The Ortofon MC 2000/3000/5000/7500 cartridges are the highest grade moving coils that Ortofon developed under their classic line. Serious engineering went into these cartridges, and they command a pretty penny on the used market. The bodies are a fired ceramic material that is only slightly less dense than titanium. These cartridges used Ortofons proprietary damping system.
Most of these cartridges have been used hard and most either have skewed cantilevers or had the factory one replaced with an inferior aluminum cantilever. Ortofon used a tapered aluminum cantilever that had been treated for additional rigidity and lowered resonance points. This cartridge maintains the stock cantilever, its straight, and has been fitted with a new diamond by Joseph Long. I have used the cartridge for a total of 38 hours, so you have a long life ahead on this diamond. As I mentioned there are very few of these remarkable cartridges left, but there is a NOS one on Ebay and its currently selling for $2211. Mine isn't that much.
Sell for $900 plus shipping.
You will find abused examples of this cartridge on Ebay selling for what I am selling this one for. Remember it has the factory cantilever and a diamond with a handful of hours, not hundreds of them.
Do have a stylus guard but no factory packing.
Do remember this is a LOW output moving coil so your phono stage needs some gain. Either that or you use a step up transformer. You are going to need a phono stage that has in the high 60s or low 70s dB of gain.
This is a high performance cartridge that is a timeless classic. Treat it well and it will give you years of excellent service.
