thousands of cartridges into the world market at anytime, not only would that impress me , but would place me somewhat in disbelief. The whole high end market for a hand built Japanese cartridge, considering the competition and overall demographic of potential customers must be very small...so that even selling hundreds per year would be a significant accomplishment, imo. If you know differently, please point us to this information.

@chakster  LOL, If you think that ZYX or any high end manufacturer of cartridges, with the possible exception of Ortofon, is making and selling ’thousands’ of cartridges annually, i have a nice bridge I can sell you....

@mammothguy54  You make an interring point. Is it possible that the cartridges in question, Zyx's, Benz's, Koetsu's and others that are being offered from these grey market vendors are in fact knock-off's? This would certainly explain the lack of a serial number and the annoyance of the very small manufacturer who apparently has logistical stock control.

@mammothguy54 I had heard the story about the Taylor Made clubs before. OTOH, it is interesting that there could be a company doing ’knock-off’s’ of cartridges like the Koetsu’s and the Benz’s. Albeit copying a cartridge could be a relatively easy enterprise, assuming that one had access to a manufacturing facility that knew how to make cartridges...and could deal with the very small parts etc., While I don’t believe there is a very large market for ’knock-off’ high end MC cartridges, compared to Taylor Made clubs ( as an example), I guess if the mark-up is there??