"One man's trash is another man's treasure"
When I was younger and used to pick out bats at Fearnley/Boundary Sports for my own use, I knew exactly what I was looking for - but everyone's desires are different. Personally I always looked for 7/8 grains with a touch of heartwood on the outside edge - what if the retailer handpicking the bats doesn't like heartwood? Or if said retailer would prefer to pick more grains over less?
Hand-picking is only ever subjective to the thoughts of the retailer - I'm not by any means saying that IJC/Vitas/UZI do a bad job (I'm certain they don't in fact!), but it may not be perfect for my own needs. If I had my heart set on a particular bat from one of the smaller brands, then I'd probably just contact the maker directly in the first place and get exactly the bat I wanted
This is why we (and the other forum shops) always ask for pre-orders. That way we can pick out things that customers like (in terms of looks at least as pickup/performance are of course very subjective but i like to think we do our best) from the entire selection at the supplier in question.
But B&S, you've just admitted that you give your retailer some inferior stock (a cross-section), and that customers can go direct to you to hand-pick one (through photos, specs etc etc), so why would a customer go to the retailer? Whereas, we can guarantee to get the best available product from the manufacturer, so where is the downside?
That brings me on to perhaps the most important question. I'm still failing to see why IJC has taken the heat on this post, for trying to be honest about the state of the cricket industry. There is one question which no one has actually answered.
What are the negatives of IJC taking time and care to hand pick the best possible bats for our customers? How in any way can this be a bad thing for the customer?
I don't see a negative for the customer. But considering you have spoken about openness, fairness, ethics etc. Taking all the best bats off say Phantom Cricket for example isn't terribly fair on them. Everyone knows TK doesn't allow brands to buy for example just 10 2'8 grade 1s. You have to take a cross section of quality, grades and weights. Where do all the not so good Phantom bats go? This is partially the reasoning behind Kookaburras decision to prevent handpicking of their lower grades I would suggest. Stops shops from saying 'look how good our £100 kookaburras are, much better than the planks from retailer x'
We are more than happy to sell the entire B&S range, not just the handful of big, light, max grainers in every batch. This is something that is fair for both parties, and offers the customer a choice. In this very specific example we've had plenty of huge Afrikaner blokes walk into the shop asking for heavy B&S bats, normally we try to hold a pretty limited number of bats heavier than 2'12, if we weren't required by Gary to stock them, we probably wouldn't be making those sales to the big guys!
My only gripe from this topic is the (admittedly fairly subtle) suggestion that IJC is the only place to get a handpicked bat, or that perhaps IJCs handpicking is better thanks to a 'ping guarantee.'
Author
Topic: Cricket Bat Manufacturers vs. Cricket Bat Brands (Read 53780 times)