My sentiments exactly, especially working in the antipodes, and that operational stock is very expensive.
You could almost certainly get usedful info from the guys in the Delphi Repairers (private) Forum who work on vast numbers of brass instruments.... The biggest hassle I'm encountering at the moment is trying to work out which size trombone slide mandrels to order. 99% of the schools trombones are either Yamahas or Jupiters but unless someone has a chart or records, I'll have to wait and measure the ID of the various models before I can order. :