different companys do different things mate some grade purely on looks some on performance some on both and some on noneReds have you seen JS Wrights website how they grade mate i think people buy from there and upgrade and downgrade depends on there standards....I have seen a great 14 grain clean cleft all ruler straight just go a little wonky and a few minor blemishes show up when it gets shaped into a bat and it got down graded.
In truth without seeing them i would not have thought so There simply no truth is "if it looks good it plays good" maybe Andy will elaborate but one of my best ever bats had a bloody big dead near the shoulder on the back and had 6 wonky grains but my god it played well and up there in terms of quality...My advice to your mate or whoever never judge a bat by it sticker
I'll take a look cheers dude.Only reason I ask is because a mate of mine is looking at a GM ICON and want's to know if there would be much performance difference between a 808(which is grade2) and a 909(which is grade1).
I'd imagine that the average 909 will perform better than the average 808, but there will be 808's that are better than some 909's out there, best just to have a dig around as many shops as you can.