about how the turbo's felt in terms of the shaft drag and in the conversation he mentioned that these turbos fell into the GT25 category and chuckled that the difference between the designation for this turbo as a GT25 only differed by about 0.0030" from the size designation for a GT28 turbocharger. This has further led me to assurance that the 530BB is actually the GT2554R rather than the GT2854R you are referring to, that understanding coming several hours after the conversation/inspection/searching for a replacement cartridge.
Given what you pointed out though, I think I will give Jim a call again to see if he will confirm this or not. Thanks for the input!