Cartridge repair by Moscow based Roman??

Great learning from the many comments so far. Thank you all. So just to be clear: I tried to slip the stylus guard onto the cartridge but in doing so ended up snapping the cantilever backwards and it broke off and got lost. Next, I will check out Expert Stylus, Andy Kim (anyone has his contacts), CartridgeLab and anyone else you recommend with a detailed chat before acting. I had started by checking with AT Japan. When I cleared the fog of confusion their English created I gathered that the replacement with a new piece could be done at $1000 which is way higher than the $876 I paid for it. Next, I am definitely interested if there were a lightly used cartridge from a known seller but will come back to this option after checking out the above re - tippers.

Hi Chakster, thanks. The cartridge I bought was from the official dealer. Just the price they offered was the discounted price as JPY107k, compared to JPY140k for new. What is wrong here is that the retail discount at that time was very sharp from Needle Doctor, and the replacement price now is higher than the new price of 2 yrs ago. But valuable tips. Let me work on them.

Hmm. The specific comment from Peter at Soundsmith was that due to the type of construction inside the cartridge, there would be no guarantee that a difficult repair could be perfectly executed. They did not consider it useful even to look at pictures.

Regarding buying a new cartridge, that option is always there. I will go in for a DL 103R most likely, which is a step down from where I was, but after feeling tentative after the loss of a cartridge, I don't feel like replacing it like for like just immediately.

I will check out expertstylus first. Let me see if they are as negative as Soundsmith was.

Just to clarify... my cartridge was audio-technica ART9 and it was damaged when the cantilever got snapped. The body is not damaged. So it is a matter of inserting a new stylus. Let me check out expert stylus and come back.