U Grade FAQ

Bloody hell what a bunch of school boys, pro's and cons. At the end of the day it wont stop and I do see both sides as some beaters are completely ruined BUT they are still vintage and great collectables. Me personally only go for MOC's and the rare occasion loose but will card them anyways lol.

People are never gonna stop doing this U grade stuff and yeah it's good to make everyone aware of the pro's and cons then they can decide for themselves but lets just save the ones we can and leave it at that ;-)

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Josh said:

I linked to it on SWCC for you Shawnie And of course, signed it

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Thanks everyone for the support. Also, thanks Josh for the link. Really appreciate it mate.

Let's at least show AFA how many collectors "Really Do Care"

That's me signed up as well. Unfortunately, I can't see it doing any good but it won't do any harm.

lets just all ignore U grades and not buy them, then the market hounds wont be able to make a profit so it wont happen.

And all the U grade fanatics might just go away......

I remember AFA when it first started. At that point they only graded Starting Line-up baseball figures. It was stupid then and it is stupid now. Just wish I would have came up with the idea back then to charge people money so I could tell them what they already new about the condition of their figures.

plantman said:

lets just all ignore U grades and not buy them, then the market hounds wont be able to make a profit so it wont happen.

And all the U grade fanatics might just go away......

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Agreed. I don't buy Ugrades and actually would never use AFA because of the UGrading tho i don't expect that to be everyone's choice. Not buying the Ugrades tho will help to stop the fad.
I don't know how anyone can stand them, they make me sad to look at.
Like owning a sin in a box...

PGowdy said:

plantman said:

lets just all ignore U grades and not buy them, then the market hounds wont be able to make a profit so it wont happen.

And all the U grade fanatics might just go away......

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Agreed. I don't but Ugrades and actually would never use AFA because of the UGrading tho i don't expect that to be everyone's choice. Not buying the Ugrades tho will help to stop the fad.
I don't know how anyone can stand them, they make me sad to look at.
Like owning a sin in a box...

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or a loose figure that is way over priced. :wink:

Indeed. It's idiotic. "But no human hands have ever touched it" (said in idiot kids voice)
Yes, except the half a dozen to a dozen people in the factory and the person who removed it from the packaging for grading. Yes, other than all those people, no one's ever touched it.

PGowdy said:

Indeed. It's idiotic. "But no human hands have ever touched it" (said in idiot kids voice)
Yes, except the half a dozen to a dozen people in the factory and the person who removed it from the packaging for grading. Yes, other than all those people, no one's ever touched it.

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:lol: :lol: :lol:

Does anyone ever remember spinal tap:

"look at this guitar, its never even been played!!!"
"can i touch it?"
"No"
"i wasn't going to touch it, i was just pointing at it."
"well don't point even."
"can i look at it?"

"no."

Uncirculated is a crazy idea that came from the coin an note collecting realm and it is really mad when you think of it??

Mint condition equals coins ----- but a good guitar which also have a few of, will get better with time and use (most of them) , but with everything else the shinier the better.
I have had some amazing guitars that were astethically ruined but sounded amazing.
The Eyes will tell you its worth a tenner and your ears a thousand.

I dont agree with U grading as its collectors adding value to their own collections to sell them to other collectors to add val,,,, you get the idea.
It is a vicious circle that is driving prices of loose up and no one needs it?? except traders or greedy f**kers who couldnt give flying f**k about the figures, or what they mean.

I dont mind beaters and played with lots, i find it sad to see a toy that has had no use, i know as a kid i had precious few star wars and almost no vehicles, cause we couldnt afford em, and to think there were boxes of "mint" figures lying around waiting for me to rip open when i was a kid would have drove me apeshit.

A question would it be ok to buy an moc and open it if you were going to play with it and get the opening experience you had every time you got one as a kid.??


:| Discuss

Ive opened a moc before for my own enjoyment, i loved it, ive still got the figure but it brought back memories

yeah,

if you collect for money then u grade is the way to get that , evil though it is.
Or if you collect as a keeper of museum grade one of every type thats cool.

but it think most folk do collect for the memories, and the memories of card backs consist of "wow,,riiiip, play, cardback thrown in drawer"

i am not advocating mass MOC destruction , as we are all older now, and play has become display, so naturally sealed items seem more "grown-up"

But it think the value of loose and thrashed figures is that they have some history,i cant remember who on here has the signature.
"i am a loose collector, because as a kid i didnt play with packaged toys"

that sums it up really.

