I've been working on this for a little while now and feel it is finally to the point where I can share it. However, it will probably go through a few more revisions, so if anyone has any ideas for additions/feedback, feel free to contact me.

I find the effects of the U grade sickening, as I know many others do, and when I did the actual number crunching I couldn't believe the results. I hope this will open some eyes to the situation. I'm not trying to bash the U collector, only to inform. It's what they do with that information that counts. I feel that with a web page on this issue I can reach out further to an audience that doesn't join in forum discussion. I hope to make a graphic that people can use in their auctions which they can use to link to the page.


Shawn's AFA FAQ

As we talked about for many months before you finally got it done this was very needed and I am so glad you took
the task on and handled it so well.

Great information and it needs to be out there, changing my RS sig line to this now!

Joe

Great job!!!!

It was all the great members here on TIG that got me away from buying and doing my own U Grading!!!!

Great work Shawn!

Hopefully the more people that read this will think twice about going down the U grade route or completely stop collecting U grades altogether!

It still baffles me why people pay the ridiculous prices that U grades go for to receive a figure in a tiny plastic coffin when you could buy the same figure loose in virtually the same condition for a fraction of the price! :scratch:

Well done Shawn, a great piece of information and research.
And fair play to Craig for allowing his story to be told.

I liked the answer against U-grading a beater MOC... giving the collector on a limited budget the chance to
own a moc... good answer!

I wondered though what happened to the original packaging like the actual baggies bags and cardbacks & bubbles?
Assume they get sent back to the person who has paid for the U-Grade?

Good work Shawn

Artoo_Detour wrote:

Well done Shawn, a great piece of information and research.
And fair play to Craig for allowing his story to be told.

I liked the answer against U-grading a beater MOC... giving the collector on a limited budget the chance to
own a moc... good answer!

I wondered though what happened to the original packaging like the actual baggies bags and cardbacks & bubbles?
Assume they get sent back to the person who has paid for the U-Grade?

Good work Shawn

Thanks on the comments and I'm glad it is being found as informative.

From what I understand the original packaging is sent back to the person who submitted the item for a U. I've seen cardbacks, boxes, etc available for sale after someone has submitted items to AFA.

One addition that I need to put is a special thanks at the bottom of the FAQ. Joe_O was the one who originally collected the data a year ago from the population report and Craig supplied me with the image of the SKU Luke jedi and permission to use his experience.

shocking numbers on that!

Didnt knew it would be that much figures

This is a fantastic piece of work Shawn its really informative and also provides solid figures as well

Have you posted this on RS?

If your ok with it i would like to add a link to this page on the mian TIG site i feel the more collectors that read this the better for the hobby

Cheers Jay

jaymassive619 wrote:

This is a fantastic piece of work Shawn its really informative and also provides solid figures as well

Have you posted this on RS?

If your ok with it i would like to add a link to this page on the main TIG site i feel the more collectors that read this the better for the hobby

Cheers Jay

Thanks Jay. Yes, I've posted it on both RS and SWF, so as many collectors as possible can see it.

That would be great to have a link on the TIG front page.

Nice work Shawn, thats a good bit of info mate.

Those numbers are shocking

shawn_k wrote:

jaymassive619 wrote:

This is a fantastic piece of work Shawn its really informative and also provides solid figures as well

Have you posted this on RS?

If your ok with it i would like to add a link to this page on the main TIG site i feel the more collectors that read this the better for the hobby

Cheers Jay

Thanks Jay. Yes, I've posted it on both RS and SWF, so as many collectors as possible can see it.

That would be great to have a link on the TIG front page.

No probs Shawn ill put an update about it on the main page

Ill check the RS thread later tonight as well

Jay

I have already given my personal congrats to Shawn but wanted thank him publically.

This is an awesome piece of factual research Shawn! A lot of hard work and thought has gone into this and I hope you get the best publicity for it possible. I will be updating my signiture to include the link to you website. Hopefully more guys will see what Damage U-grades are doing to the hobby and can make choice for the better.

