your thoughts on AFA ratings?

[janda the red]

hey peoples...

i'm kinda new to the buying vintage tf's scene and have been doing alot of looking and drooling at some of the figures offered for sale on ebay.

i keep coming across AFA rated gen 1 tf's.... they look so nice in thier little display cases, but they cost the earth compared to similar toys of a similar condition.


what does everyone here think about AFA?

is it a good thing....a bad thing?

has anyone here sent figures to the states to get graded? was it worth it ?

does anyone here actually buy AFA stuff?

pro's.....con's?


for a newbie like me, it seems like a good way to not get ripped off and buy a reissue or a copy by accident. i also like the idea of my precious dolly being protected from uv and additional damage/wear.

just curious to hear what a few fellow aussies think about this...

thanks in advance

janda

[Sharky]

i like the cases, not so much the grading... the prices seem outrageous compared to what they should be and i do believe a few knock offs have snuck through the "super keen" eyes of the "graders"

the fact they are grading loose toys now is a bit of a joke...(sometimes i think they will grade anything)

do we know what the long term effects are to the toy inside after a few years..

[Sky Shadow]

for a newbie like me, it seems like a good way to not get ripped off and buy a reissue or a copy by accident.

Some threads worth reading on this topic:

http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showth...927#post113927
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=8375

Personally I think AFA grading is bizarre. Putting a toy in an acrylic box so it's never played with is like owning a car you never intend to drive. It takes something from fulfilling its intended function to being a commodity.

[Gutsman Heavy]

Pointless unless you wanna banish it to eBay forever listed at a horrifying price.

[Skullcruncher]

Personally I think AFA grading of a transformer in its original packing is awesome. Putting a 20 year old sealed toy in a case to give it the best chance to last another 20 years is all good in my books. Though Grading a loose transformer I find odd.

The display of several AFA's together is awesome however the grading scale is a bit of a mystery, I have sent items to AFA expecting a 70 at most and got an 80, while others 90 but they get an 80.

Yes they have made some well known mistakes grading KO's but im sure more people have been scammed buying KO's when thinking they are originals and because of the price they attract more attention and rightly so.

I have several of my favouritve transformers both loose and AFA'd. The AFA ones are out on display in the lounge (my partner actually likes these) while most loose ones sit on display shelves in the computer room or in boxes.

For buying on ebay I would say never ever use a buy now on an AFA item these prices are totally insane.

[Skullcruncher]

Some threads worth reading on this topic:

http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showth...927#post113927
http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=8375

Personally I think AFA grading is bizarre. Putting a toy in an acrylic box so it's never played with is like owning a car you never intend to drive. It takes something from fulfilling its intended function to being a commodity.

So your saying car museums are bad too? I know several people who have cars they only take out once or twice a year then cover it back up in the garage! They pay registration and insurance on them too.

[Vector Prime]

Personally I think AFA grading is bizarre. Putting a toy in an acrylic box so it's never played with is like owning a car you never intend to drive. It takes something from fulfilling its intended function to being a commodity.

But what if you already own another similar 'car' that you can play with?

I personally don't see anything wrong with encasing toys in sealed plastic, particularly vintage toys - if there was a desire to play with it, I suppose you could always buy a used/well-loved example to play with to your heart's content and leave your pristine one exactly that, pristine.

I don't collect any G1 but lately have been wanting to add two particular figures to my collection (original post here) and the attraction of AFA graded stuff is very appealing to me for the fact that I don't ever intend on opening it up and playing with them.

They're purely a nostalgia trip for me and the way I see it, having it AFA graded and sealed will help to preserve my childhood memories of these two toys for the rest of my lifetime (hopefully).

Putting a 20 year old sealed toy in a case to give it the best chance to last another 20 years is all good in my books. Though Grading a loose transformer I find odd.

I totally agree with that point - it's all about preservation, whether it's due to sentimental or monetary value, it just helps it to last another generation.

[janda the red]

some interesting points you guys have made....

i'm not really the sort of collector that opens up his stuff though, so sealing something doesn't really bother me. i do however, like to have things on display....but 99% of the time, its displayed as i bought it....unopened.

it's funny though......my wife and i have this constant debate going about opening or not opening toys. she's rather vocal about the fact "toys are meant to be played with" while i'll always retort with "its art as it is.....dont touch it" opposites attract i guess.

@ sky: cheers for the links. informative threads mate. i like your commodity comment, dont know if i agree with you.....but you made me think alot more about it. ( my wife agree's with you.....lol )

@ skullcruncher: i like the idea of a couple of AFA'd figures on display in the lounge room... means they get to look awesome on the mantle piece, and wont take any wear and tear to the packaging.

