I have a 9C8C. Manufacture 610, manufacture date C3C41D00. It was ordered from Amazon.
I'm not sure how it compares to others, but I don't have the overall quality problems many have had. No nicks or scratches. No slanted keys. No loose battery cover. But the screen is for the most part okay once I applied a new profile, but the blacks are still in the grey area. Using the default Leopard wallpaper, the subtle differences in blacks on my MBP are not there on my new MB. Comparing side by side with my Yonah MBP, playing an HD Harry Potter OotP trailer, I could tell the difference. My two year old MBP won hands down. Generally speaking, a two year old technology at the pro level should be at least standard on a current consumer level notebook.
I'm pretty happy with mine, but about 10% of me wants to send it back and get a 2.4GHz, 4GB, Blu-ray, Sony Vaio with a better screen for the same price. I don't know, is it worth all this just to have OS X?