The seller called me today to confirm that it arrived okay -- a responsible, conscientious fellow. I had been too busy moving to let him know.
I took it out last night and played with it a bit. It appears unused. The mounting ring shows no marks or wear. I wonder if a camera was ever mounted on it. The warranty card was never sent in. I asked the seller how he came by it. He said it was from the estate of an elderly friend who recently died. The previous owner had found it to be too heavy, so had never used it. So it is essentially new. I don't often get this lucky. But after two bad F* 300 f4.5s in a row, I suppose the great cosmic probability distribution finally tilted my way. Joe
