How do us as collectors grade figures?

[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.

[TheHandsomeCrab]

The C-system is utterly worthless because 1) everyone makes up their own levels (like in this very thread - "C-9 MINT", I'm sorry, what? Nothing below C-10 should ever be called mint. Very few people in this fandom seem to understand what mint actually means), 2) When you get down to C-1 and C-2, what the hell is the difference? and 3) Nobody ever grades anything below C-7 anyway.

I use pretty much the same system as Gok in my own collection Spreadsheets (We're nearly as anally retentive as each other! Who'da thunk it?), with this Legend at the top of every worksheet:

MISB - Mint In Sealed Box
MIB - Mint In (unsealed) Box
MOSC - Mint On Sealed Card
M - Mint: Never transformed, flawless.
NM - Near Mint: Handled by a collector only, no signs of wear
E - Excellent: Slight signs of wear only
VG - Very Good: Mild wear to paint/stickers, no damage
G - Good: Shows mild to moderate signs of wear but unbroken
F - Fair: Moderately worn, may be damaged but not severely

My personal rules are no repro stickers or parts, original only. I don't give a damn if something's complete or not. With boxes/paperwork, they have to be in excellent condition - Nothing cut out, no rips, dents etc., maybe a slight flap crease if the flap stands straight but even then preferably not. With loose figures if it's not above VG (preferably E) I won't bother. The only time I make exceptions is if it's something exceptionally hard to find like a Diaclone/Pre-TF, Milton Bradley or Latin American release.

Edit: As an example, the red-faced Canadian Slag I picked up at BotCon (in-YOUR-endo) is only in Good condition at best, but do you have any idea how hard they are to get? Especially if you don't live in North America. Shut up Griffin it's not a bootleg goddamnit.