No right channel in new cartridge

@lewm yes, this site is ebay and you can monitor the prices by checking expired listings for anything you want.

tochsii This is Steve from VAS. Send your cartridge over to me. I can do the inspection quickly and give you an estimate ASAP. Just email me a few pictures of the connectors on the cartridge and the coil.

@tochsii I bought a new Sumiko Blackbird from my dealer this past summer. A HO one, if that matters. They mounted it on a new tt I had also purchased. I had it for 2 months then one night the right channel went out. It was playing, I was home alone in the kitchen when it went out. The next day I bought the turntable and cartridge back to my dealer. They troubleshot it but couldn’t fix it. It was a short in a thread of wire on one of the connections. They sent it back to Sumiko and told me they would let me know if it was covered in the warranty. It was and they sent me a new one. That one was DOA. It couldn’t be balanced properly. It would always skate across the album. There was no deflection or reflection on the needle. The amount of weight that would need to be applied would break it. I’m waiting for the new one to come in this week. Good luck.

@djf1 

They mounted it on a new tt I had also purchased. I had it for 2 months then one night the right channel went out.  

Wow, that's bad. I haven't anything like that even with my 30 years old vintage MM or MC cartridges, except the one in a bunch over the years. 

But i've had a miss-tracking problem with a brand new Ortofon cartridge once, luckily the seller accepted return for a full refund.  

This is something about a quality control of the brand new cartridges. 

tochsii, It's going to cost money if you initiate any action with SS or VAS, so be sure in advance that the seller will cover those costs.  After all, you are doing him a favor as well; he needs to know what's wrong, so he can make an informed decision about whether to repair it, either for your sake or for his.  I would include him in the decision making all along the way, if you prefer to get the repairs done on your own initiative.  Most of us have been down this road before, if not with a defective cartridge, then with some other piece of used gear purchased on-line.

If your Blackbird has a short in the coil wire, a la the story related by djf, then it's likely to be toast, unless the disjuncture can be visualized and re-soldered.