Dave, some comments on hand-picking if I may...
Firstly, I know you're not a fan of the process - you have certainly made your feelings well known on here before. I also completely understand that, ultimately, it's more important that you like the bat, rather than me. However, with offers like this, what we are doing is simplifying the process for everyone. As Tim said, many of you guys don't have the time or ability to travel down to all these manufacturers yourself. Also, even if you did, many would not simply be able to walk in and pick out a bat you like and make a purchase there and then. What we do is get as much detail from the customer as possible - even for the lower grade bats, we ask for preferred amount of grains, exact weight, edge size, heartwood etc. As I said, within reason, the customer can be as specific as possible, so it's almost like when we take the trip and pick their bat, we are doing it with their eyes. If we know what you want, we can always get very close to/match your desired specs because, by hand-picking, we are able to see a much greater range of bats than we would otherwise.
As for performance, and your take on what will and won't perform, that's a fair point. Of course, we cannot say with 100% confidence that we guarantee that this bat will be the best because we felt it tapped up the best off the mallet. But in my experience, especially as we do this sort of thing on a regular basis, most people trust our judgement in being able to tell what is great/good/average/bad when it comes to initial mallet/ball response, which is all we can do, and whilst not foolproof, seems to be good enough for most, and lo and behold, the customer feedback we've had up until now has reinforced this on most, if not all, occasions.
Another general note about hand-picking, often overlooked, is that not many shops actually bother to do it. You guys are lucky on here because you have the choice of three shops who do hand-pick their bats. But this isn't representative of the market as a whole. Apart from us three, there are only a handful of other shops in the whole country who take the time and effort to personally select their bats. I know this because we are often at the factories at the same time, or at least hear from the manufacturers about who else they have accommodated - believe me, it's not that many.
Most shops will place an order of X amount of bats from manufacturer Y, and then Y will send them the bats and they get what they're given. Some retailers may want to send some of them back for replacements, but as far as I can tell, most just accept what they get, keep them and put them on the shelf. It's basically pot luck if they get good ones or not. I have seen a few threads on here where someone has bought a bat from one such retailer in a high grade, expecting it to be a stunning looking bat, only to find that it has just 5/6 grains, or has blemishes all over the place.
I respect that you don't agree with the process, and that you'd rather trust your own judgement than mine, and I commend you for speaking your mind so candidly on the subject. I just wanted to give some more clarity and present some factual information, essentially so you guys on here realise how lucky you are!
At the end of he day, if you prefer to buy from another retailer, that's your prerogative. You're quite right - there will always be other shops where you can get bats cheaper. Many of them are like the ones mentioned above, so it's just pot luck that you're really getting value for money with your bat, but if you'd rather save a few pounds, then go for it! Of course, hand-picking bats costs us time and money - there's a lot of travelling involved. We need to recover these costs somehow, unlike the shops who don't bother to make such trips, so they can afford to price them a bit lower.
Anyway, end of dissertation! Sorry for rambling on, but I feel this is a salient point that warranted a proper response.
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Topic: Pre-Order a New 2014 Bat and get it hand-picked and delivered before Christmas!! (Read 13717 times)