Why Use AFA

Peace of Mind for Buyers

Today's collector has seen a huge rise in sight-unseen purchases. The growth of the internet has opened the door to a wider selection of items, but it is difficult to know exactly what you're getting until it arrives. A seller can describe that an item is 9 in his opinion, but once you've purchased and received it, you realize that to you the item looks more like a 7.5. Even if the seller is willing to accept a return of the item, you're out shipping and insurance charges and you're left feeling disappointed, having invested your time and effort towards finding something you're truly happy with. AFA confronts this dilemma head-on by standardizing a grading scale by which to rate an items condition, as well as to define specific characteristics.

AFA also serves as an added assurance of Authenticity. Counterfeiters exist in any collectible market where money is involved. The collectible toy market is no exception. Dishonest sellers attempt to deliberately alter or counterfeit items for monetary gain. With today's advanced computer and printer technology, counterfeiters now have the ability to create high quality reproductions designed to mislead collectors. While its not always easy to spot forgeries or other signs of tampering, the graders at AFA are highly trained experts when it comes to detecting counterfeits and restoration.

AFA grading helps provide confidence and peace of mind. Any AFA-graded item has been thoroughly inspected by multiple experts for signs of restoration, and once verified as original, assigned a specific grade. This gives buyers an extra sense of security and greatly increases the odds that they will be happy with their purchase.

Higher Resale Value for Sellers

Sellers often notice a dramatic increase in retail value once an item has been graded by AFA. Our featured eBay Spotlight section provides examples of the power of AFA-grading and increased market demand for AFA-graded items. Buyers trust AFA-graded items for a multitude of reasons, only a few of which are listed above. In addition, because buyers have a better idea of what to expect, they tend to return AFA-graded items far less frequently than ungraded items.

Improved Display Quality

AFA uses only the finest quality acrylic and materials when casing all items. Every acrylic case is fabricated on-site at AFA by an acrylic team headed by a master acrylic craftsman with over 20 years of experience at the craft. All of our cases are carefully polished along every edge and designed to best display your collectible items. Even irregular shaped items can be graded and cased under our custom tier, and catalog mailers can even be cased with contents on display in different case compartments. Once you've got a few AFA-graded items, it will no doubt become evident that a collection of AFA-graded collectibles will truly display like a step above the rest.

Preserves the Condition of your Toys

Once an item has been graded, it is carefully secured inside one of our durable acrylic cases. It is then sealed to prevent all contact, leaving only an extremely thin seam to allow airflow. Once protected inside its case, an item is much more likely to stay in the same condition as when it was graded. It can no longer be touched by human hands, and the high quality acrylic case is designed to prevent additional creases, bubble dings, and other damage.

All of these reasons make the cost of AFA grading minimal when compared to the Benefits!