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[cricketrob]

I see hand picking as a luxury not a necessity, a bat that had been hand picked and is an example of the best a company had in stock is always nice to have and gives the buyer confidence, however there will always been good performing bats from every brand even if not hand picked, and at the end of a bad one mans idea of a good bat could be completely different to another.

[iand123]

This comment isn't aimed at anyone at all but more for debate really....

Does owning or working in a cricket shop make you a bat expert? Wouldn't someone who makes bats be deemed as an expert?

I guess retailers see/pick up/test more bats from different manufacturers and you'd expect anyone spending enough time around bats to pick up a few trade secrets or experience.

Personally I think it's all about trust. If you trust the retailer who's hand picking then go for it. For me I still like to have a feel of a bat, if I buy it and don't like it or isn't quite right for me I'll move it on. In my opinion it's what I really like in B3's offering. Once you have a shape with them you like I guess they can repeat it within a greater degree of accuracy. I guess the weight/pickup would be affected by the quality/density of willow though. With a b3 bat (and other custom made bats like my Salix) I just picked a cleft and those two bats have worked out fine for me

[Manormanic]

Does owning or working in a cricket shop make you a bat expert? Wouldn't someone who makes bats be deemed as an expert?

Maybe not, but it is an added layer of filtering to the product you're considering buying.  The manufacturer could try to sell you a plank, handpicking should significantly reduce the chances of that happening.

[InternalTraining]

Retailer handpicking merchandise would benefit buyers who do not have access to shops/stores  and cannot actually see the product for themselves. In essence, they would be acting like an agent for the buyer. Now this approach would work if and only if the retailer would pick exactly to the spec of the buyer. In non-cricket playing countries like the states, access to gear/merchandise is painfully limited. You have to rely on retailers or online stores for your needs. I think it is a great service to the consumers if somebody like I JC team can actually go to the GN  factory and pick up a bat that matches consumer's requirements. Returns are a pain so anything that can minimize the chance for a "return" is a benefit to a consumer like myself.

[GarrettJ]

Buy from the batmaker instead of retail outlets.

b3, Aldred, h4l or rob pack can all handpick a bat with better precision than a retailer.

[MJB3]

Handpicking will give you better looking bats on the whole, if you compared a batch of 20 in two different retailers, one handpicking and one not.

It is impossible to tell much about the performance of a bat without knocking it in and using it for a significant period of time.

[Dan W]

Isn't this a bit of an obvious question/answer? Handpicking is just an extra layer of quality control - not an ultimate barometer of a bats performance, though nonetheless it weighs the chances of a better bat (and more importantly removes the 'plank' risk) in your favour.

You could stretch it to say the person hand picking indicates a less of a 'blind-churny-mail-order-y impersonal retailer that could be selling bats with the same consideration to that given to their tennis racquets'.

And stretch it even further to indicate that the people not picking are (therefore) at a disadvantage because they get sent what's not picked or get targeted by the retailers as not as choosy as HandPicked Ltd, and ergo a good destination for the lesser models in a given grade.

You have a guy picking bats versus the guy not picking. Surely it's inarguable, in that specific paradigm that the handpicked person will have the advantage of selecting better bats?

The question is how material is that factor.

And how likely is it that the BlindChurnMailOrder guy has a better relationship with the manufacturer (owing to scales and 'ease' of business) and who's the more lucrative channel and as such gets sent the better stuff to keep the relationship 'sweet'?

Have said it before though, and am in total agreement with Buzz - a good performing bat is accurately detectable, (in a rawish un-knocked in state) by many fewer people than we appreciate.

However I disagree slightly that a bat has a great 'feel' (lets all do that 'shadow ground tap'!) in certain hands and less others: Pick-up preference is pretty much universal IMO/E

[Dan W]

Buy from the batmaker instead of retail outlets.

b3, Aldred, h4l or rob pack can all handpick a bat with better precision than a retailer.

To extend that logic, no batmaker has ever made a bad bat, surely?!

[GarrettJ]

I just think they aren't operating on a mass produced scale so they will understand their own bats better than any retailer, their reputations and livelihood is on the line of a few of their g1+ turn out to be a plank.

You will get the odd plank no matter what.


 They can easily tell you if they have a good performer on their hands as they will have tested each bat a few times during the making

[tim2000s]

And here's the thing. I bought a custom made bat from a batmaker that he thought would knock in well. After 6 hours with a mallet and many nets it was a plank. He used it and agreed... Tells you all you need to know really.

[GarrettJ]

Did they swap it for nothing?

Without using a bat you cant tell performance so all of this hand picking and performance willow stuff is just marketing

[Dan W]

I just think they aren't operating on a mass produced scale so they will understand their own bats better than any retailer, their reputations and livelihood is on the line of a few of their g1+ turn out to be a plank.

You will get the odd plank no matter what.


 They can easily tell you if they have a good performer on their hands as they will have tested each bat a few times during the making

Vs The impact of the factor that they're responsible for the whole supply chain and therefore less likely to 'own up' to the poor performer.

[GarrettJ]

Possibly Dan W but is hope the bat makers I mentioned wouldn't do that and I certainly wouldn't think they would.

Ironically the best bat I've ever had was bought blind off the internet and recommended by the retailer

[Dan W]

Did they swap it for nothing?

Without using a bat you cant tell performance so all of this hand picking and performance willow stuff is just marketing

What's (your understanding of the term) performance willow?

[GarrettJ]

G2/3 willow that is being sold for g1 price because it sounds nice off a mallet

If it g2 or g3 it should be priced as such irrespective of performance