Finding much use for your (fast) tele zoom?

It comes down to what you like to shoot. Telephoto zooms are best suited for shooting wildlife and sports mostly, so that's what you have to ask yourself. However, I love mine just because of the optical quality of it. I use my 70-200 for portraits and find it invaluable for shooting weddings, particularly the ceremony, because I can stand back and not obstruct anyone's view. I also like using it for street candids for much the same reason.

I think you would have to either rent or buy the lens to see if it's right for you, if I'm honest. I love my Nikon 70-200mm f2.8, works great at car shows, as 70mm is decent for model portraits, and then up to 200mm is good for track based events where you have to stand further back.

As has been said, it depends what you shoot.

I'm fortunate enough to go to at least one airshow and Formula 1 race every year, so I get plenty of opportunities to use my Canon 70-200 2.8L. The photographs I come back with more than make up for this lens sitting in a box for most of the year.

Glass of this quality whether Nikon or Canon is a joy to use.

i love my 70-200L, it is probably my most used lens.
although i dont have any tele primes that can match the quality of the 70-200 so i really cant say which i would use more, but i can say that i use my 70-200 all the time, i love that glass.

I love taking pictures of people without them noticing, which generally means from some distance.
As weird as that sounds I find you see so much more beauty and emotion in shots where the person isn't posing...

~B~

I be shooting concerts occasionally and want to get into cheap birding (as well as other animals, at the zoo perhaps) but I think a tele prime is too specialized (as in there aren't too many uses for it).

Do you guys think there will still be many 2nd hand 70-200mm VR1s selling early next year?

As has been said already, try a rental.
Camerarentals.com is good and has a rent 3 get 1 free program.
Nothing substitutes for having it in hand (and in the shop doesn't count).
Personally I loved my 135-400 apo for people (they would never see me)
I've rented 70-200 2.8 when I needed it.

But your mileage may very.

I've seen VRI's priced at $1600. It really sucks because 3 months ago, the lens was priced at $1700-$1800. With the weak dollar and the VRII now priced at $2400 (it's amazing) the price of the older model is holding pretty firm. The price really depends on what the VRII does in the first quarter of next year. After next March or April, I don't see the VRI dropping much further. The pro level lens hold their value really well.

I should have jumped on Nuke's 70-200, would have saved me $200 =[