Experiences buying used cartridges

Have bought four used carts, three were fine.  The forth one had a bent cantilever but the seller was great and made things right.  I would buy used again from a reputable seller. 

I would recommend to buy used cartridges from ebay to get buyers protection for those who’re not sure about the seller reputation. The price may be 15% higher than in the private agon listings, but at least there is no chance you will be ripped-off.

Why not ask the seller about suspension condition or to ask for additional pictures of everything if there is no clear statement in the listing? I would avoid the oldschool sellers who can’t even take a good pictures of the cartridge, cantilever, stylus tip.

But there is no reason to avoid used cartridges!

As Halcro said:

I’ve had many more disappointments with ’new’’ cartridges and it would take some serious word-of-mouth for me to outlay again for a ’new’ current model.

Exactly, that’s why buying vintage cartridges (NOS or Used) is great experience compared to overpriced new high-end models. Most of us buyin and selling cartridges, i do that just to try something different searching for "my sound". I hardly imagine someone trying to full people on ebay, bacause it’s a nightmare for the seller if the buyer is not happy about purchase. Pretty easy.

I've bought and sold a few.  I think a fair batting average is about 75%, but in the worse case scenario, I think if the motor is in good shape, Peter Ledermann (Soundsmith) can literally fix any cartridge and make it sound better than new.  I sent him a used Maestro which lost its diamond, and he sent me back the cartridge with a ruby cantilever and a shibata type stylus.  Best MM I've ever heard - much better than even the Maestro V2.

Used cartridges I've bought that were perfect - a Miyajima Shilabe and a Shelter 90X.  Used cartridges with problems - a Koetsu Black and the afore-mentioned Clearaudio.  You pays your coin and you takes your chances, but it usually works out in the end.

Buying a used phono cartridge for me would be like buying a used Tooth Brush!  The used cartridges I do have were included with used turntables I'd purchased. If I liked them I changed the stylus or had it retipped. 

When people talking about SoundSmith retiping service It sounds like his cartridges/cantilevers are "the best in the wolrd" and if you retip your original cartridge you will get a better one, but it is not true. This statement is very strange and shows only disrecpect to the original manufacturers, who developed so many unique cartridges over the years. It might works for your Denon, but it is not always works for truly High-End cartridges. It make sence to retip cheap cartridge with the most advanced cantilever and stylus tip, but you can’t rebuild, retip or recantilever ZYX (for example) expecting to get a better cartridge, you are foolling yourself! You will get a very strange hybrid cartridge that no longer ZYX, same with so many other top class cartridges. Otherwise SoundSmith own carts would be better than anything else on the market, but they are not! In so many cases you don’t need Ruby cantilever on certain cartridges, also take it count the stylus moving mass compared to the original. Some cartridges sounds much better than Ruby or Sapphire just with the aluminum or beryllium cantilevers (beryllium is restricted long time ago). For the price of SS retip anyone can buy a used, fully original cartridge in perfect working condition. Also if you will look how the top class cartridge manufacturers (like Technics for example) placed and fixed nude diamonds throught the boron hollowed pipe cantilevers you will realize that NO ONE can do that today the same way at any price. Modern retippers can only glue the stylus tip to the cantilever which is way different method.