OK, it's NO secret that I'm not a fan of AFA, ESPECIALLY the U grade. But Tom Derby does NOT have any involvement in the day to day operations of AFA. He consults AFA on ultra rare and easily faked items via his CIB brokerage and authentication services. Is Tom infallible or untouchable? IMO no one in the hobby is. BUT Tom is and has been a real friend to many in the hobby,myself included. He's helped unearth some amazing collections, and found items that would have otherwise remained buried in off the radar and inactive collections for years, and helped put them into peoples collections.Has he made some money/profit on this, sure he has, why would ANYONE consistantly do the legwork he does to find items for others,But I know for a fact that in many cases it's not anywhere near as much profit as you'd think. Point is that many that stick up for him when he's attacked do so because he is a friend both personally and as a beneficial person to the overall hobby.
I don't know the seller Villains!! in any way, or any of his other misdeeds,if any. I do know that he's abusing the AFA U grade and exposing a major inconsistency in their policies via, him submitting STAPLE sealed bootleg figs and receiving U grades on the figures. MOC bootlegs are ONLY eligible for the Q grade, because AFA claims that they can not verify that the seals are original. So, if they can NOT verify that the seal is original, how can they verify that the specific figure was put on the card at the factory and not circulated otherwise before being carded and give it a U???
As for the Sandcrawler that he's selling. I'll leave that to the proto guys to debate.
Cheers
Joe
