I recently purchased this Laver&Wood Butterfly, they had free knocking for these on the website and having a few other butterfly bats I was keen to take them up on this as it can take ages for them to get going.
It was A$300 or 168GBP delivered including the bat cover, which I was pretty happy with. As soon as I placed the order I received an email from Paul asking if there were any specific aspects that I'd like included and we traded emails about shapes, weights and handle sizes. The communication was astonishingly prompt and answered all of my questions, which is unlike any other bat maker I've purchased from. I asked for a specific handle size and a weight around 2-8 with a nice pickup - not dead set on the scale weight, but also not 2-12 but feels like 2-8 like some other well known bat makers.... The pickup is lovely and seems good when swishing it around the garage which we all know is the true test of any bat. I'm fairly sure this is NZ made, but I didn't ask the question.
They advised 4 weeks lead time, the bat turned up in 4 weeks and 6 days. I got excellent shipping notifications and it arrived well packed.
The specs are nothing special - 36mm edge and a 59mm spine, grains are pretty good and not really marred by the butterfly stain, some concaving and the toe is a very even 25mm. The finish is very good with only some extremely minor sanding marks visible if you look on the right angle (but I am extremely picky). The stickers look really good, handle is well bound and it's got the trademark Laver toe guard and came scuffed.
I've used the very scientific method of bouncing a ball and hitting it with a mallet and concluded that the ping is excellent, this may be the excitement of a new purchase but I'm going to say it's the best of all my bats. Actually, it probably is just excitement - I've got pre season practice on the weekend so I'll find out but the ping is really good with a nice crisp sound.
So in summary, I was sceptical that Lavers may not live up to their reputation but I'm very happy with both the bat and my buying experience.