Looking for AFA answers

[shownuff!]

Hi all,

I am new to collecting and was hoping you could share your experiences with AFA grading.

I have gotten a few figures MOC and was wondering if I should send them to AFA.

Pros and Cons are needed. Costs?

I would think that every collector with a MOC would want there special treasures sealed for protection, right?

Does AFA provide the enclosure or do I purchase one and send it in along with the figure?

Thanks for your answers!

[toys2cool]

It's like $30-$40 a figure,I say it's worth it if it's a really rare figure or something in almost perfect condition,as collectors pay top dollar for those,what kind of figure where you thinking of grading?

[Megospidey]

People here do not view carded or boxed figures the same as comic books or baseball cards. Paper items need to be sealed; toys do not.

Why grade them and seal them permanently when you can buy acrylic holders that you can open from time to time, take them out, and actually hold them? Besides, graders (of anything collectible) cannot be totally objective - they are humans and humans make mistakes.

You will probably find that most here feel the same as starbuk - LET THOSE TOYS BE FREE!!!

[RG]

IMO AFA is a pure con nothing more! They slap a grade on a figure and call it a day. I've seen AFA 90's that should have been 80's, and 80's that should have been 95's. I haven't seen much in Megos that have been graded by AFA, but I've seem my fair share of their grades on vintage Star Wars, GI Joe etc.

One collector I know, refers to people who buy A.F.A. as .... Another. F-ing. Amateur Because they need someone else to tell them what they are collecting and he has a point. AFA puts false values on items. Take a rare figure say Alter Ego Bruce Wayne, he gets a grade of 95 tons of people go crazy and drive the price way up two or three times what a mint ungraded one sells for ... why because a couple guys out there have mental issues and they want to have "The Best" Now take another Bruce that is super mint and would pull a 100 (if AFA would give it out) but isn't graded and it goes for 1/3 the price why because it has no AFA grade ... some would say well that's why they have stuff graded ... that's crap! It's the same figure and IS worth the same, it's just some over pay for a number someone else slaps on an item. Lets say I or another collector puts a fair grade on a super mint item, would you pay 3 times more than it's value for it because we put a grade on it. ... I hope not! And people shouldn't over pay for AFA's opinion either.

AFA does include the case they put them in ... but be careful if you send in a carded figure ... there is no support for the bubble and many times the bubble is ripped off of the card inside the case while being shipped.

for standard it's around the price toys2cool said, but that takes a few weeks and I would never trust a company with my valuables for that long. They do have faster service, but it costs.

[ABMAC]

If you have a packaged figure that you want to protect, you're better off buying a case for it yourself. The condition of a figure can change due to UV exposure, elasticizer migration, or distortion stress. AFA cases do not protect against any of these. It's best to have your figure graded at the time it's sold, and you can have that done here at no cost.

[megoat]

, elasticizer migration, distortion stress.

How strange. These were the names of my two first bands in high school. Everyone told us that The Elasticizer Migration could have went on to make big waves but our bass player went up and joined the navy. Oh well.......

[cjefferys]

I was the lead singer for Grey Heads & Broken Knees. People wrongly assumed that we would be a bunch of senior citizens in wheelchairs, so we never found an audience.

[MegoNinja]

I'm glad that this thread has come about, I was wondering about AFA myself, I was going to make this thread if no one else did. I always thought the AFA cases could be opened and closed, now that I know they are unopenable I think AFA cases degrade the value!
It is like laminating a movie poster, the value rocket's down straight away, I prefer making my own cases, I have made a big perspex case for my MIB Lost Continent and a MOC MOTU Teela, both cases can be opened and closed.

thanks for the good advice guys.

[Laparka]

I have mixed feelings about AFA. I'll start off by sayng that I don't have any graded Megos because I'm poor and can't afford anything but loose ones. I have one carded Batgirl and she is pretty beat up. I do however have graded vintage Star Wars toys. Like it was stated before, people pay stupid amounts for toys that are graded high. Why, who knows? I would never pay a ton of money for something graded. I sent AFA stuff like a mail away Boba Fett, sealed Early Bird envelope, loose Blue Snaggletooth, Yak Face and Hollow Cheek Tube Tusken Raider and a carded Boba Fett. These are things that if I ever need money quick, will sell for a nice profit. Until then they just look good in a display case. I hope I never have to sell them, but you never know. The Mail In Boba Fett I have sold on eBay for over $800 in the same grade as the one I have.

