Open Letter to AFA and UKG

[PNGwynne]

You bring up good points. Regarding boxed items, I think it is a courtesy to note if items have been furnished to complete a figure--but of course, another seller or two down the road may not be aware of or care to advertise this.

Additionally, only extensive experience can ferret out these "substitutions" after the fact: That, for example, brown Pa Walton shoes are from a different production lot and, being a subtly different shade, should probably not be on a Joker figure. Or that those POTA Soldier boots with the pin-holes really belong to AJ.

I primarily collect loose figures and have often purchased several figures/accessories to complete a "perfect" specimen. Personally, I do not assume that loose figures are intact as originally produced. I will say that I'm very persnickety about vintage quality, but not origin.

[finestcomics]

UPDATE: I just heard from Chad from AFA, and he has given the ok to share this with everyone. Note, I copied and pasted part way from his greeting, and omitting him describing the reason for not getting back to me/us sooner:

It is very important to us at AFA that the collectors know we take this situation very, very seriously. To follow up on your other questions this is what we are doing at AFA at this time.

1). Like I said, for the time being, AFA has put a freeze on the processing/grading of any card variations in question from the list of figures obtained by ToyToni in the early 1990s

2). At some point in the near future, as both more information becomes known, as well we will get a programmer to make alterations to the AFA website, AFA plans to add a disclaimer to every serial number associated with questionable European card variations within the free on-line serial number verification database in order to ensure collectors have as much information as possible to help them make educated purchases based on all the information at hand.

3). Toni is banned from submitting items for grading to AFA!