Author Topic: Everything Rebelscum  (Read 583206 times)

Offline Rob

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4140 on: December 22, 2013, 10:03 PM »
That is sad. Especially considering the amount they charge, you'd hope that would equal the quality of customer service. Guess not.

what do they charge on average for a 3 3/4" scale Star wars figure?

Offline GrandMoffNick

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4141 on: December 23, 2013, 07:28 AM »
That is sad. Especially considering the amount they charge, you'd hope that would equal the quality of customer service. Guess not.

what do they charge on average for a 3 3/4" scale Star wars figure?

It depends on what the value of the figure is.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4142 on: December 23, 2013, 08:25 AM »
I just can't feel bad for anyone that used AFA.  I've always thought sending figures away to be graded was pretentious.   I have a pretty large vintage collection,  but I don't grades on them to show ...what? How great they are?  How much nicer they are than someone else's?   It's a worthless concept IMHO.
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Offline GrandMoffNick

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4143 on: December 23, 2013, 09:22 AM »
I just can't feel bad for anyone that used AFA.  I've always thought sending figures away to be graded was pretentious.   I have a pretty large vintage collection,  but I don't grades on them to show ...what? How great they are?  How much nicer they are than someone else's?   It's a worthless concept IMHO.

What you are about to read is very "rambling", mostly me typing my thoughts so read on at your own peril.

These percentages won't make sense, but I agree with you 80%, disagree 10% and am 10% offended.
For the most part what you say makes sense. That being said I have never used AFA, but the attraction to me to it is, using the huge assumption that has clearly been blown to pieces, that AFA is an AUTHORITY, then when someone buys something, especially online, you don't have to hope the picture and the seller's description are accurate. You have a (so called) Authority saying this is what shape the item is in. That has nothing to do with feeling pretentious about my toy being better than yours.

Having said that, my reason for liking the IDEA of AFA doesn't actually work because to me the reason AFA is ruining the vintage market, and thus I actually think this whole scam that started this conversation is bad for Palitoy/German collectors but good for the majority of us vintage carded collectors, is take Brianstoys for example:

Back in the day you could go to the website (or catalog then) and had many overpriced, but still manageable carded vintage figures to choose from. Now anything in decent condition has been sent to AFA, so you get charged the AFA cost plus now we decide the toy is worth 2, 3 times what it was when we just agreed it was in good condition. That is why AFA sucks to me and has poisoned the collecting community. It just makes the price unreasonable because AFA said it's in near mint condition. You end up paying for a number printed on a sticker.

Not that I don't think there are pretentious people who want to say "I have an AFA 90 Luke 12 back and your ungraded one that only looks like an 80 should bow down to mine" out there, but I don't think that is why AFA is bad.

I call myself a "loose collector who keeps his stuff in the package", because I like the packaging and the fact it keeps the stuff together, but am not that concerned about it's condition. That doesn't stop me from liking the idea of what AFA could have been.

Ok, I think my rambling is over.

P.S. My collection would bow down to your collection any day and feel honored Justin.

« Last Edit: December 23, 2013, 09:43 AM by GrandMoffNick »
This is the water, and this is the well. Drink full, and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within

Offline JediJman

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4144 on: December 23, 2013, 09:44 AM »
I hear what you're saying and agree that it kills the value of the figure once you have to add in grading costs.  I'll pile on that it bothers me you can never remove the figure once graded, since you're immediately losing the value of the grading cost.  What if I want to display my figure differently?  SOL.  And I hadn't thought of the authentification aspect of what they offer.  From that persepective, which I agree has been blown out of the water, I can absolutely see the value in having some inspect your stuff to ensure that it is real and not a fake, reproduction, etc.  If that was all they did/offered, I would be all for it.  In fact, I might even use it if they could identify pieces through high res pictures or something low cost like that. 

But it still bothers me that they return your item in an acrylic case with some kind of score on it, as though you're playing "Fantasy Collector" and your 75 can be lorded over people with a 70.  Authentification is very different from grading/scoring in my opinion.  I get that it's some people's bag and if they want to pay for that service, then hey, it's their money.  I just have no use for it and I don't think anyone purposely sending figures off to get them "scored" deserves my pity.  Bah humbug.  :)
« Last Edit: December 24, 2013, 09:29 AM by JediJman »
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From this moment for all my life. What could I say? Was born to be this way. And what could I say?  Just livin' for today

Offline Rob

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4145 on: December 23, 2013, 10:40 AM »
I don't like that they open up vintage figures for U grades.

