Why are "low hours" a consideration?

Good one Viridian, here's another :

"This is a low hour, original MK 427.5, not a factory upgrade"

Does this mean the factory "ripped it apart" to do the upgrade, now it ain't worth a crap ?

You guys are all wrong! "Low hours" means that the cartridge, amp, speakers, resonating bowls were only used when the the sun was at it's lowest point in the sky. The Anasazi started this practice.
As we all know, it gets hot in the southwest. The ancients NEVER played their stereos (CDs as well as LPs) in the hot sun. They only broke out the tunes when the sun went down- or at "low hours".
The ancients knew what they were doing.
And never, NEVER did they allow Lassie to change a record, clean a record, or use the yellow snow to clean a CD.
Study your history audiophiles!

Mike, that reminds me of "near mint" which means that the piece of gear next to it on the shelf is mint, but the one that you are buying is a beater.

You very rarely see someone say "The cartridge has about 300 hours on it." What is so terrible about that??

That would be like 10% of the cartridge's life span??

Still seems like low hours to me...

'One careful owner', shouldn't all owners be careful?

My dogs likes music, but do not know how to change a cd (shame), they also do not smoke, well not that I have ever noticed.