The price is excessive for that bass
Not really. AUD$700 is market for these down here. There aren't many around, and from memory they sold for AUD$899 new in 2000/2001 (when the AUD was worth around US0.65. Of course, now that the AUD is worth US0.92, AUD$700 looks quite expensive to some international lookers)
As for the neck dive question, they are easy to manage - I never found mine to be a problem at all, but then again with a quality wide leather strap none of my long scale Gibsons have ever dived on me, including a Ripper, LBP3, EB4L and several Birds.