This is the ninth in a series of articles about the practice of toy reviewers being given free samples for review, and whether that represents a problem for readers looking for honest assessments to make purchase decisions. You can find the other articles in the series here.

In addition to interviewing toy reviewers, I also asked readers what they thought of the practice of reviewing samples. Here’s a sampling of some of their responses. (I tried to get as many quotes as I could; some readers wrote thoughtful but very long pieces that simply couldn’t be broken down into bite-size chunks. If there’s enough interest I’d consider posting them as editorials.)

In reading over all the responses (and I got over thirty of them), I noticed some common themes. On the whole, readers said they did think that reviewers who received samples softened their reviews. However, for the last question, most said this was not a concern for them, because either they were aware of the bias and altered their assessment of the review accordingly; or  because they only cared about the pictures/videos of the toys anyway.

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This is the eighth in a series of articles about the practice of toy reviewers being given free samples for review, and whether that represents a problem for readers looking for honest assessments to make purchase decisions. You can find the other articles in the series here.

Today’s Q&A is with Josh Bernard of CollectionDX.com.

1.) When you receive free samples, do you find an urge to be kinder to the item than you might be? If so, do you find yourself softening a bit, do you try to simply be fair, or do you think you end up trying to be even more objective than usual?

The first thing to realize is there are different kinds of samples with different objectives. Manufacturers send out samples to create hype and generate interest, often before product hits the shelves. Retailers on the other hand send samples purely to drive sales to their store, and to sell that specific product. The difference is that manufacturers often send random things, without little regard to what our site actually covers. Retailers know what sells for them, what good product is, and therefore rarely send items that are not of good quality. After all, their objective is to sell more of that unit.

I think when we were starting out there were some cases where we held back some negative opinions on some items. We’ve struck a nice balance now where if you are constructive with your criticism people tend to respect your opinion. If we just went out and started raging I think we would lose credibility. I tell each of my writers to always write an honest review – but be constructive. Point out both good and bad of each toy, and let the reader decide if it is for them.

We do encourage our writers to pick sample items that they are interested in, so the toy is reviewed through the eyes of proper perspective. With so many “staff” reviewers now, and so many samples coming in, it can be hard to keep track of them and maintain a consistent editorial voice, but we try our best. (more…)