That's always struck me as blasphemous, even if they are usually ones that are pretty beat up.

Offline BillCable

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4146 on: December 23, 2013, 10:57 AM »
I don't like that they open up vintage figures for U grades.

That's always struck me as blasphemous, even if they are usually ones that are pretty beat up.

Agreed.  That's their worst sin.  Being grossly incompetent kinda pales in comparison.
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Offline Darby

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4147 on: December 23, 2013, 02:28 PM »
I've never understood AFA. I totally get using it as a defense against scams, but as has been pointed out, even this is not fail safe and all AFA really does is inflate the price. It also, for me at least, shines a giant light on the fact these are toys, and meant to be played with, or at the very least, degrade. Certainly they have a lot of value to us, sentimentally and financially, but it's turned something very special into something very base. It's not about the toy, it's meaning or value to you personally; it's about the grade. The $$$. That I don't like at all. If this event ends up steering people away from all that, great.

Offline Dan

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4148 on: December 24, 2013, 08:43 AM »
I understand their position with the disclaimers, but if you aren't paying them to stand behind their assessment, what are you paying them for? I agree that having a 3rd party evaluate a product to help determine condition has a place in any market where the parties don't interact personally and the purchase can't be inspected by the buyer prior to purchase. Their cost should include them taking some of the risk of errors. But AFA has now shown that their model does not provide any certainty anyhow.
Now to send them some absolutely mint kubrick logray figures for grading before they shut the doors.  >:D  (inside joke for kubie junkies)

Offline Rob

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4149 on: December 25, 2013, 02:11 PM »
I understand their position with the disclaimers, but if you aren't paying them to stand behind their assessment, what are you paying them for? I agree that having a 3rd party evaluate a product to help determine condition has a place in any market where the parties don't interact personally and the purchase can't be inspected by the buyer prior to purchase. Their cost should include them taking some of the risk of errors. But AFA has now shown that their model does not provide any certainty anyhow.
Now to send them some absolutely mint kubrick logray figures for grading before they shut the doors.  >:D  (inside joke for kubie junkies)

This has been obvious from day one.  What are you paying them for?  An acrylic case and an opinion.

They literally can't offer a guarantee or assume an liability, because the whole thing is a matter of opinion.   It's as subjective a thing as there is, and if they didn't have all the disclaimers alleviating themselves of responsibility for mistakes or differences of opinion, they wouldn't stay in business very long.  Something like this disaster with Toy Toni's fakes would certainly be enough to put them out of business if they could be sued for it.  Smartly, they covered their asses from the get go.

Offline GrandMoffNick

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4150 on: May 16, 2014, 07:49 AM »
Decided to check out the classified section on Rebelscum. Good God there are a lot of a holes on that site. Settle down people. I thought I could get over emotional over toys.
This is the water, and this is the well. Drink full, and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes, and dark within

Offline Rob

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4151 on: March 8, 2018, 12:31 PM »
Rebelscum seems to have updated their forum shell / software, and it sucks.

That's all.

Offline Muftak

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4152 on: March 8, 2018, 01:49 PM »
Rebelscum seems to have updated their forum shell / software, and it sucks.

That's all.

For some reason, their default PC interface is now the mobile version. If you go to the bottom of the list, you can select "full site" to change it back to normal.

Sometiimes it seems like there's no one at the wheel over there... ???

Offline Rob

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4153 on: March 8, 2018, 03:26 PM »
So that's just a temporary screw up, that's good at least.  I've never used the mobile version of their site so I had no idea.

Offline McMetal

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Re: Everything Rebelscum
« Reply #4154 on: March 7, 2019, 05:17 PM »
Sorry for not posting a link, but I just got finished reading a new article from Popular Mechanics about PW's stolen Rocket Fett and the ensuing criminal case against that Cunningham ******bag. Pretty interesting read, very comprehensive.

Pretty shameful that asshat never even served a single day in actual jail. IMO.

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