The cases can't be opened unless you smashed them, or send them back to AFA and they charge you to open them. They have two different styles, regular and UV. There is also room on the bottom of the case where air can get in. That is on purpose.

Now, as for the company, they are always late in returning your toys. They give you a time table and they never follow it, EVER!! I have a horror story for every submission I sent to them. It was so bad the last time that I will never even consider sending them anything else. It's a big headache and I will not recommend you send toys to them. In the end if your figure is dead mint, and your dead mint is not their dead mint trust me, you could someday get a great return on your investment. In the mean time, you will get hidden fees and authentification issues and never receive your toys back on time.

Resist the temptation and be happy with your ungraded figures.

[RG]

There is also room on the bottom of the case where air can get in. That is on purpose.

That's another point I forgot to say. I know a guy who had paid top dollar for 6 Star Wars carded figures all graded by AFA 80's and higher. Somehow moisture was into his hobby room, and how he found out was that there were droplets of water inside his AFA graded figure cases, all 6 of them. All the cards now have water damage along with 1 that started to grow mold. The cases used on Baseball cards and comics are air tight to keep stuff like that from happening

Resist the temptation and be happy with your ungraded figures.

Words to live and collect by

[Dave Mc]

We've also discovered by looking at the examples posted around here over the years of AFA graded Megos, that AFA doesn't seem to know squat about Megos. Figures with broken knee pins that we spot in a second seem to go unoticed by AFA. We have some of the most serious carded Mego collectors around this place and I don't know any of them that bother. Like was stated, you want expert opinions on what you have, post detailed pics here, you'll find out real quick and it wont cost you a dime.

[MegoNinja]

We've also discovered by looking at the examples posted around here over the years of AFA graded Megos, that AFA doesn't seem to know squat about Megos. Figures with broken knee pins that we spot in a second seem to go unoticed by AFA. We have some of the most serious carded Mego collectors around this place and I don't know any of them that bother. Like was stated, you want expert opinions on what you have, post detailed pics here, you'll find out real quick and it wont cost you a dime.

I have spoken to many vintage toy collectors and no-one seems to know much about Mego at all, the only real 'experts' are pretty much people here that go as far as getting a Mego Museum Forum account because we all seem to care just that much about our childhood toys. I know people who have been collecting vintage toy's all their life and seem to know virtually nothing other than 'they are 8 inch' about Mego's.

As for the AFA with the air and moisture going inside, is there any real reason the AFA people don't make the cases air tight? If my carded fig's got moisture damage in an AFA case I would cry myself to sleep.

[Wee67]

I agree with the points raised here about AFA. In fact, I chose to simply keep my carded collection in the acrylic cases rather than have therm graded and I will continue to do so.

BUT... in the dangersous interest of discourse, I will ask about a separate point. Clearly, AFA has little impact on knowledgeable collectors like the good people here (in fact, it seems to have an adverse affect). However, it also seems to drive up the price of figures for the uninformed. I'm not trying to start an argument over whether or not we should assign a monetary value to our collection, but I am assuming we would like to get a certain amount for the items we choose to sell.

Case in point-
1979 MEGO HULK WGSH MOSC AFA 85 RARE USA MOC SEALED WOW - (eBay item 320159765818 end time Oct-02-07 18:30:00 PDT)

[palitoy]

From what I've seen Bill, this works well with popular characters such as Superman, Batman etc. These are characters that non mego collectors buy and if they're into Star Wars then it makes sense they'd buy an AFA graded Hulk.

It doesn't seem to do squat for rarer mego figures or common items, most likely because the main audience for such things is the Mego collector.

[Sowth]

If you plan to Ebay a C8+ MOC figure and you expect to get $250+ for it, it's probably worth getting it graded (If you are in the USA). It increases the selling price (see previous post for quick eg) to sometimes multiples of ungraded if you can get an AFA 85 or higher.

If you are buying, don't bother. You will be able to get a MOC in just as good (if not better) condition by being patient and finding a good seller with clear pics and descriptions, or by asking around at the Museum.

What AFA are good at is spotting reseals, which is one thing that newer collectors often fret about, hence a premium for a 'guarantee' of factory sealed. AFA make mistakes from time to time too of course, there was a celebrated resealed Ackbar from Jedi a few years ago that someone got through the system.

There are apparently 100,000+ graded figures out there now though so I don't think it's going away anytime soon. It's there to be exploited to your advantage as a seller where applicable, I haven't meet a seller yet who didn't want their sales maximised!

Cheers,
Will