MY question wasn't really about the mixed views of whether CS Basses are worth the money (for what it's worth I have two. I am left handed and started playing bass in the CBS years. There was very limited choice of any L/H Fender Bass. L/H Jazzes were as rare as pixie dust. Hence today, I have two CS Jazzes. The (relatively) cheaper one is by far the better. The expensive one looks nice and plays well, but doesn't knock me out. I agree wholeheartedly with a lot of comments posted in this thread, on both sides of the argument.
What I was really on about was distribution and selling practices (in this case of Fenders), particularly with top end priced products. Left handed instruments are esoteric for a retailer at the best of times, but their relative rarity highlights how they can get 'sold on' in the secondary market without really being sold to an honest end punter. I just wondered how common this was with high end instruments?