Did wal-mart let you in on this little secret? Hard to believe this is true with liability laws in our lawyer driven society being what they are. Wal-Mart doesn't make arrows, so it is hard to believe ANY arrow maker would allow their "rejects" to be sold by anyone, period. The better price surely comes from Wal- Mart's buying power, not a manufacturers willingness to sell rejects and risk their reputation and million dollar judgements.
Well... carbon express and easton tell me this...
They do the same thing with Bass Pro and Cabelas lines of arrows. Not always... but frequently.
Lets take easton (or specifically Beman) for example... did you know that easton really only makes a couple of different types of arrow shaft in the carbon hunting line???
Now, nobody sets out to make 'rejects', but they do happen, and because of the way carbon arrows are made (rolled from a single sheet like the paper stick of a lollipop), they are very difficult to control in the spine, thickness and straightness departments. So lets say that Beman sets out to make ICS Hunter Elites. They are the highest price, and most consistant at +/- .001 in straightness. Next you have your gold standard ICS Hunter at +/- .003. Followed by your Bowhunter, which is .006 in straightness. What they do with the ones that fall outside of those parameters is beyond me. But take your arrows like the Carbon Raiders they sell at "Richards" Sporting Goods... they are just ICS Hunter Elites that got
REJECTED.
That doesn't mean that they are not safe... not at all.... it simply means that from a quality control standpoint, they didn't make the grade. What you are paying for when you pay for high end arrows is for someone to sit down and test each one with lasers and benders and holy water and whatever else to ensure that they are as closely matched as possible (and our own bigcountry will tell you that sometimes these QC folks come to work with hangovers... or perhaps still drunk.... as the holy water doesn't always take). Easton X10 Pro Tours are matched +/- .001 for THE WHOLE DOZEN... meaning if you were to lay them end to end... the whole lot would be that straight.... these are olympic competition quality arrows and you don't find them in wal-mart.
All that these arrow companies are doing is finding a way to make their money back on their 'rejects'.... rather than just throwing them out, they are selling them at a reduced price.
That is how business works... no different with jewelry, gun stocks, funiture etc etc... anytime you have a material or product that you simply will not know how the quality is until its done.... you get various lines (or grading if you will) of product.