@ vektorprime: a nostalgia trip.... man! thats the whole reason i buy toys, it makes me feel like when i was a kid again, except now i'm really anal and dont open things. lol

thanks everybody for taking the time to post

janda

[GoktimusPrime]

Personally I think AFA grading is bizarre. Putting a toy in an acrylic box so it's never played with is like owning a car you never intend to drive. It takes something from fulfilling its intended function to being a commodity.

I completely agree with this. Toys are meant to be played with... buying a toy and not playing with it makes about as much sense to me as buying a book and never reading it, or buying a car and never driving it.

So your saying car museums are bad too? I know several people who have cars they only take out once or twice a year then cover it back up in the garage! They pay registration and insurance on them too.

Yeah I find that bizarre too personally. But I know it happens. My dad recently purchased a 20 year old Lexus Soarer that's almost never been driven. The original owner imported it from Japan and just kept it in his garage for 2 decades. Now from my dad's POV it's great because he's getting what he considers a classic sports car in near mint condition... but if that were my car, there's no way I'd keep it sitting in my garage for that long. I'd definitely drive it.

i'm not really the sort of collector that opens up his stuff though, so sealing something doesn't really bother me. i do however, like to have things on display....but 99% of the time, its displayed as i bought it....unopened.

To me - and this is just my own subjective opinion - that makes it look more like a collection of stock rather than a "toy collection."

Also... playing with toys is just a lot of fun! Keeping my toys sealed would just be... dull. What do you do with them? Just look at them?

it's funny though......my wife and i have this constant debate going about opening or not opening toys. she's rather vocal about the fact "toys are meant to be played with" while i'll always retort with "its art as it is.....dont touch it" opposites attract i guess.

I completely agree with your wife. They are toys, for which their primary function is to be played with. A large part of the appeal of Transformer toys to me is marvelling at the engineering by transforming it from robot to alt mode(s) and back... then of course, doing all the voices and sound effects and making stories and totally losing myself in the fantasy as I play with them.

My favourite Einstein quote has always been, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

a nostalgia trip.... man! thats the whole reason i buy toys, it makes me feel like when i was a kid again, except now i'm really anal and dont open things. lol

Just my opinion, but I personally wouldn't start building a collection of toys that I didn't play with as a child. The only reason I have a G1 collection was because I started collecting in 1984 and most of my collection was obtained during the 1980s and 90s.

When I pick up one of my G1 toys, I have a lot of childhood memories associated with that toy. For example, I won G1 Battletrap as a competition prize - and I remember the morning when the postman arrived to give the toy to me, I was buzzing with excitement I just had to bring the toy to school where I secretly (i.e. didn't let the teachers see me) played with it during morning assembly. Now if I got another Battletrap, say in better condition than mine - it would hold NONE of those memories and thus wouldn't have special meaning for me. A few years ago I was burgled and my G1 Optimus Prime (1984), Megatron, Galvatron and Ultra Magnus were stolen (because they were loose in box, my far more valuable convention and eHobby exclusives which were loose were untouched). Now shortly after the burglary someone kindly gave me another Optimus Prime for free. While I'm very grateful to have this toy, it does NOT hold any of my childhood memories... so I really can't love this toy that way I love my other G1s.

And that's kinda like the relationship I have with my G1 collection... similar to Andy in Toy Story with his toys... they're my childhood "buddies", and it's only because they are the toys I grew up with.

Let me put it this way, I liked watching Centurions as a kid, and I played with a few other children's Centurions toys and liked them, but I never owned any as a child. Thus I would personally never start collecting Centurions for the sake of regaining nostalgia, because I'd look at these toys and while they might remind me of my childhood, the toys themselves don't hold my childhood memories. I'd happily look at someone else's Centurion toy -- I enjoyed looking at a lot of 80s retro stuff at the Powerhouse Museum's "The 80s Are Back" exhibit, but none of those particular items hold memories for me.

To infinity... ...and beyond!

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Anyway, if you really want to preserve your sealed toys (though if I were you I'd totally bust them open! ), is it really worth paying AFA to put them in a case? Couldn't you just get a display unit and just put them there for display like a museum? The Powerhouse Museum has a MISB 1984 Optimus Prime on display and it's just in a regular museum display case - there's no plastic case around it as well. If you have display units then I'm not sure what the point of having them sealed in an additional plastic case would do. And do you need to pay someone else to tell you what "condition" a toy is in? Just inspect the box for yourself - if you find it satisfactory, then get it and display it, if not then don't. <shrug>

[Gutsman Heavy]

Goki raises a good point, why pay for grading? Is their opinion worth more than your own?