AFA GRADED GI JOE Discussions

[thorn]

ok i think type s was trying to say most people get bac klower grades becasue they dont have as good a figrue as they think, and afa is grading them accordingly.

seperatley, you guys mention AFA and CC don't publicly ackonledge their connection, and at times deny it-
my question is how ad where d othey actually deny the relationship?
and if they do that, that seems MAjorly wrong.
how could it be corrected?????

[The Soft Master]

I just got my 20 back snow job back. They graded it at 80. i honesly thought is would get a lower score. I sent them a 20 back doc in the same condition (both bought from the same seller), if that gets an 80 at least we know they are consistant.

[Obiwanjacoby]

At the same time after many Toyfare exclusives that people had a hard time getting, they started offering AFA graded versions of their exclusives. So when you go to order a new Toyfare exclusive, you have the chance to spend 2x, 3x or more for an AFA graded version.

LOL! Now this I didn't know! That's so funny.

As for what you mentioned earlier about the bubbles on carded figures, I open alot of vintage MOC Joes (um. . .alot ), and the glue on the bubbles is always inconsistently applied.

For example, recently I pulled the bubble off a Python Officer card with 100%zero residue. It's like they hardly glued it at all. But OTOH, you get those ones that no matter how carefully you try to peel away the bubble (even with an exacto), it'll take half the cardstock with it and you get stuck with a paper thin filecard

So to sum up. . .if you really love your figures, you'll have to set them free!

-PJ

[dockingbay97]

ok i think type s was trying to say most people get bac klower grades becasue they dont have as good a figrue as they think, and afa is grading them accordingly.

seperatley, you guys mention AFA and CC don't publicly ackonledge their connection, and at times deny it-
my question is how ad where d othey actually deny the relationship?
and if they do that, that seems MAjorly wrong.
how could it be corrected?????

Tom Derby who once owned/ran Cloud City left CC to I believe his sister I think (another Derby at any rate) and came out and said that no person who owns CC also owns AFA. It has become a family affair now with different people owning different companies. Tom now owns a different toy business.

[TYPE*S*TOYS]

Tom Derby who once owned/ran Cloud City left CC to I believe his sister I think (another Derby at any rate) and came out and said that no person who owns CC also owns AFA. It has become a family affair now with different people owning different companies. Tom now owns a different toy business.

Was this a public statement from Tom Derby? If so where can it be found. Just curious.

[dockingbay97]

Was this a public statement from Tom Derby? If so where can it be found. Just curious.

Yes, go searching in the vintage forum on Rebelscum. There are several threads about this there.

[thorn]

oh i see dockingbay, that is a very sneaky way to do things.
VERY shady.

[keg_daddy]

Thanks dockinbay97 for the AFA/ Cloud City connection. I figured they had something in common, but when they beat around the bush (or lie) about something like this, it is very shady business practices.

I had a post a few months back stating that the AFA graded figures Cloud City were selling at that time were WAY overgraded. A couple people said yeah they were and a couple people said no they weren't. But yeah, having seen AFA figures in person it's not that tough to call the shot. Comparing my grades to those Cloud City had on auction it is easy to say Cloud City figures were overgraded (at the time). Yes, I believe that AFA gives the 'homefield advantage' to Cloud City. If it could go either way (an 80-85) AFA will give Cloud City the 85.

Did you guys catch the AFA Peach Filecard Storm Shadow Cloud City had up for 'buy it now'? What a joke! The card looked nice...but the figure...wow. The figure has slightly yellowed in parts (compare his calves/feet to his other body parts) and has dirt on two parts of his left leg. Somehow he still got an F80. And an overall of 85?! Hmmm...very suspicious. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

I also recently bought an AFA 85 unpunched Shipwreck. The card is next to perfect (C90). The bubble is next to perfect (B85), but had a little black speck on it, and the figure had a little brown dot above his mustache and the black speck on the bubble (85). I have no clue how this is not an overall of 90. When AFA packaged this card in their case, they damaged it slightly. They didn't put it in evenly and one part of the card is pushed against the side of the case making the edge of the card 'pushed' up and therefore very slightly bending it.

I want to have it re-graded...has anyone ever done that before? But I think it will stay the same or even be lowered to show how 'tough' AFA is at newly graded items. I would like to send them a letter with my graded Shipwreck asking how it didn't receive an overall of 90 and also asking them not to bend my card like they did last time when they re-case it.

I'm also curious if this AFA is a fly by the night company. When business begins to slow, will they pack it up and close? Or are they in this for the long run of 15+ years? They have already added about 4 extra things for vintage GIJOEs, they will run out of new things to do. They started with 'normal' casing, and in no particular order: grades on top of the card, UV protective cases, sub-grades, and stating the type of back/ filecard color. All in all I like AFA. I won't be buying any graded figures from Cloud City, unless it looks perfect. Like thunt4 said, it is nice knowing what you're going to get without having to go thru the headache of buying 4 of the same carded figure to finally find one that is as described in the auction.

[TYPE*S*TOYS]

Just checking to see if anyone has gotten any figures back recently from AFA and what grades you got. It will be nice if they ever post a population report.

[SteveB]

Maybe I missed it, but what do they charge to grade figures?