I have thought of an instance where the u grade can surely be justified: imagine this, the figure is still inside the bubble, bubble firmly attached to card, however, someone has cut along the perimeter of the bubble where it is attached to the card, therefore YoY are left with a very small card and bubble, the card size is only the size of the bubble. In this instance, the u grade can surely be justified.

No

NO, people collect cut cards. People 'justify' U grades many ways- around here it is just NO.

But what if the card is only the size of the bubble? Meaning 2 inch by 4inch?

What if this is all that is attached to be bubble??

I know what a 'cut card' is.  Some ( a small portion ) are Kenner employee store items, others were Christmas stocking fillers etc.  It is NEVER OK to destroy an item that exists in finite quantities.  As I said people collect & preserve them.


Opening them with some justification like " I get a mint figure " is idiotic because the back of the figure may have factory damage- simply search google for examples of U75 figures proving my point.  If opening cut cards is OK- people will just cut up MOCs to then send in for grading.  We do not condone opening of anything- cut cards, baggies, lower quality MOCs- nothing, never, ever.

That is an eye opener... of collection of cut cards. Thanks for the info!!

Glad everyone chimed in with a resounding "NO"

Destroying cut cards also denies focus collectors the chance to have something else unique in their collections. A cut card might not look or mean anything to you but to many it's still a piece of collectable history and to destroy it just to entomb it in sealed acrylic with a U grade means another piece of history is lost forever.

This has been an interesting thread to read and reflect on different positions.

While I never had an item opened to get a U grade, I have bought U graded figures (potentially promoting this practice).  I have also removed figures from damaged cards (not cut cards) to keep the "mint figure" for my own personal collection.  I hadn't considered that removing a figure from a damaged card could still be impacting the limited supply and other collectors.

not so mint

Heavy Artillery wrote:

This has been an interesting thread to read and reflect on different positions.

While I never had an item opened to get a U grade, I have bought U graded figures (potentially promoting this practice).  I have also removed figures from damaged cards (not cut cards) to keep the "mint figure" for my own personal collection.  I hadn't considered that removing a figure from a damaged card could still be impacting the limited supply and other collectors.

i opened a figure once , when i was much younger and naive . theres wasnt even grading when i did it . it was my kea moll figure . it was on a beauty of a card . didnt matter to me back then it was going for the same as a loose example . it was the last droids figure i needed and i opened her and stuck her in my collection . i would never do it today but it was probably 20 to 25 years ago . also i would never do it to get a U grade .

markseowlichang wrote:

I have thought of an instance where the u grade can surely be justified: imagine this, the figure is still inside the bubble, bubble firmly attached to card, however, someone has cut along the perimeter of the bubble where it is attached to the card, therefore YoY are left with a very small card and bubble, the card size is only the size of the bubble. In this instance, the u grade can surely be justified.

No

hellhippie wrote:

i opened a figure once , when i was much younger and naive . theres wasnt even grading when i did it .

Same here.. in fact as a child back in the late 70's & right up until the mid 80's, I opened up all of my Star Wars toys & actually played with them.. I must of been crazy 

Thundershot and I had the same thought. I opened one once also........somewhere around 1985ish and it was wicket the baddest ewok/bear to ever come face to face with my hand-me down figures and gi joe figures I had.

Also Andy good to see you back on here.

trappedtexan wrote:

wicket the baddest ewok/bear to ever come face to face with my hand-me down figures and gi joe figures

Sure was...

HA HA HA did you already have that or just run out and make that pic? That is awesome.

Thanks,
I took that one many years ago back when I used to have fun with my toys..

great photo

So, to those who collect carded figures, what are you folks planning to do when bubbles eventually yellow so badly that you can no longer see the figures inside their packaging?

Thundershot wrote:

So, to those who collect carded figures, what are you folks planning to do when bubbles eventually yellow so badly that you can no longer see the figures inside their packaging?
 

Well, there is nothing to say that will happen to every carded figure and that it will happen within our lifetime.

That said, I'll do what I do now, which is look at them and admire them. I'm not going to worry about something i have no control over