AFA certification

[AlternateUniverse Steeler]

Most of my AFA stuff is stuff i bought on ebay, not submitted myself. I have received some steals by bidding at last minute. Most AFA stuff i get is $30 or less, so cheaper than AFA process in most Cases.

[TheReverend]

Most of my AFA stuff is stuff i bought on ebay, not submitted myself. I have received some steals by bidding at last minute. Most AFA stuff i get is $30 or less, so cheaper than AFA process in most Cases.

Yeah I’ve seen AFA stuff sell on eBay for less then it looks like the AFA process would cost to grade, in the past. So, how does that work for the Seller?

Does someone (or some company, or entity. er whoever is getting them graded) send in so much stuff at one time that they get a big discount on the grading, and are then able to sell the stuff for less?

Or are people just taking a hit on some items and trying to recoup their money later on on other higher end MOC/MIB AFA items?

Or??

I’ve wounded about that in the past, so if someone knows – I’d love the lowdown

[thunt4]

They have sales from time to time. I know if you are a business and are going to submit so many per month they give you a discount but I am not sure how much. For someone sending in 25 things I think they give you a dollar off on each. I would say they took a hit expecting it to go much higher. I guess they should have set a reserve on it.

[KrymsynGardImmoral]

The AFA market on post-85 figures seems to be pretty rough for the most part unless it is a popular figure. After the grading costs, there isn't much more to get out of a lot of figures, especially if they are graded 80 or below.

I was looking around last night, and I saw a ton of earlier figures with 80 and lower grades, mainly popular characters and pre-85 figures, and I was amazed at what they were going for. I really didn't think a 70 or 75 figure would be sellable, but there were some with hundreds of dollars in bids, much more than I would have expected. I won't post any until they end, but they should provide some interesting numbers. A good friend of mine maintains a scale of cash vs grade that I never really believed, but these auctions definitely show more of an interest and value for lower grades on older figures.

They do offer discounts for high-volume graders. I had once considered trying to get a pool of people together to try and qualify, but getting multiple people to pay for grading consistently as a group is tricky.

[bigjohnwoo]

AFA's volume discount is pitiful and ridiculous. At $1 off/item after 25 items, you're looking at spending $600-700 on grading in order to enable a 3% discount. It's hardly worth pooling a group together for.

Occasionally they offer discounts on gift certificate purchases. Like $120 gift certificate for $100. And on those instances, I'll buy the maximum allowed amount for my own redemption.

Generally, I see grading anything less than an 80 from pre-1986 or anything less than an 85 from 1986-1989 as a waste of money. And grading anything after that is totally unnecessary, as the MOC figures are barely worth more than a couple multiples of their loose counterparts. Just buy some empty acrylic cases if you want to display/protect them.