I know the initial post was about Koetsu forgeries, but the discussion went sideways into 3rd party retipping.
I had been using Van den Hul for a couple decades. With COVID19, I decided I didn’t want to chance sending the cartridge across the pond and so I tried someone local, Steve Leung of VAS. I plan on writing a review of moderate length of the work he has done for me on my Rosewood Signature and Onyx, after my new room is complete (taking forever: I’m slowed down from bypass heart surgery) and I have had time to fully break in the Onyx, but for now suffice to say that Ana Mighty and Expert - to say nothing of insanely expensive Koetsu itself - are not the only options. Steve says that he refurbishes to Koetsu specs.
I’ll never sell these cartridges so I am not worried about resale, I’m just concerned about performance.