Grading ridiculous items

Recent trawl through ebay revealed this gem:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Star-War...437820?hash=item3b19b624bc:g:ngkAAOSwLVFbg8JD

Now I've seen some stupid things graded in my time - loose Jabba's that look like turds in a box, a loose unused Shuttle that was encased in half a tonne of acrylic and let's not forget the loose 12" Han Solo graded with modern accessories but for me this is the most ridiculous item I've ever seen.

A blank, brown cardboard box :shock:

Yeah the mind boggles.
At least the others you mentioned were interesting to look at and had detail.

Good lord ... grading is getting more and more ridiculous when the companies go on to grade stuff like this.
You can not take that seriously.

Please don't tell me it's just an empty box? :lol:

Don't get me wrong, grading has it's place, but when they're taking money off someone for this I think it's gone too far.

subzero said:

Please don't tell me it's just an empty box? :lol:

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I thought it said full of 100 Jabbas pipes? Perhaps it was quantified by x-ray?

That is hilarious.

But it's only £525. Quick, buy it now!... Oh no wait a moment, I've just remembered I have a brain. Damn!

Not that I would be interested in the one the OP has highlighted but the same could be said about any sealed multi pack mailer that has been graded too. They are not for me either, but if you don't like grading then obviously these things will be funny and easy to find hilarity in.

I have never understood grading :? but then again I love to have the toy in my hands, the boxes and the cards. I do not want a plastic box between me and my items :lol:

I'm no fan of grading, but one thing you can at least usually say for graded items is that you can actually see the item inside its perspex prison. Sealed cardboard cases of vintage items always puzzle me anyway, when their owners don't open them. I'm not suggesting they should open the items they remove from the brown cardboard boxes, of course, but come on! Keeping beautiful vintage items sealed inside a boring plain cardboard mailing box where you can't even see them is mad. And having such a sealed plain cardboard mailing box full of vintage graded is utter insanity!

I remember a few years back a sealed case of Palitoy Death Stars was discovered. The owner carefully opened the case, graded some of the Death Stars, kept some and sold some. Now imagine if the owner had kept all 4 sealed inside the mailing box! How boring, unimaginative and selfish that would have been. Would they have a right to do that with their own property? Yes of course; they could have done anything they liked to it, setting the whole lot on fire if they wished. But doesn't the hobby as a whole benefit far more greatly from that case being opened and the contents put out into the collecting community?

:shock: i've seen everything now.

Funny that you should post this, I wrote this a few weeks ago and forgot to post it!

Is this madness?
A box full of more MISB items graded!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...case-UKG-85-/223061727804?hash=item33ef83da3c
I suspect that there will be some in both camps, how would you feel if this was opened and then the MISB's sold individualy?
This is a graded brown box, it even says it in the listing, do you find this pleasing to the eye and would have had it graded?
This is something that I am struggling with!

On the one hand ( although they look boring ) I can see that preserving these toys from when they were at this stage in their lives is a good thing, it was part of their 'journey' from where they started out at the factory, and there has to be a lot less of that piece of history left when you compare them to MISB toys outside of the shipping cases.

Then on the other hand, yes the case being opened and at least having the individual toys sent off for grading would be great for collectors to enjoy and actually see them.

I can see both sides, but when the case is being graded purely for as much financial gain as possible rather then open it then that does seem like a shame, they will most likely never see the light of day because whoever's hands this passes through in future they're bound to be spending a lot of money on it, so will they crack the grading case and open it?, I don't think so!

What........the world has gone mad :shock:

My favourite was the bootleg pairing of an Ewok figure that came with two sticks of UHU craft glue in a foreign territory I forget at the moment.

Not just graded but u-graded, no less.

Yes, an Ewok and two Pritt stick type things encased in acrylic.

I wonder if I could get an empty AFA case graded and have it nicely encased in another AFA case, you know, to preserve it for future generations? ;-)

http://starwarsvintage.us/star_wars_vintage_italien_uhu_glue_stick_ewok_pack_teebo_ukg_afa_85_c85_b90_f90.htm
cheers Dave.

Snaketibe said:

I wonder if I could get an empty AFA case graded and have it nicely encased in another AFA case, you know, to preserve it for future generations? ;-)

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Don't give them ideas. :lol:

I can not find the picture but there was a cardboard game token thing graded!!!