"grey market" phono carts

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by gloomrider, Apr 20, 2014.

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  1. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    A recent tread about a specific cart mentioned also that some U.S. online retailers claim to have stock of certain carts (Benz comes to mind) when other, larger retailers do not.

    I find it interesting that Ortofon calls out some of these smaller retailers.

    I've seen the question sort of vaguely hinted at, but I'm hoping to get it out there in a more explicit form:

    Are the retailers who sell carts at a much lower price than the "authorized dealers" or claim to have stock of carts that no one else has selling counterfeit phono carts? And how would the buyer of a counterfeit phono cart know that it's counterfeit just by looking at it? Has anyone on the forum possibly purchased a counterfeit cart?
     
  2. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    Grey market means, No Ortofon Warranty.
     
  3. I don't think the carts are necessarily counterfeit. Rather, they have not been purchased through the normal US distribution channels and therefore have not been subjected to the US distributor markup and can be sold more cheaply.

    Kind of like if you were to go to Japan, buy a bunch of Shelter cartridges there (which sell for much cheaper prices there), bring them back to the US (although you would have to pay import duties), and then sell them yourself.
     
  4. Ortofun

    Ortofun Well-Known Member

    Location:
    nowhere
    Need to be a little careful re' that list, as while SpeakerBits is not an authorized distributor/seller in the USA, they are for Australia.
    http://ortofon.com/hifi/where-to-buy/distribution-australia

    Also, those listed on Ortofon's main site are distributors, so they will be distributing to retailers.
    Or that is my understanding of normal distribution models.

    Edit: the listing of Speakerbits could be a mistake on their part, so have contacted them to point it out.

    Also, that site is not Ortofon, it is "Ortofon Inc" the distributor for the USA.
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2014
  5. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    What about the retailers that claim to have Benz carts when nobody else does? If they really have them, how/where did they get them? Could they be retips?
     
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