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[ItsJustCricket]

In reply to a few issues -

Yes, Jake, I agree that they may have made the sales, but B&S have admitted they make you take a cross section of bats, some which will naturally not be as good. Would you not, as a customer, rather have the better ones, we do still carry weight ranges too!

There is no subtle insinuation that we are the only place that handpicks. A lot of retailers handpick their bats - we've acknowledged that. But WE ARE THE ONLY PLACE THAT HAND PICKS EVERY BAT. As we have all agreed that hand picking is a good thing (the fact that other forum sponsors do it when they can, proves that they agree it is a benefit), surely it is a great thing that we are so unique in this way?

Phantom sell a lower grade bat themselves, directly, which we don't, and that's the answer to that question.

There will always be companies which don't handpick, your PDC, your Sports Directs etc etc, and so from a manufacturers point of view you can always shift bats that way.

At the end of the day, our obligation is to our customers. The people who pay for the product. That's why we don't really care whether the manufacturer agrees on a whole to our policy, and why we've stopped stocking certain brands. We will provide the best product for our customers that we can, and handpicking does this. Simple as that.

[GDP1964]

No negativity on my part I have loved reading this Topic and impressed at the Passion shown by retailers on here we all love the Game and long may it continue 👍

[ItsJustCricket]

And in a direct question -

@VitasCricket. Do you accept that not being able to handpick B&S bats (in this example, which I must stress we didn't bring up), will mean that you get some slightly less quality bats than others? Can you honestly hand on heart say that you would handpick every bat you stock, given that B&S have already publicly come on here and told this forum that they tell you which bats to take?

How is that beneficial to the customer? Yes, I agree that having weight ranges is positive, but B&S have exposed the fact that if you don't hand pick, you are told by the manufacturer which bats you will take, and that can only lead to the customer losing out....

[GDP1964]

Simple we never supply inferior products they may be inferior to you as you may not have picked them but as mentioned on here earlier what's good for the Goose may not be good for the Gander

[Neon Cricket]

Phantom sell a lower grade bat themselves, directly, which we don't, and that's the answer to that question.

Not according to their website, apparently they only stock 3 variants of the exact same thing...

PLAYERS
Grade 1 English Willow

PRO RESERVE
Grade 1+ English Willow

LIMITED EDITION
Grade 1+ English Willow

[ItsJustCricket]

I must also stress, that we saw some bats which Vitas had picked today at Salix, and they were stunners, and so we are not at all questioning their ability to handpick! Merely suggesting that when you cannot hand pick, you are in a negative situation

[ItsJustCricket]

B and S - Everyone hear knows that wood is a natural product. And everyone knows that some bats in the same grade will play better than others. That doesn't mean the worse ones aren't good. One LE bat may be good, one may be great, another may be simply out of this world.

However, when a retailer is forced to take the good ones, as opposed to handpicking what they feel to be the out of this world ones, then they are putting a product on their shelves which, is inferior to the product that they could have had, if they had been and handpicked.

[Neon Cricket]

However, when a retailer is forced to take the good ones, as opposed to handpicking what they feel to be the out of this world ones, then they are putting a product on their shelves which, is inferior to the product that they could have had, if they had been and handpicked.

Rubbish, who's to say when you visit a brand that they show you their best selection to pick from? Who's to say they're not holding back the best of the best for their direct customers and leaving you with the leftovers to pick from? Best of a bad bunch?

[Vitas Cricket]

And in a direct question -

@VitasCricket. Do you accept that not being able to handpick B&S bats (in this example, which I must stress we didn't bring up), will mean that you get some slightly less quality bats than others? Can you honestly hand on heart say that you would handpick every bat you stock, given that B&S have already publicly come on here and told this forum that they tell you which bats to take?

How is that beneficial to the customer? Yes, I agree that having weight ranges is positive, but B&S have exposed the fact that if you don't hand pick, you are told by the manufacturer which bats you will take, and that can only lead to the customer losing out....

We pick what we want, Gary adds on (often on a sale or return basis) what we also need to have in order for a small brands business model to survive. As i eluded to before, long term it is pointless just taking the best lets say 10% of bats you can because it doesn't work out well for the supplier, the extreme end game being eventually there won't be any bats to choose from as that brand/supplier will have gone under.
Completely agree with you on big brands by the way, and long may we continue picking from GN, Kookaburra etc in order to get the best ones we can find.

With regards to the statement about other shops handpicking. It just came across that way, maybe Chris wrote it, not sure, you both seem to use the same account. As i've said i commend you for going down this route, it is of course unique, but there are other shops who pick as much of the stock that they possibly can.

I think largely we are in agreement, and hopefully no-one reading this takes it to be a squabble between two shops, because it absolutely isn't. Thank you for the Salix comments

[Vitas Cricket]

Rubbish, who's to say when you visit a brand that they show you their best selection to pick from? Who's to say they're not holding back the best of the best for their direct customers and leaving you with the leftovers to pick from? Best of a bad bunch?

There is some truth here. The people on the shop floor at Kookaburra for example are not robots, or idiots, they know and love cricket and what makes a good bat. When visiting Kookaburra there are often some still sealed boxes, but handpicking appointments commence AFTER many of the larger accounts have already had their bats sent out.

[ItsJustCricket]

Neon -

Handpicking is only ever a positive thing for our customers. I'm yet to see one single argument, from you or anyone else, which suggests otherwise?

And I know, because I've handpicked from the GN Players cupboards, and we've also been able to pick from there for our customers, so we know that places don't hide bats from us. Same as Kooks. We pick from the entire warehouse, looking all over the place. Same as Spartan, H4L, Salix, Newbery, M and H etc etc.

[ItsJustCricket]

Direct question to the forum -

Prove that handpicking has a downside to our customers.

And therefore it follows, that handpicking all of our stock, can only be a good thing for our customers.

That seems to me to be a fairly logically sound argument?

[edge]

And this is why you put some people and companies off - handpicking does not make you the gods of choosing cricket bats! You can pick out bats which you feel look better and feel better under a mallet, but they haven't even been knocked in yet. Don't kid yourself you can guarantee your bats will be better than ones you didn't pick. Noone has tried to bash handpicking from a customers point of view, but you can't just declare that it's the holy grail of bat buying and expect people not to comment.

IJC's desire to get the best for your customers is commendable, I'm afraid your high horse and willingness to put down other retailers, companies (and actually their customers) often isn't. Maybe a little harsh, but the last few posts have annoyed me.

[ItsJustCricket]

Edge - We have no desire to put down other companies or retailers. We've shown that by proving to you we think other companies pick cracking bats - look at our comment about Vitas' Salix selection - some absolute guns in there!

Handpicking does not make us gods. Absolutely not. But it gives us a better chance to pick better bats than not handpicking? It is not a perfect solution, nothing is. You can never absolutely guarantee the performance of the bat, you can only do as much as you can.

It is not the perfect solution, but logically, I think most people would agree it is a better solution than simply being pressured to take certain bats from a manufacturer.

Who would you rather buy  a GN/Kooks/Newbery bat from, a forum sponsor who has visited and selected each bat themselves, or PDC (or any other shop who fails to handpick)?

[tommo256]

Are you able to handpick across all ranges of gray nicolls and kooka?