No right channel in new cartridge

"Check the resistance on the right channel take your ohm meter and touch the positive probe to the positive pin on the cartridge and the negative probe and touch the negative pin on the right channel."  

As has been pointed out to the OP, this is not always a safe practice,  with respect to LOMC cartridges that have a few turns of very fine coil wires wound around the core.  The current from a typical meter, especially a cheap one, may be sufficient to fry the coil wires and thereby destroy the cartridge.  

I purchased a high-end cartridge and it arrived with one channel dead.  The seller assisted in getting it serviced by the distributor and all was fine. The consensus is that a lead came undone during shipping.  A moving coil cartridge has EXTREMELY fine wires. This is why caution should be used when attempting a continuity test to be sure that the ohm-meter current is extremely low since a DC resistive load of a few ohms could result in a large test current with an unsuitable tester, basically turning the wires into a blown fuse.

Well, that makes two of us.

I was going to be done talking about the transaction. But, I just got a threatening email from Smoothy (after sending him the return UPS info 2 days ago) saying if the cart arrived he was going to file charges with the Police & he’s done it before.  He also said he commonly has wires come apart when he sells carts & makes people get them repaired.

 I’m realizing that even 100% positive isn’t a guarantee and we have to read between the lines on the feedback. 

I do not remember if you said how you paid but at this stage they are obviously not going to refund you willingly so....
If via PayPal just initiate a claim as soon as you verify they have received it.
If by credit card go through them, again once you know they have it back.

You could may well have aggravated the situation by commenting on it here but sounds like it is past civility now.
Best of luck with this and don't worry about their blow hard talk of Police involvement. Across state lines. Really?

Call the police? For what criminal or civil charges? This guy's aggro. Let PayPal handle things. They almost always side with buyer. 

I don't know why you're even thinking about it.   Just return it and be done.  If the seller guarantees a repaired Soundsmith cartridge, let him return it, then send it to you

I’m asking for options on another thread too.  I know this thread Is a bit old.  If anyone’s reading, I’d like to ask for opinions.  Scott at Aris Audio was rec’d on several threads.  He’s offered a new Ortofon Quintet Black S for $855 new. He believes I’ll enjoy it better than a DV 20x2 or Karat 17D3 (on sale he’s selling the 20x2). I enjoy just a tad.  Thoughts?

By the way, have you seen, or has anyone else mentioned, the old thread wherein it is revealed that the Blackbird is well known to have this particular problem?  Several people have complained of this same phenomenon, usually due to a loose or broken coil wire. It recently bumped up to the top; otherwise I had forgotten about it. Dates back to 2013, I think.

@tochsii so you’re looking for cheap MC cartridge for some reason, on the MC territory a brand new cartridge with a typical price tag under $2000 considered "cheap", normally those cartridges can’t compete even with $300-400 MM from the golden era. None of the dealers can’t offer something special among the brand new LOMC carts within this budget. If you think a brand new modern MC cartridge under $1k will be better than MM cartridge you’re wrong.

Some vintage MC can be good within your budget, but you need someone who’s experienced with them. I think Dynavector 23RS is superb for $500-800 NOS.

Ortofon MC line goes up to $15 000 for a single cartridge, do you think they’re offering something special with $800 MC ?

MM cartridges from the ’80s like Grace, Pickering, Stanton, Glanz, Victor, Garrott, Sony, Audio-Technica will put those new Orotofn MC to the dust forever!

For whatever it's worth at this point in time, there is an older thread here on the subject of defective Sumiko Blackbird cartridges.  Apparently, the coil wires are known to short out one channel, probably on rare occasion.