Other · Tier C

Turntable Cartridges & Styli

The cantilever and body are the price tag — a boron or beryllium cantilever, or Shure V15/Ortofon/Denon DL badge, is a $100–500 item the size of a sugar cube.

Au traceBase diamond stylus tips

eBay typical$30–300per lb

Refiner pays$0per lb

Metal in it$2.61per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencelowof the yield figures

How to spot it

Clipped to the tonearm headshell of every turntable that crosses the bench. MM (Shure M97/V15, Audio-Technica, Stanton), MC (Denon DL-103, Ortofon), and ceramic (worthless). Replacement styli in original boxes sell on their own; NOS stock from repair-shop cleanouts is a jackpot.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Gold	trace	Moving-coil types wind 20–40 AWG gold or silver wire coils — milligrams; contact pins gold-flashed
Base metal	diamond stylus tips	Industrial diamond — no scrap market, all resale value

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $2.61 per lb of contained metal — Gold 0.02 g = $2.61. A refiner paying $0 per lb returns about 0% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: No heat — handle by the body only

Two headshell screws and four colour-coded push-on leads — fingers only, never pull by the cantilever. Store in a pill bottle; a bent cantilever halves the price, a snapped one quarters it. This is a resale item with zero refining path.

Before you scrap it

100% resale: V15 bodies $80–250, Denon DL-103 $100–200, MC flagships $200–800, working common MMs $20–60, NOS styli $20–150. Ceramic cartridges from record-player toys: zero.

The common trap

Tossing the cartridge with the dead turntable. Every thrifted deck wears $30–300 on its headshell, and boxed NOS styli from estate cleanouts sell at $20–150 each. The beryllium cantilevers on 80s flagships are brittle — and grinding or burning one is the only way this category hurts you.

Questions

How much gold is in turntable cartridges & styli?

Gold: trace. At current spot that is about $2.61 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify turntable cartridges & styli?

The cantilever and body are the price tag — a boron or beryllium cantilever, or Shure V15/Ortofon/Denon DL badge , is a $100–500 item the size of a sugar cube.

How do you remove turntable cartridges & styli safely?

Is turntable cartridges & styli worth more working than as scrap?

100% resale: V15 bodies $80–250, Denon DL-103 $100–200, MC flagships $200–800, working common MMs $20–60, NOS styli $20–150. Ceramic cartridges from record-player toys: zero.

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