buying tile on sale or discontinued

I have run into a problem several times when customers buy tile on sale or when it is on clearance or discontinued. The tile could be on sale for several different reasons. It could be an undesirable size , shape or color or it could be that the tile is actually not all the same color or size. I have installed tile on several different occasions that customers have bought on clearance and it seemed to be a great deal upfront but once I started laying the tile I realized the tile varied in sizes from 11-1/2 inches to 11-7/8 inches . This made the tile extremely difficult to lay and keep straight looking grout lines. Beware of to good to be true tile deals and open several boxes of the on sale tile to make sure that they are the same size and also check the lot number to make sure they were made at the same time so they were made from the same materials. good luck on your next tile project!