LeftyBassist.com

Olivia's vintage has several nice Ric's in stock, here is one that caught my eye.

http://oliviasvintageguitars.com/bass/guitars/6130/

Nice!

...but " It is in NEAR MINT/unplayed condition as you will be the first owner to play this bass. "... so Rickenbacker shipped it with bridge saddles set for right hand stringing? I find that hard to believe, it's been a while since I've seen an "as new" Ric lefty with that error.

Rickenbacker really is the fucking worst when it comes to quality lefties. I really want one of these but they just can’t be trusted for putting out a quality bass.

exactly. I wish they would put as much love into the daily production output as they do for NAMM basses. speaking of which, Ric will never tell you where they are headed after the big show.

It might show that the factory (despite what marketing claim) only set bridge saddles off the guitar to a jig of some kind - and that right handed or left - nobody there actually tweaks intonation in the pre-ship set-up. Given the design of the traditional Ric bass bridge, it's such a PITA to tweak intonation in situ.
In theory, the saddle position can be preset and then be close enough in almost every case - but I don't think that's good enough in a "quality" priced instrument. And it certainly should not result in that gross error.