AFA Scandal

[Anfield Fox]

Not comics but AFA (Action Figure Authority) looks like it's been caught up in an Ewert type scandal.

 

25,000 Vintage Star Wars cards from the UK and Germany being passed off as originals. The vinyl cape Jawa for example on a UK card is a $15,000 figure that and it might be fake (didn't read all of it).

 

http://www.rebelscum.com/story/front/eBay_Today_1389_A_Warning_About_Well_Done_Fake_Palitoy_General_Mills_Carded_Figures_155841.asp

 

Vinyl Cape Jawa UK card

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24611261

[mrmyst]

[NinjaSealed]

Wow. Thanks for the read.

[retrothecollector]

Nice find. Those vintage figures are serious. Thank god I got out of it.

[ItsJustRyan]

Wow... that blows if the story it legit

[Pete Marino]

I read a bunch of it. I don't think the big deal is that there are fakes... it's the size and scale of the forgery.

 

Apparently this guy (toy tony) is one of the largest sources of Mint / NIB SW figures, and has been for years.

 

Imagine if we found out 40% of the AF1's above 4.0 might be franken books, with fake covers and bleached interiors.

[thunsicker]

I read a bunch of it. I don't think the big deal is that there are fakes... it's the size and scale of the forgery.

 

Apparently this guy (toy tony) is one of the largest sources of Mint / NIB SW figures, and has been for years.

 

Imagine if we found out 40% of the AF1's above 4.0 might be franken books, with fake covers and bleached interiors.

 

So not being a toy collector is this the right comparison? Are Palitoy and German General Mills the equivalent of AF15's? Or is this a smaller niche of the market. I think the better comparison is indeed with the Ewert scandal where it was a smaller part of the market, but it directly affected the grading company that was verifying that the items were indeed original.

 

EDIT: It's actually fascinating reading. I can see lots of analogues of our boardies over there.

[Ares]

Calling Comicwiz... Calling Comicwiz

[Dr. Balls]

" The claim is that authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used. They would be identical in all respects to a legit carded figure, except that they were assembled years later by someone other than the manufacturer. That is why many of these have or have likely made it past AFA. There's just no way to "date" when the bubble was attached to the card."

 

I would imagine proof of this could would do irreparable damage to that hobby.

[joecgcmaniac]

" The claim is that authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used. They would be identical in all respects to a legit carded figure, except that they were assembled years later by someone other than the manufacturer. That is why many of these have or have likely made it past AFA. There's just no way to "date" when the bubble was attached to the card."

 

I would imagine proof of this could would do irreparable damage to that hobby.

 

+1

 

Thank goodness I never wanted to collect the original carded figures.

[Shaven Kev-migration]

Someday it would be fun to put together a loose set...I'd even be ok with replacement guns to keep costs down.

[shadroch]

authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used.

 

I don't get it. If everything is 100% authentic, and was even assembled on the same equipment - then how are they fake? If the only thing that matters is when the bubble is attached to the card, that is just absurd.

[Mr 9.8]

authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used.

 

I don't get it. If everything is 100% authentic, and was even assembled on the same equipment - then how are they fake? If the only thing that matters is when the bubble is attached to the card, that is just absurd.

+1.

[Dr. Balls]

authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used.

 

I don't get it. If everything is 100% authentic, and was even assembled on the same equipment - then how are they fake? If the only thing that matters is when the bubble is attached to the card, that is just absurd.

 

I think date/era of manufacture is probably pretty important in something like this. If someone found a stack of discarded AF15 signature sheets from the first print run and a box of vintage staples, I'm sure it would rock the community to find out that someone put them together and sold these as AF15s.

 

Yes, they would be "real" but would you want to gamble a $10k investment on the fact that it might not be percieved as real by collectors, because it wasn't distributed into the wild like all the other AF15s? Part of the rarity in high grade/high value items is that there aren't many that have survived decades of handling. That goes out the window when you can just make one up anytime you want.

 

Even if it were considered "real", it'd have to have an astrisk by it (because there is a perceptable difference between both collectibles), and baseball fans know what that does to things.

[Gunnz]

, inauthentically authentic!

 

Buy today in "like new\actually new" condition!

 

....i don't get it....

[ComicConnoisseur]

authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used.

 

I don't get it. If everything is 100% authentic, and was even assembled on the same equipment - then how are they fake? If the only thing that matters is when the bubble is attached to the card, that is just absurd.

 

I think date/era of manufacture is probably pretty important in something like this. If someone found a stack of discarded AF15 signature sheets from the first print run and a box of vintage staples, I'm sure it would rock the community to find out that someone put them together and sold these as AF15s.

 

Yes, they would be "real" but would you want to gamble a $10k investment on the fact that it might not be percieved as real by collectors, because it wasn't distributed into the wild like all the other AF15s? Part of the rarity in high grade/high value items is that there aren't many that have survived decades of handling. That goes out the window when you can just make one up anytime you want.

 

Even if it were considered "real", it'd have to have an astrisk by it (because there is a perceptable difference between both collectibles), and baseball fans know what that does to things.

Kind of reminds of the PSA baseball card scandal where Bill Mastro Pleads Guilty to trimming the Famous T206 Honus Wagner Card that PSA graded as not trimmed!

PSA,the Honus Wagner and Bill Mastro.

[THE_BEYONDER]

authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used.

 

I don't get it. If everything is 100% authentic, and was even assembled on the same equipment - then how are they fake? If the only thing that matters is when the bubble is attached to the card, that is just absurd.

 

[Point Five]

authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used.

 

I don't get it. If everything is 100% authentic, and was even assembled on the same equipment - then how are they fake? If the only thing that matters is when the bubble is attached to the card, that is just absurd.

Well, if vintage comic covers were married to coverless books and comic collectors paid top dollar for them without knowing that info, you better believe they'd be unhappy.

 

 

[joecgcmaniac]

authentic unused cardbacks, authentic unused bubbles and authentic mint figures were taken to a factory and assembled, perhaps using the same equipment the manufacturer would have used.

 

I don't get it. If everything is 100% authentic, and was even assembled on the same equipment - then how are they fake? If the only thing that matters is when the bubble is attached to the card, that is just absurd.

 

 

As a collector and former shop owner, you should know that that isn't true.

 

So by your line of thinking, it would be okay to take pieces of a comic from different sources, put it together using the original machines, and sell it as authentic?

 

 

[shadroch]

If someone were to discover tens of thousands of unused Marvel covers, tens of thousands of non-distributed Marvel comics that never had covers or staples, and put them together using vintage staples, I would consider them authentic. Marrying an unused cover to a book that had previously had a cover is not nearly the same thing.

To me, when the items were made is much more important than when they were assembled. If all the parts are authentic, I don't see how the sum of it can be fake.