TF Views

AFA Graded G-1 Transformers toys is the buyers market their for this?

Personally I do not think it is or ever will be. Sure a a few TF fans will buy anything at over inflated prices. but this is a extremely small 1% of TF buyers.

Transformers is unique as it currently has the majority of the 1984 to 1986 TF toys that either got G-2 Re-releases, G-1 Reissues and now to the extreme KO Reissues. The bulk of the fans are not willing to buy AFA Graded TF toys for a small fortune when they could buy a G-2 Version, reissue or KO Reissue for a fraction of the price.

Transformers is also different now that HasTak has been re-creating the bulk of the 1984 to 1987 TF toys in the forms of updated homage classics-generations-RTS-30th TF toys. A big chunk of old school veteran fans & newbies have given up on buying or wanting original 1980's TF toys. and have instead now opted to get brand new classics toys versions. needless to say it will be decades before CHUG buyers think it's even remotely worthwhile to AFA grade these newer CHUG toys.

I just think AFA Graded toys market is more their for Star trek,star wars and sports cards fans and less their for Transformers fans. Mostly due to the nature of the different fans and the different types of toys being catered to those fans.

With so many blatant KO G-1 Re-releases on the market all coming from China and nearby overseas countries/factories. It goes without saying that some of these guys are trying to sell this stuff as non-KO stuff. Some are even sending them off to AFA grading companies and fooling them into thinking they are real liscensed products. So for all buyers know they could be buying AFA graded KO TF Rereleases disguised as real liscensed original 1980's TF toys.

In this day & tech age. It is beyond easy for a crook to create his own photoshop or whatever his own self made AFA Graded stickers and sealed plastic see through cases. I've heard the online stores about how easy is to do this. so buyers being scamed by this could either be buying fakes or toys graded higher than what they really are.

Tigermegatron wrote:I just think AFA Graded toys market is more their for Star trek star wars and sports cards fans and less their for Transformers fans. Mostly due to the nature of the different fans and the different types of toys being catered to those fans.

LASTLY with so many blatant KO G-1 Re-releases on the market all coming from China and nearby overseas countries/factories. It goes without saying that some of these guys are trying to sell this stuff as non-KO stuff. Some are even sending them off to AFA grading companies and fooling them into thinking they are real liscensed products. So for all buyers know they could be buying AFA graded KO TF Rereleases disguised as real liscensed original 1980's TF toys.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST. In this day & tech age. It is beyond easy for a crook to create his own photo shoped or whatever self made AFA Graded stickers and sealed plastic see through cases. I've heard the online stores about how easy is to do this. so buyers being scamed by this could either be buying fakes or toys graded higher than what they really are.

There was a market a few years ago at the very least. I know this because one of the few shitstorms I've caused over at TFW was the whole "AFA/don't AFA" debate and that got pretty damned heated. So yes, there is actually a whole section of the fanbase that supports it.

But, I guarantee you're wrong about Star Trek. It's deader than disco at the moment and has been for a long time. I know this because I've been building my TNG bridge crew last year for next to nothing and those were all sealed copies. The most expensive figure I bought was a whopping $10. After shipping. So I guarantee you there isn't a Trek fan out there that would pay off the wall AFA prices for figures. Star Wars, maybe I don't really know. Collector cards (I didn't say "sports cards" because it's not just limited to sports anymore) would probably be a better market for this kind of thing since all you're doing is looking at it anyway. But, there are other organizations for grading those, just like the Comics Grading Authority, and the Video Game Grading Authority.

Also, there are significant differences in both packaging and the toys themselves between the "reissue" knock offs and the real G1 toys. Anyone at AFA who is knowledgable enough to be grading Transformers is going to know the difference (or at least, they should).

As for faking AFA grading, yeah I suppose it is thechnologically possible but if this was an actual thing that was happening we'd have heard of it happening and I've never seen any reports stating that it does. So possible but right now that's not a thing.

Anyway, in answer to the question, no I don't really think there's a market for AFA TFs anymore. I think most people that were willing to pay those kinds of prices either already have or are no longer financially able to do so.

I don't think there's a single figure in the last 30 years that AFA grading will help. The newest figure that I think will justify the expense of an AFA grading is a 1978-1985 Star Wars figure, a number of those hold value enough that there are notorious counterfeits and knock-off accessories (double-telescoping lightsabers on the '78 crew being a biggie, as well as J-hook Boba Fett modifications). You won't find a lot of G1 TF figures that go for thousands in packaged form. Scarcity and demand are what drive AFA value, and there simply aren't both halves of that equation for most toy lines from the '80s onward.

As for Encore and so on devaluing originals, while it's true that those do negatively impact the originals to a degree, all that does is weed out the rabble, the serious money is going to stick with the true authentics. KO and so forth will increase the value of the ultra rare pieces by creating a demand for authenticity.

When I see AFA-graded figures, generally I think A) the price is going to be insanely over the moon too high; and B) someone wasted money on this crap and will never see a return - doing a knockoff AFA will not help, because AFA will not enhance the majority of the sales, so wasting time faking that AFA will only lose you time and money.