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Would you pay more than 25% of MSRP for a used cartridge?

Seems most seller want to price their "low-hour" used cartridges at 50-80% of MSRP. This seems ridiculous to me because there is no sure way to verify these "low-hour" claims. You need to have specialized microscopes and even then it's a just a guestimate if worn or not. 

 

Another point is even a cartridge with 1000+ hours can still sound very good. A worn stylus will mistrack only on certain passages of certain demanding records. So it is nothing obvious.

 

So why do all these folks price their used cartridges so high? Are folks actually paying these prices?

 

My max. would be 25% of MSRP for any "low-hour" claim. 

12inch45rpm

Showing 3 responses by 12inch45rpm

12inch45rpm OP
18 posts
 

@clearthinker Why didn't you return your Anna if it wasn't a good match? I would think if you are buying new then that includes a no questions asked return policy.

Even when I buy used I make sure the seller is ok with returns . It's always the dishonest ones who push-back about that.

12inch45rpm OP
18 posts
 

I would only consider upto 50% MSRP for used if:

  1. The cartridge is a current model and no more than 1 year old. I don't want some old thing sitting around for years.
  2. The seller was a retipper or had extensive feedback from selling similar kind of cartridges.

Otherwise I will just assume it needs a retip and not worth more than 25% MSRP.

12inch45rpm OP
18 posts
 

@mulveling Thing is nobody pays MSRP. More like 80% MSRP is common. So your used cartridge with rebuild that came out to 80% of MSRP is the same as just buying new but without any warranty and a lot of risk and hassle.

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