It doesn't sound unusual, but you may want to take a marker down to the yard and write your name on the specific slabs you want. This may avoid disappointment and dismay later.

from what i was told, generally, the slabs are like sliced bread so each one looks approx the same just shifted a bit, unless your slabs have heavy movement, i think you'll be fine . I fyou're worried about it, make them show you the slabs before transport or cutting

while generally slabs from the same lot are similar, variations occur between slabs particularly with granite with lots of movement but also with fairly uniform slabs. I have blue pearl and there was a slight flaw in the middle of one or two slabs but moved to the edge of the slab that I selected so that they could template around it. You're much better off selecting the actual slabs that you want and mark them and note the numbers so they don't switch them out from under you - which has unfortunately happened to some members of this forum.

I think the biggest issue here is that there are two different lots and one is more desirable than the other. We didn't ask our granite yard to move the 6 slabs in the stack on their assurance that pense's "sliced bread" thing applied to this particular granite, all in the same lot. They did go out with a marker and wrote our name along the edge of the first two themselves when we called in our confirmation of which stone we'd decided on (took 2 samples home). Having said that though, I think weissman makes an excellent point about slabs that have big movement in them. One way or the other, it's a good idea to see your name in indelible marker on the edge of specific slabs.

I thought it was typical to select the actual slab. I would want to select my own and would never purchase from a small piece or have a company choose the actual slab for me. It sounds as if you are more comfortable choosing your own too. Is there some reason you can't do that?

I would prefer to see them actually tag my slabs. Also, there can be quite a difference from slab to slab. The overall grain is usually the same, but there can be major softball sized "blemishes" in the middle of granite (or any size really). Our slabs were the 3rd and fourth ones in. The first two had a softball sized black spot right in the middle. Sometimes they can easily work around a blemish depending on the templates, for us it would be in the way....

If the slabs are from two different lots, they should have written down lot number and slab number.

That is what the wholesaler we went to did as they had 3 lots and several slabs within each lot.

Also they should tag the slabs with your name

It might be usual for the way that company operates, but I would not accept that method. As mentioned, slabs vary even within the same lot. The heavy lifting machine guys at our slab yard were happy to move 5 slabs of our very thick 4cm marble around until we found the two we thought best. Then they wrote up a hold ticket with all of our info and the slab info on it. They also tagged the slabs to match our ticket. Even if I was doing a manmade quartz I would want to pick my own slabs. Personally, I would never let anyone else pick such an important part of my kitchen.