@tsbarro - did you examine the stylus under magnification with a good light? (You don't need to remove the cartridge to do this). Playing the dead wax /run out groove is not a big deal- I do have some records where the run out is not "locked" and the arm/cartridge/stylus will go right to the label itself unless the arm is lifted. If that happened, your stylus picked up some paper from the label. It should be easy to see. And there are any number of ways to clean a stylus without damaging it, some of which are mentioned above.
I'd check the stylus in situ first under lighted magnification. That will give you far more information to work with.