hi i am not sure about this because i have a 2 or 3 u grades but i only had them done as u grades because the card were ripped off or the bubbles had been smashed but i love carded figures but i know that steve at uk grades will have a laugh at this i got a 4-lom on empire card total mint bubble best i have seen for a long time card as mint as poss but are you ready for this some little stupid **** had cut the 4-lom name out of the card i was almost sick when i saw this the only thing me and steve said was why

airjedijamie said:

hi i am not sure about this because i have a 2 or 3 u grades but i only had them done as u grades because the card were ripped off or the bubbles had been smashed but i love carded figures but i know that steve at uk grades will have a laugh at this i got a 4-lom on empire card total mint bubble best i have seen for a long time card as mint as poss but are you ready for this some little stupid **** had cut the 4-lom name out of the card i was almost sick when i saw this the only thing me and steve said was why

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For the free figure of course. :wink:

yes but why leave the figure on the card just find a mate who did not send away and cut the name from that
lol

In light of Tom's recent reply on the issue, I've made a few corrections/changes. Tom verified to me that no sw-c DT Luke baggies have been harmed because of the U grade, so I removed that example from the page. Also, because of inaccurate data in the population report, I have removed the numbers from last year. As of right, now I'm just keeping the overall totals of U graded figures, that were compiled by me in July.

Finally, I'm removing the petition from the site. I always meant for the article to be informative and in hindsight the petition detracted from that. I also feel that Tom has heard our voice and has expressed those concerns to CGA, which was the intent of the petition in the first place. I appreciate everyone who took the time to sign and shared their thoughts. It sounds like we might see some changes in the future and hopefully they address the concerns that have been expressed.

Please, still continue to share the article. AFA may have started the U grade, but the power to completely stop or slow it down is in the hands of the collector.

I wouldn't hold your breath about seeing changes. They want their barrel of cash and they'll happily continue destroying previously well preserved, antique, carded figures until there are none left. They do this because they have no vision, no wisdom and no respect for the preservation of the hobby. The continuance of UGrading will insure that eventually there are no MOCs left at all. This is a mathematical fact not an opinion. One has to stop before the other.
I can't imagine what makes someone want to UGrade. The figure on his card back is more "U" than one removed. The simplest of simpletons could work that out but while there is still a demand for this barbaric trend, the AFA will continue to aid it.




There. I've said my piece!... :evil: :lol:

Been talkin to Andy about this, and while I can see there is logic in Tom's claim that..... "Assigning an uncirculated designation was not designed to encourage more people to collect figures straight from packaging, but rather to help preserve a status when the fact that figures would be opened was inevitable."

There is the obvious flaw that, the U grade thing started a fad/trend (I'm prepared to give AFA the benefit of the doubt and say that WASN'T their intention, though the cynic in me isn't so sure) and AFA MUST have noticed the increase in the number, and the improvement in the quality, of MOC's that were being sent in for U grades.
The price premium that some people/idiots where prepared to pay for high end U graded figures WAS repsonsible for this. While AFA can claim, that they can't control the prices people are paying, they can't sit back and wash their hands of it all. They created the U grade and as such the fad that ultimately led to so many MOC's being destroyed.

Okay, I guess once that bubble has started there isn't a huge amount they can do to stop it. Stopping U grading won't bring back all the destroyed MOC's, or make U grade prices drop to sensible levels (possibly the opposite). But they must have seen that their idea to help protect MOC's by offering the U grade idea was at the same time leading to more MOC's being destroyed and thus some what counter productive.


Alternatively, they may only care about the money! :wink:


PS, 'm talking about AFA in genral here and not Tom personally.

Ohh and fair play to Tom for coming out and posting about U grades. Although, my god that was a long, and in parts horribly boring, post!

Saying it's not their fault it got out of hand while they are the sole providers and inventors of the service doesn't hold much water for me. Without them no one would Ugrade. It's like a gun shop claiming it's nothing to do with them that everyone in the neighbourhood keeps shooting each other whilst increasing their order for bullets to sell.

I could just about buy that in the beginning it wasn't their intention (but please see my comment about lack of vision and wisdom. it stands!) But once they saw that this service was destroying the hobby in it's pure form they should have removed it.

From their point of view, and they must know that UGrading has the potential to end the existence of MOCs, it'll take years, possibly a couple of decades before their UGrading service has damaged the hobby to the point of extinction but then they'll just move on to something else. It won't bother them one bit. It just hurts the collectors. It's win win for them.