Sorry just got back from a birthday party - I see I missed some fireworks!
I know Jeff (and one other collector on RS) have always been adamant that they submitted water damaged, rodent chewed dog turds of cards for their U graded set..do I believe them? I don't know, I would be inclined to as it's not nice to lie....is it correct? Not really as there will always be someone out there that would appreciate any carded figure, beater or not..but going forward and probably the most important question: is Jeff submitting carded figures every week to be destoyed for U grade profit? Well only he can answer but I would imagine (and hope) the answer is no.
I SAID IT TODAY AND NOW I DO NOT ACTIVILY LOOK FOR FIGURES TO U-GRADE, YOU CAN LOOK AT THE LAST CARDED FIGURES I SOLD UNGRADED, I WOULD NOT SEND ANY OF THOSE IN. EVERY U-LOOSE FIGURE IM SELLING RIGHT NOW HAD BAD CRACKS IN THE BUBBLES.
I still don't agree with that part of his collection at all, I would rather Jeff had non U' figures encased in acrylic as his Kenner set but after about 5 years of fighting against this type of thing on the boards I have come to the realisation that no one can dictate what people do with their toys unfortunately..we can try to educate people and speak with them, if that doesn't work we can also call them names and not deal with them but ultimately they will source toys to U grade if that's their thing.
THATS WHAT MAKES COLLECTING DIFFRENT, AS NOT EVERYONE WILL LIKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE.
I sent AFA emails, I upset plenty of people on the boards (that I still really couldn't give a **** about) with my opinions on the subject but regardless of all that, the petitions, the U grade FAQ that Shawn made and the 3 main forums all seemingly against U grading still people keep doing it by the droves on ebay (well perhaps not that much nowadays but still it is happening) so I kinda want to move on from battling morons on the U grade subject if I am honest.
DO NOT KID YOURSELF JOE ONE OF THE LARGEST U-LOOSE COLLECTOR AND SELLER OF THEM STILL SENDS FIGURES IN IN DROVES, BUT IT SEEMS YOU NEVER ATTACK HIM AND HE DOES NOT LIVE IN THE US.
Today I went through all the old threads on U grades that Shawn has at the bottom of his article, and sure enough there I am ranting away in all of them...where did it get me? Nowhere. I still think U grading is pathetic and should stop but I realised unfortunately that we as collectors who oppose it have absolutely no way of stopping it.
I am actually rather happy that U graders/U buyers are spending silly money on glorified loose figures because the sooner they exhaust their disposable income the quicker they leave my hobby alone. Damage done or not.