So I am not sure if this has been discussed before, but I was wondering if ARAH figures were ever release with promo items, but didn't have the promo sticker? By promo stickers I mean the special offers that would sometimes come with figures in their blisters - eg. Face Paint, Fridge offer, Triple-Win, Combat Pay, etc. I have seen many figures still sealed, MOC with the promo item in the blister, but no promo sticker. I am wondering if this is how they originally came or if this means someone removed the sticker at some point. Any thoughts?

Thx

I would think most figures with pack-ins had something on them, either printed or stickered, but i have seen a lot of the stickered ones removed, many in one place...

Plastic dreams had a HUGE collection back in 2004 (hundreds and hundreds of MOC figures, entire cases worth of MIB vehicles) that was from the original-
adult-collector-owner. The original collector took great pains to remove all the offers and price tags, anything that had any adhesive. As I remember, most of that collection had any price tags or offer stickers removed. He (the owner) also removed a lot of the tape that sealed the vehicle boxes shut, which ended up causing a lot of problems for people buying the items with the intent to AFA them.

This was one of the larger mass collections that showed up for sale in its entirety in the modern-internet collecting era, so i would not be surprised if a lot of those pieces could be out there floating around for sale and skewing some of the results you're looking for.

or what about the reverse: A MOC figure with the special offer label but missing the insert behind the figure.

Example: Triple Win Game Piece or Sgt. Slaughter offer


Does this mean someone has lifted the bubble slightly and removed the insert?


even if the insert is replaced, would AFA still accept a MOC figure with slight bubble lift?

or what about the reverse: A MOC figure with the special offer label but missing the insert behind the figure.

Example: Triple Win Game Piece or Sgt. Slaughter offer


Does this mean someone has lifted the bubble slightly and removed the insert?


even if the insert is replaced, would AFA still accept a MOC figure with slight bubble lift?

Offer/promo sticker with no insert would imply tampering and removal. I've seen lifts, slight cuts from the back of the card at the bubble line, and reseals. I doubt the toy grading "business" would grade one like that.

And as far as bubble lift, who knows what the graders would do- their heads are in cloud city half the time.

It’s always possible for a factory error to create a carded figure that has the promo sticker w/o the promo or the promo w/o the promo sticker. But even if it’s a legitimate error, without any tampering, factory errors generate no more value and in most cases are worth less.

Like Faker II, the "error" would not be worth more to me. It would be worth less.

If someone had intentionally removed the offer stickers from the face or a card, that would actually cause me to downgrade the figure, because it is no longer in its original condition. I don't care as much about the price stickers, but the offer stickers werea part of the history of the line.