I was wondering what experiences you all have had with AFA graded figures. If I buy a loose AFA graded Stormtrooper Luke figure, for example, will it have the correct solid black imperial blaster? Or if I buy a loose AFA Imperial Gunner, will it have the correct black endor blaster? Does AFA adhere to the weapon color strictly? Or does it just make sure the weapon is not repro?

Good question. There are documented cases of loose AFA graded figures coming with incorrect weapons & even repros!

So personally I wouldn't like to say as I'm not their biggest fan.

They let repros get through?!?! Oh geez. Well, then I guess they wouldn't be able to tell the difference in weapons between Kenner and Lili Ledy. That just shot my hopes in them. I kind of had that feeling, though.

I never could figure out why 85 was the best score they could give. Sometimes people get a 90 which I don't know how that happens. Why not make it a 100 point scale and give 100 for mint? The U85 never made sense. If it is right off a card (which I don't support), how is it not 100 if the figure doesn't have paint smudges?

Ah, well...

I wouldn't trust them with weapons, but then I wouldn't trust them with anything. They've been known to make errors with moc as well as loose figures.

Yeah as stated, they really don't even look over the accessories that well at all. I think it was Stefan who had a takara stormtrooper that did not have the correct blaster, as Paul showed there are numerous mislabeled figures, there is a thread on here about them mixing and matching a different ax for a gamorrean guard from the one sent (meaning they had hid ledy gammorean but put his ledy ax somewhere and just randomly replaced it with a kenner one). I cant remember where the thread about a repro weapon got past them, but I remember seeing it. :scratch: I am not a huge fan of AFA either and feel that 99 times out of 100 a loose collector is better without them. For loose figures, your basically paying for a label and it may not even be the right label. If you like the look of acrylic you can always buy some of the cases Iain and Christian sell from GW Acrylic. They aren't permanent closed so you can open the case and see the figure anytime you want, but they look great.

As others have said, yes they can not only get the wrong weapon but also repros. They are only human after all. Personally, my dislike of AFA and their U grading policies aside, I wouldn't bother with AFA loose figures. For the following reasons: You pay a premium (and in some cases a HUGE premium) for them and you still aren't guaranteed an original weapon. If you do happen to end up with a non AFA fig and its got the wrong weapon its pretty simple to remedy. Mint figures really aren't that difficult to find and again no AFA premium. Lastly a big bonus to buying non afa figures is that you will learn better how to identify repros. Which is invaluable. Just my 2 cents.

I don't think much of AFA either - for standard figures I think it's a huge waste of money .

I have only used them a few times myself and it was only to verify a few Vinyl Cape Jawa's and a DT Luke . Thanks to the information found on this site , I already knew they were authentic and luckily did not need AFA for that . I only sent them so they would be verified and incased in the tamper proof boxes so that I would feel safer selling them on ebay .

I also knew that my slightly rarer figures would be sent to Tom Derby to authenticate as well (by AFA) - Tom is a well known guy and I think he verifies a lot of the rarer stuff . Standard figures and weapons are not sent to anyone special and the people at AFA don't seem to care what weapon goes with what figure - your doing good if you don't have a repro authenticated by them

Trust me , there is more then enough information here and other sites that can help you identify real vs. repro yourself . There are plenty of seasoned collectors that are glad to help too if you still have a hard time but , with enough experience , you will have it figured out in no time . You certainly don't need AFA to do it for you and charge a arm and a leg - spend that cash on more stuff for your collection

beachboy19 wrote:

 Well, then I guess they wouldn't be able to tell the difference in weapons between Kenner and Lili Ledy.  

For the love of Yoda, absolutely DO NOT EVER trust AFA to tell the difference between Kenner and foreign variant weapons!

Especially keeping in mind with many foreign variants, the correct weapon is the majority of the value of the figure!

Getting burned because AFA was too lazy/ignorant to tell the difference and/or someone who knows that intentionally sent a common Kenner weapon in to get it AFA graded to add perceived legitimacy to help make a sale...really sucks.  

Find a trusted loose seller to buy it from.  It may take a while but your chances of getting the right weapon are exponentially increased.

As others have said there are too many examples of mistakes. Now AFA grade 1000s of figures and the % of error is very, very small ( I would almost say acceptable error margin ) As for black Luke stormie weapon- do NOT trust them.

Thanks for the replies. BTW, what happened? AFA has this message on the front page now:

"Effective immediately due to unforeseen circumstances, Collectible Investment Brokerage (CIB) will be unable to provide services through AFA until further notice.
We appreciate the expertise and service that CIB provides to the collecting community through AFA, and we ask for all of our customers to respect Mr. Derby's privacy and his family's privacy during this hiatus."

beachboy19 wrote:

Thanks for the replies.  BTW, what happened?  AFA has this message on the front page now:

"Effective immediately due to unforeseen circumstances, Collectible Investment Brokerage (CIB) will be unable to provide services through AFA until further notice.
We appreciate the expertise and service that CIB provides to the collecting community through AFA, and we ask for all of our customers to respect Mr. Derby's privacy and his family's privacy during this hiatus."

Don't know, hope it's nothing bad. It's the same message on Die Cast Authority and Video Game Authority.

I'm about to shatter my two AFA cases to get the figures out by the looks of this info.