So i have been toying with the idea of having my I-gear PP03c Current graded by AFA. Since he is just this side of being a proto type i would like to preservie him as prestinly as possible. Has any one else had dealing with AFA grading regarding 3rd party/ loose masterpiece figures? Is it worth it to have a figure graded by them?
Do they grade forgeries, copies or trademark infringements? I buy some 3p stuff but at the end of the day, they are all copyright, trademark, intellectual theft to some degree by the manufacturer. Look at it this way. If you took your own picture of a an actual baseball player left the team logo offand superimposed it on a Topps card frame and backing and called it Potts and had all the stats, would it be graded by AFA, or any other system?. At the end of the day, as dumb as my example is, it's exactly what your wanting to do. Curious if they will accept it.
While your example makes some sense, it's still a bit of a false equivalence. What's missing from it is the fact that those "Potts" cards are actually bought and sold by the thousands from multiple, well-regarded retailers to many thousands of buyers. Despite the fact that "Potts"'s origins were a guy in a garage gluing cards together, now they have an established purchasing base of collectors spending (in some cases) thousands of dollars per year. Skimming over their submission form: http://www.cgagrading.com/serviceguide/SubmissionForm_Complete.pdf... it seems like you could submit almost anything that they could independently verify as an actual product. All they're grading is whether it's "genuine" and its "condition."
Wait are you referring to the 3rd party transformers or is there really a Potts trading card? If there is I made a mistake. I really don't collect cards so I should have made a different example, its the first that came to mind as a brand and then I reversed the letters. I think my point got across. If there is a potts card though, I some foggy memory of some litigation as a kid. Was this a family name or something but they got to continue to use it as long as they changed the typeset? If that's the case, I'm scaring myself with how good my childhood memory is. How do you grade genuine when it's a copy or a stunning likeness. Isn't that like grading a movabo as a genuine movabo and not a genuine Movado which is what I thought should be the test. Ultimately what determines if something is genuine. I would say it should be the original creator. Its sad to me if they do still grade 3p stuff. It cheapens the valur of having something graded imo.
No. There's no "Potts." I was modifying your example to make a point, which might now be irrelevant, because I didn't read the first post enough to realize that OP wants to grade a toy that is veeeeerrrrrryyyyyy close to a KO. Although, that being said, it's not exactly a KO. It is its own product, made by a real company, in a real line. Technically it should be accepted. Now if he was sending a KO and expecting them to grade it as a HasTak. That's the actual equivalent to your "Potts" example.
I see but I still think genuine should go back to the original creator. Takara made the seeker mold. Putting a name on a box and mass producing a repaint seems like a KO to me. So they would certify it's a genuine knock off? vs a crapy knock off an amateur like me could make in my garage? Just makes no sense. You have to draw the line somewhere to say what is genuine and I think the original creator should be that line for grading purposes. I just found it interesting but I guess you are right, the answer is they would probably grade it.
Thank you both for the input. After a little more researching i found some of the star wars boot leg uzay star figures that have been graded by afa so as long as its a boot leg it seems that they will grade it. I am curious to test this to see how this turns out with regards to the 3rd party transformers, as it seems the 3rd party market is a little bit more gray then an out right boot leg as long as its presented as 3rd party and not a KO.
Curious as to why go through the expense? Are you considering selling it in the future? Seems like a lot of work... I buy mp-scale transformers, and barring some horrific health issue or a return to the dark ages, I have no plans to sell them, so they are fine sitting on a shelf in my bedroom. I have toys 30 years old on the same shelves and they look as good now as they did 30 years ago, so I fully expect my Scoria and mp10 to age just as gracefully... I don't need afa to stamp them for my personal gratification. I'm not saying your wrong for looking into it, I'm just curious about reasons. That's all.
That's a fair question. I suppose two reason. First I am honestly curious if they would grade 3rd party. 2nd, would be to retain the value, if I every wanted to sell it. The figure in question is by far the most expense figure in my collection and given the rareity of him, I feel having him graded will add legitimacy to asking a hire price if I ever sell him. As of now I would never sell him, but life changes. I have collected figures for the better part of 25 years, and at one point I was a massive star wars collector. Now I have maybe 5 star wars figures,but I thought I would never sell of the collection. I find that thought I still love collecting my preferences change over time.
AFA grading kind of makes sense for things like MOC vintage Kenner Star Wars, where slight differences in preservation can mean a difference of price in the thousands. It makes no sense for something like a 3rd party TF and you will never make back the money you spent having it graded. The difference is that Kenner Star Wars figures have a huge cultural significance. A lot of people have nostalgia for going to a toy store as children and seeing them hanging on pegs. But since the figures were aimed at children, relatively few of the figures remained on the card or in good condition for all these years. 3rd party TF's have virtually no cultural significance and since they're aimed at adult collectors, a high percentage of the production run will remain in good condition for the foreseeable future. If people still want to buy them in 15 years, they will likely have little trouble finding a fairly pristine example. Even ones that have been opened can be replaced in their packaging, unlike Kenner Star Wars. So, financially, it's a bad move. As far as peace of mind and being assured of "pristineness", keep in mind that you're paying for someone's opinion and that person has probably never seen another example of the item you're trying to have graded. Why not just trust your own eyes for free? The last point is that AFA grading does not "lock in the freshness". Big deal, you have a pristine example of a brand new toy. If it's still that way in 10 years and there's a market for an AFA graded example, THEN you could consider it. But a million things can happen and many of them may be out of your control. The printing on the package could fade into illegibility. The figure inside could crumble to dust. It is just way too early in the game to even think about doing something like this.
