Do you buy used carts/needles? Is it risky?

@viridian I was eyeing the Nagaoka  MP-500. If I may ask please, why do you not recommend it?

I buy a lot of used gear. The only exception is a phono cartridge. You have a nice table so why would you cheap out on the cartridge?

In the end, you will never know how many hours are on that stylus. Pass.

@dman777  Who buys ’NEEDLES’ either new or used?? No-one has used needles in half a century, usually on wind up gramaphones! Maybe you meant stylus?! And I don’t believe anyone would buy a used stylus, presumably for an MM cart.

Used carts, certainly, but not stylus’.

@daveteauk ,

A turntable stylus, or needle, is the component that reads the grooves of a vinyl record and converts them into electrical signals for sound reproduction.

And if you're buying a used cartridge, pretty sure most of the time there's a used stylus on it.