Can I link your U grading piece to my web site as well????

Lets spread this bad boy like "Common Sense"!!!!!

coachk28 wrote:

Can I link your U grading piece to my web site as well????

Lets spread this bad boy like "Common Sense"!!!!!

Your more than welcome to James and that goes for anyone else too. I want this out there for everybody. Just maybe the data will help sway some collectors from the U side. I know this is a dream, but wouldn't it be great if it got to the point that there was no market for U's anymore and AFA shut that part of their service down.

shawn_k wrote:

coachk28 wrote:

Can I link your U grading piece to my web site as well????

Lets spread this bad boy like "Common Sense"!!!!!

Your more than welcome to James and that goes for anyone else too. I want this out there for everybody. Just maybe the data will help sway some collectors from the U side. I know this is a dream, but wouldn't it be great if it got to the point that there was no market for U's anymore and AFA shut that part of their service down.

Shawn, maybe even a petition signed by members across TIG, RS and SWF appealing to AFA to act responsibly for the good
of the hobby and closing down the U-grade service? Yes, maybe a dream in the face of profits - but a good way of being proactive against U-grade on the back of your research too.

AFA are fully aware of the hate of the U-grade across the majority of collectors. I know Joe sent a very well worded message to them and the reply was pretty much as long as people want it and pay for it they will keep doing it (which means get fucked we're money hungry cunts )

it`s truly amazing the quantity of figures send to get the U grade.... that`s just insane!!!! ..... I find out about this problem 2 years ago while looking for a Bagged sealed Blue snaggeltooth..... they are all gone ( well at least almost all of them!!!!) ......

You did it in a very nice way !!!!!

CONGRATS!!!

I still think there are more SW collectors than businessman!!!

You should create a BADGE like RS did for the "Collect to Collect".

Any collector who is Anti U Grading can post this Badge on their website or blog with a link to your article to help promote the cause.

RS Collect to Collect Link
http://www.rebelscum.com/collect.asp

Awesome post! I for one am a hugely anti-U grade collector, but not anti-AFA.

I agree!!!

Jetson wrote:

Awesome post! I for one am a hugely anti-U grade collector, but not anti-AFA.

Im the same Bro i have nothing wrong with all the other AFA Services inc CIB (although i dont use them much i do own a few graded MOC's) Its the destructive U Grade alone that is damaging the hobby at an alarming rate Shawns report backs this up with solid figures as well.

Merlin i liked you comment about collectors and businessmen in the hobby!

Jay

Hey Shawn,

I was showing a few friends your great post and noticed you can leave a comment at the bottom at the end of the write up.

Would it be possible to facilitate a petition which all collectors who are in support of your campaign can sign to support you?

I could see many people signing this! You could then present the petition to AFA in the hope it makes them revise their current view on freely opening a piece of history just to mark it as U-something.

Craig T wrote:

Hey Shawn,

I was showing a few friends your great post and noticed you can leave a comment at the bottom at the end of the write up.

Would it be possible to facilitate a petition which all collectors who are in support of your campaign can sign to support you?

I could see many people signing this! You could then present the petition to AFA in the hope it makes them revise their current view on freely opening a piece of history just to mark it as U-something.

Thanks for the idea Craig. Right now the comment system works for users that sign up for my site. I have looked into it though and there is a petition plugin for the site software that might allow the option for people to leave a comment without signing up. I'll look into it this weekend. I'm not really one for online petitions as they usually don't seem to go anywhere, but I would love to have comments from other collectors on there.

I've just added a new section to the bottom of the page linking to several of the discussions that have happened over the U grade over the last couple of years.

All I can do is applaud loudly for this initiative. I really hope people read this page with an open mind and realize they are really destroying the hobby on the long term (or at least very much limiting it) by submitting figures for U grade.

*applauds very loudly*

Excellent work.