I have been looking at tenors on Ebay. Some sellers characterize the saxes they are selling as 'professional'. What is it exactly that makes a sax 'professional? I had always thought it was the skill of the player, no?
Thing is, most of those Ebay saxophones labeled "PROFESSIONAL!!!" are cheap Chinese made instrument shaped objects created to separate gullible buyers from their money.
There are actual "professional" saxophones, as distinguished by the quality of construction, the fineness of the mechanism, accurate intonation, quality of tone. However, these are almost always referred to by their make and model, as those who know something about saxophones recognize these, and there aren't very many.
Buescher True-Tone, Aristocrat, 400
Conn M series, New Wonder
King Zephyr, Super 20
Martin Committee
Selmer Super, Balanced Action, Mark 6, Mark 7, Super Action 80
Yamaha 62, 82, Custom
Yanagisawa (not sure of the model numbers here
SML
Buffet Dynaction, Super Dynaction, S-1
Keilwerth Tone King, SX, H Couf
Any of the recent Rampone and Cazzani, Borgani
And a few others.