UKG, should I?

[Vinevo]

Hello fellow members!

I have have just joined here as reaching a stage where I am trying to decide what to do with my mountain of Star Wars toys safely tucked away in big boxes in the loft. I was born in 73 and grew up loving SW and had many figures and sets. I sold the lot and bought Technic Lego!, probably a familiar story.

In about 95 I started collecting 77-83 vintage and drifting into collecting the modern stuff too. This went on for about 5 years and then I backed off abit, just picking up a few bits here and there. It wasn't until I moved a few years back that I realised how much stuff I had!

Anyway, my question for now is, is it a wise move to get my loose mint vintage figures with all original weapons and variations sent off to be UK Graded? I realise with about 125 figures it's not going to be cheap but could be a wise investment.
My gut feeling is yes but wanted an upto date opinion of those in the know as I have been out the loop for some years. :wink:

Thanks in advance, Ash.

 

[Mr-shifter]

Hi Ash,

Welcome to the forum. Im no expert regarding grading, but the question you have to ask yourself is are you keeping or selling them. If you are selling them and they are in tip top condition, you may find that grading them and having them score highly could add to the value of the figure. By all accounts the AFA are more widely recognised than UKG, but the stuff has to be sent to the US and back so adds cost. They are a bunch of greedy bastards as well so they will charge you to grade an item based on its value. One figure takes as much effort to grade as the last so work that one out. If you have a spare week, look at the Toytoni thread and you will see the grading companies are losing quite a lot of credibility at the moment as well.

If you are like me and don't need a little bit of sticker to tell you wether you like something or not and you are intending to keep your collection for yourself then why not leave them loose. If you like the way acrylic looks then I suggest you look at Christians for sale thread, as he sells some lovely acrylic display cases, and they will cost a lot less then grading.

At the end of the day, you should collect how you want to collect, but don't do something for other peoples benefit.

Get the old collection out, dust it off, take some pics and put a limelight up and get ready with your wallet as the collecting bug starts to bite again! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[itfciain]

^ pretty much this

Each to his own and all that - but I don't really see the point in grading 'loose' figures unless they are rare or very hard to find. The cost per item for me outweighs any value that you can add and although some people like the way they are displayed in cases then others can't stand them

 

[Vinevo]

Thanks guys for your wise words, couple of angles I hadn't thought about. As for the bug biting again, I have already found myself in the sale section here and I already spend too much time and money in the sale section in Retrobike!

Food for thought, guess the first thing to do is get some of it out, quite looking forward to it as some hasn't been out of the boxes since I packed them in 99!, where does the time go? :wink: