The biggest problem I have with buying bats online is that there are very few companies out there who provide pictures of the actual bat you’re going to buy. Most websites simply stick a stock picture up there, and quite often it won’t even be the same grade. It’s not a problem for other sports such as tennis, golf or hockey, as these are all machine made to within miniscule tolerances of each other.
That said, out of the ten Sir Ben Stokes GM bats I have, only one was picked out in person. I decided that I liked the shape, then put my faith in GMs snazzy machines and the chap who decides the grade of willow. It worked out fine!