Sick of AFA Grading

[Lee Gregory]

Not sure I understand English then Andy, as when someone says quote,I will never buy anything again that is afa graded, and then says I wouldn't pass on it,that just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[snakeeyes]

Not sure I understand English then Andy, as when someone says quote,I will never buy anything again that is afa graded, and then says I wouldn't pass on it,that just doesn't make sense to me.

yes looking at the post it does say that, but what I meant was I would never use them. Obviously if an item comes up you need you would buy it

 

[snakeeyes]

I have recently purchased some AFA figures and seriously disagree with some of the grading and have done many times in the past. Just who do you employ to make these decisions? In some cases thousands of pounds are added to the value of an item.
For example, archive number 12597471, this is an 85 grade with subs of straight 85s. How can it be when the card has a small tear to the front to the top of the card. Then on the other hand archive number 11486426 this is an overall 80, the card has a subgrade of 75, but is perfect apart from some small indentations which you can hardly notice. Apart from this the card is perfect, so should be at least a subgrade of 80, never a 75. The tear on the figure previous is worse but this received an 85 grade?
One other figure I purchased is a Tri Logo Royal Guard. I paid £850 for this as it was an 85 grade. I already have a very nice one ungraded which I paid £500 for, so purchased it on the sheer fact that it was an 85 grade, and paid a lot extra because of this. It should be perfect. The card has a clear vein going through the name so how can you justify the card getting an 85 grade and the figure getting an overall 85?
I am getting quite annoyed with the inconsistancies and some of these seem to be completely on purpose in my eyes. I really do think they are grading the stuff they buy themselves higher for the simple reason that they sell it on on their own websites for much more money. The items customers send in I think they downgrade to make up for the clear inconsistencies with the over grading.
This should be made illegal and is fraud in my eyes. I will certainly never buy anything AFA graded again as it sometimes is nearly double the price and is merely an opinion of another person. This is very subjective and don't think they should be allowed to carry on the practice. I have emailed them for an explanation lets see what they say.

The AFA replied today to my email. The reply was piss poor, and they didnt even apologise...........says it all

 

[Princess Leia Organa]

The SADDEST thing I ever did was get 4 of my beloved bionic woman figures graded by AFA total nightmare Hated it I removed 3 of them from the boxes iv only kept one in its AFA BOX they look good but the company is killing collecting . i prefer custom made acrylic boxes you can open and slid out your figure iv had some made and its far cheaper!!!

 

[lee gray]

I will always use AFA for rare items. It seems people only love afa when their item gets a grade they wanted or higher but hate them when the grade is lower than they wanted.

Thats why whenever I have sent a rare item off, I tell them the lowest grade I am willing to accept and if it does not reach that grade then to give it the NG label (no grade) because I care more about the authentication but dont mind having a decent grade but dont want a crap grade lol

as for UKG I have sent of several ROTJ fetts and Clipper Dengars to them which are in great condition that I usually get of toytoni and all have recieved 90s
the cases do look every bit as good as AFA.

Another mention, if you were to sell a nice carded 21 back fett ungraded, you might get between $1500-$2000 for it but if it had been graded afa 90 then its going to go for $3500 + because its not afa who are putting up the prices but the collectors who will pay the prices, if everyone hated afa items, noone would get them graded because noone would buy them

 

[tiefighterboy]

I never really hung with the popular kids. :lol:

 

[Tank1252]

Talking of coins & AFA, there's a guy on the facebook group who recently had a thick reprint of the silver 63rd sent back by AFA with the wrong sticker on it....Amanaman or something i think. He sent it back to get the right sticker & it got sent back to him with an AFA85 label saying it was a 63rd, but with absolutely no mention of it being a thicker reprint. It'd be awfully hard to tell too if he ever sold it on, unless it was broken out of the casing. Scary stuff.

 

[jimbody1]

weasel is right about it always being shades of gray with the afa, i recently came across two examples of an r2 on a 65 back jedi moc, both had subs of 80,85,85 one was overall 80nm the other 85nm the only difference that could be seen was a tiny mark on the front of one of the cards which made it an 80nm the other with the same subs had no mark so the overall grade is obviously down to displayability rather than condition hence the shades of gray and also one of the reasons i stopped using afa ( along with time, cost, sheer ****ups, paperwork etc. the list goes on ) at least with ukg you know that theyre grading system isnt as subjective, each item is graded by more than one person, scores combined and an average taken to give you an overall grade. it may be a bit more harsh in the way of subs but i think it gives more consistant system of working. plus they will put what ever info you like on the label