How do us as collectors grade figures?

[TheDirtyDigger]

I find the so called grading system to be inconsistant and vague. All I want to know is, tight joints yes or no. Rusty screws yes or no. Yellowing plastic yes or no, chrome wear if so how bad. Paint chips, plastic wear etc.

I agree with this.

[1orion2many]

Grading is very ambiguous as demonstrated when you buy things off ebay. The variation with an honest person I find with my opinion isn't that great but the dishonest dealer can really stray off the mark and only take pics showing the item so the faults are hidden. C10 is a straight forward pristine condition like new but anything below that can vary. I in general don't grade my items as such I'm just happy if they are complete with no sun damage or chrome wear, after that I can always get replacement stickers if needed on quite a few figures nowadays.

[kup]

On Ebay everything is a C8 or above even if it has no accessories and sometimes missing limbs!

It's common to read descriptions like this: "It has worn chrome, chipped paint and no accessories but its otherwise in C8 condition."

Of course sometimes they don't even offer a description and just dump you with a 'As pictured - C8'

[GoktimusPrime]

haha, yeah so true. It's like saying that my entire collection is C10, except for all the flaws, fading, damage, missing accessories, worn stickers etc. Ignoring all that they're in pristine mint condition!

In my personal TF collection spreadsheet I have one column for condition and I just have MOSC, MISB, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor. That's it.

[blackoptimus]

On Ebay everything is a C8 or above even if it has no accessories and sometimes missing limbs!

It's common to read descriptions like this: "It has worn chrome, chipped paint and no accessories but its otherwise in C8 condition."

Of course sometimes they don't even offer a description and just dump you with a 'As pictured - C8'

I made my self a policy, All screws and pins intact with no rust. Not a repaired figure, Clean and crispy condition, no paint chips and overall C8.5+.

[GoktimusPrime]

Meh... toys are for playing with and they'll eventually sustain some damage. Wounds of war to be worn with pride!

[kup]

I made my self a policy, All screws and pins intact with no rust. Not a repaired figure, Clean and crispy condition, no paint chips and overall C8.5+.

I am sure that will eventually change just like no reprolabels and must have paperwork.

Dude, if you are going to collect loose vintage toys you have to learn to compromise and be flexible about it by balancing out acceptable level of condition, rarity or level of completeness. If you don't then you will constantly find yourself breaking your self imposed rules unless you are only buying MISB or MISC toys.

Example: A Dreadwind and Darkwing set complete and loose costs a large amount of money or a freaking fortune if in box with all paperwork and flawless stickers. What I did: I bought Darkwing and Dreadwind with powermasters but no weapons for very cheap. Later on I secured the set weapons because I knew that it was possible to do so as I did my research and had foresight.

Overall I paid like less than half of the usual going price of a complete Dreadwind and Darkwing set by being flexible, knowing how to compromise and be smart about it otherwise I would have passed on a great opportunities and ended up paying $200-$250 for a set.

Another example of a good compromise I made is Horri-bull, the bastard goes for like US$150 for a complete piece. I got mine for $30. Why? It had a repaired Bull neck which is hardly noticeable. I also got Bumblejumper for like $30 (typical cost over $100) because he had rusted wheels which I was able to fix.

You have to learn to be flexible about collecting loose figures based on rarity and market cost otherwise you will miss out on a lot of opportunities in your collecting. Don't make predefined rules to judge all figures you get but judge each individual piece by its own merits based on the factors mentioned. Another thing to take into consideration is that realistically, second hand toys are not going to be flawless unless they are sealed in box/card.

Personally, the condition of a figure only affects me if there is something broken off or missing. I can deal with repaired, cracked, rusted or discolored as that you can work with since the figure is otherwise intact.

[GoktimusPrime]

...unless he's willing to pay through the nose for all those perfect mint complete G1 toys with tech spec decoders. He's gonna need a high paying job for that so he might wanna start now (places like Maccas, Dominos etc. will hire kids his age) and aim to get into a high paying profession.

[blackoptimus]

I buy complete toys now, I gave up the all paperwork thingy because it's all easily found at tfland.com so yeah.