Print

[ItsJustCricket]

Who is doing the hand picking for you Paul ?

Mostly myself. Chris helps me when he can too, especially at Newbery.

[Turn Of Pace]

Good luck IJC. Some people will appreciate what you do others won't be bothered by it. It doesn't really matter as long as it's what you want to do. On a personal note I'm glad to see you stocking Salix and Chase, two quality brands that should sell very well for you.

[lazza32]

Overseas buyers like myself appreciate the hand picking. I am really worried that I'll just get the dreggs when I purchase off the normal retailers. Have gotten 3 bats off Paul and they are all brilliant. Got 1 bat off a normal retailer and it was a plank, never again.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

[ItsJustCricket]

Does this include junior bats as I thought a lot of companies buy their junior bats in from abroad I know you can still hand pick but does everyone know that they made elsewhere is that something that will be said

This is correct in some cases and, yes, the ones we deal with are very open about it if this is the case.

[ItsJustCricket]

Chris here.

The way I see it - and the way we see it as a company, is that handpicking can never be a bad thing. It can only ever be a good thing. Let's say that a company would send absolute stunners anyway, well we will pick out those stunners, so by handpicking we are at an absolute minimum getting the same quality they would send us, but more realistically we are going to be getting better bats. Even if only one of 20 bats is of a better quality than the manufacturer would have sent us, surely the benefit to that one customer makes the handpicking worthwhile?

Hope that rambling makes sense, it's just that all I can see is an upside from handpicking, absolutely no downside, and therefore that's the reason why we do it!

[edge]

What benefits do you think the 'we will only stock bats we have handpicked' stance  bring you over 'we will only stock good quality bats from manufacturers we trust'?

[ItsJustCricket]

We think that it brings a personal guarantee. It is accepted that not every bat a manufacturer makes is worthy of the grade that they place on it. Therefore, if a company makes a G1+ labelled bat that is actually like a G2 bat - which happens a lot, then they have a vested interest to sell that bat to a retailer. Therefore, they are more likely to sell it to a smaller account, who won't become too irate. Manufacturers don't always do this, but they have to sell bats, good or not as good, just the same, and so we don't want to be a company who just gets the left overs once the big companies have gone in and got the first pick.

However, by handpicking, we ensure that we don't get any of these bats. It is sheer logic that if we handpick the best ones, we are then going to get better bats for our customers? I don't see how that is disputable?

Chris

[edge]

Not wishing to dispute that you'll generally ensure you get good bats by handpicking (as I've previously posted!), just wondering what makes you stick to it 100% when it presumeably wouldn't be too hard to simply return any bats you think are below par from manufacturers where handpicking isn't an option. Pride in your philosophy, or believing you won't get good enough quality bats through any other method?

[ItsJustCricket]

Not wishing to dispute that you'll generally ensure you get good bats by handpicking (as I've previously posted!), just wondering what makes you stick to it 100% when it presumeably wouldn't be too hard to simply return any bats you think are below par from manufacturers where handpicking isn't an option. Pride in your philosophy, or believing you won't get good enough quality bats through any other method?

Sorry, misread!

I think a little bit of both. We often pick through 100 bats before we find even one, especially at the bigger brands like GN etc. This just wouldn't be feasible to do on a basis of them sending to us, it would only make relationships sour in the long run.

[amritpremi]

I think it's a very simple & honest policy Paul & Chris. I hope you have improved business with your philosophy, my best wishes.