where do you get these, i have never seen them, but i am very intrigued

I can't say anything about the current state of hand-selects, but I did purchase them about 12-13 years ago when I was in graduate school (of course, it wasn't a $20 difference back in those days) . . . I was playing a lot more legit in those days, and was pretty persnickety about blue box reeds. At the time, I had about a 70-80% reject rate per box for normal blue box, but with the hand selects I had closer to a 50% reject rate. Nowadays, it really doesn't matter all that much, since I don't play nearly as much legit as I used to, so I just buy the regular blue box (plus I'm not as persnickety anymore. I end up using most of the reeds in the box, since I am able to adapt to the varying conditions easier nowadays). If you're willing to spend the money as an experiment, well it doesn't hurt to try them at least once, but I am of the mind that if your playing is developed well-enough, you should be able to play on most anything. One problem that can arise from working hard to dial-in your reeds is the contentment that can come about from having a nice sound rather than trying hard to make something wonderful. I recently had a discussion about this very topic with a fellow colleague who is an oboe professor on the east coast, and he had an experience in his graduate school days where his mentors actually liked his playing less when he had his reeds in shape . . . something to think about . . .