Figure Purchase lingo?

I've been scanning Ebay, not buying. But I see some listing with lingo like.... No COO.
I'm honestly a N00b and would like to know if there's a wiki with what these acronyms mean. LOL
Any insight would rock, thanks!

I got this from another site awhile ago for the terminology as I wasn't sure what it all ment either

Star Wars collecting Terminology:

When collecting Star Wars you will inevitably come across some abbreviations or terms that you may not recognize. Below is a list of common ones you should learn. Some are easy to figure out and others not so much.

Vintage - In the Star Wars collecting world, Vintage refers to items produced between 1977-85 and does not include stuff from the 1990s

ANH - A New Hope

ESB - Empire Strikes Back

ROTJ - Return of the Jedi

POTF - Power of the Force

MISB - Mint in Sealed Box

MOC - Mint on Card

MISB - Mint in Sealed Box

MIB - Mint in Box

NOS - New Old Stock

POP - Proof of Purchase

DT - Double Telescoping, this refers to the two piece light sabers for the action figures of Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker (These figures can go for a premium, thousands of dollars)

COO - Country of Origin, where the toy was made. Acceptable COOs:

Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, China, No COO

Wait, isn't Hong Kong in China? Yes, but it was under British control until the late 1990s.

Mexico can also be a COO, but this should only be seen on some toys. For example: card-backs, vehicles, preschool figures... It will not be on any of the 3 3/4 figures.

Card Back - This is the card that the figure was attached to.

Tri-Logo - Tri-Logo cards have logos in English, French and Spanish.

Early Bird - This was the first Kenner Star Wars action figure item. You can read all about it here.

First 12 - This refers to the first 12 characters produced.

Last 17 - This refers to the last 17 characters produced. The last 17 was the end of the line for Vintage Star Wars action figures and as such not as many of them were produced. This makes them a little more valuable than some of the other figures.

-Back - You may come across a term such as 12-Back or 20-Back. This is a way of identifying the card by referring to how many figures are displayed on the back of the card. When the figures first came out, there were only 12 different figures available for purchase. As they produced different figures, more became available and the backs were changed to reflect that. 12, 20, 21, 31, 32, 41, 45, 47, 48, 65, 77, 79, 92 and 93 are all the different backs you may find. You may also find suffixes with the number such as 12backC. The letter denotes a change in the card. This can be as simple as a sticker being added at the factory or a description being slightly changed. Suffixes go from A to H and Tri-Logo cards have a different suffix. This can all get confusing for someone just starting out, but this website can help.


Trademarks (Copyright, ©):

One of the following trademarks should be found on all vintage Star Wars toys in some form.

LFL - LucasFilm Limited

GMFGI - General Mills Fun Group Incorporated (General Mills was the owner of Kenner)

CPG - Consumer Product Group (only used on Boba Fett action figure)


Grading:

Who does it and what is it? Grading is done to give a toy a widely accepted grade that denotes what kind of condition a toy is in.

AFA - Action Figure Authority, a US company which grades toys.

UKG - UK Graders, a company based in the UK which grades toys. UKG is said to use a stricter grading process. So an AFA 90 may be a UKG 85, even though both figures appear identical.

Wait Fiddle, what do these numbers mean? Well, all toys are graded on scale, this scale looks at different aspects of a toy (like condition and paint) and assigns a number to it. Grading scales differ between modern and vintage toys and between graders. For more information check out Grading Scales

UGrade- Ah, the good old controversial UGrade. UGraded toys receive a number such as U90. UGrades are given to toys that, when graded, are removed from their original packaging, the U stands for Uncirculated. This is seen as destructive by many collectors.


Who made or distributed the Vintage Star Wars toys?

Kenner - A toy company based in Cincinnati, Ohio

Kenner Canada - Kenner's distributor for Canada

Glasslite - A toy company that manufactured Star Wars toys for the Brazilian Market

Lily Ledy - A toy company in Mexico that produced and distributed Star Wars toys.

Meccano - The French licensee for Kenner toys

Palitoy - a British toy company

PBP - a toy company that was created from the merger of three Spanish toy companies, Poch, Borras and Palouzie

Clipper - a company that distributed Star Wars Kenner toys in Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg

Harbert - a distributor in Italy

Takara - a toy company in Japan

Thank you for posting that summary Larry, I'm sure that it will be helpful to a lot of newer collectors.

Great idea Larry

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Great job Larry. Do you mind if we use it, give it a tweaking, and use it for everyone to see?

Not at all I don't even remember where I got it from, And Clint you guys never need to ask if you want to use/tweak any info I post as it's for others to use as well .

Awesome stuff Larry..... But you missed out the second AFA


My COA for the dark ginger Luke Bespin

Which reminds me, I have a couple of these to send out

GINGER = tangy battery acid! (I hope I don't have to explain to anyone).

[quote="General Kahn"]Awesome stuff Larry..... But you missed out the second AFA



Dang almost forgot the most important one.

Very helpful info for us noobies. Thanks for posting.

Awesome Larry.

Let's not forget the one we see on maybe 80% of listings these days.

RARE - Rooted And Reaching Everywhere (which is the case of many listings on eBay) 

NRFB never removed from box
VHTF very hard to find
ConUS Continental US

BTW by the way ;-) very good idea. Took me a lot of Research to find out about some of them.

Thank you for the additional definitions Dirk.

arohk wrote:

Lily Ledy - A toy company in Mexico that produced and distributed Star Wars toys.

Just a tiny correction: the actual name is not Lily Ledy but Lilí-Ledy (with an accent and a hyphen).

Great list Larry. I'd like to make a couple of clarification points.

arohk wrote:

MOSC - Mint on Sealed Card

MOC - Mint on Card

MISB - Mint in Sealed Box

MIB - Mint in Box

You might find your asking, "why differentiate with the word 'Sealed'"?

Most collectors will use the term MOC or MIB to describe items still in their original sealed packages. However, some crafty people will mislead you by using those terms to describe recarded or resealed, or even repro, packages. Technically, they are correct. The word "sealed" simply adds confirmation they are original seals.

You might also come across a variation of the term as MOMC or MIMB. The second "M" stands for "mint". Again, most people use the MOC or MIB to describe mint toys on mint packaging, but technically, a figure can be on a trashed card and still be mint "on card". MOMC simply assures a buyer the card is also mint - although one person's definition of mint can differ from another's, so always look at detailed pics.

arohk wrote:-Back - You may come across a term such as 12-Back or 20-Back. This is a way of identifying the card by referring to how many figures are displayed on the back of the card. When the figures first came out, there were only 12 different figures available for purchase. As they produced different figures, more became available and the backs were changed to reflect that. 12, 20, 21, 31, 32, 41, 45, 47, 48, 65, 77, 79, 92 and 93 are all the different backs you may find. You may also find suffixes with the number such as 12backC. The letter denotes a change in the card. This can be as simple as a sticker being added at the factory or a description being slightly changed. Suffixes go from A to H and Tri-Logo cards have a different suffix. This can all get confusing for someone just starting out, but this website can help.

This probably sounds confusing and maybe overwhelming for the novice carded collector.

A pictoral reference of every single variation can be seen at The SW Collector's Archive, right here.

Furthermore, the most common (and most closely resembling US cards) foreign cardback is those produced by Kenner Canada. While they follow the same numbering system, they are not always the same in the actual description. Canadian cardback variants can be seen here. This reference will also show you the infamous "shrinkwrapped" figures, and the transition cards, where stickers for the next movie were placed on top of existing earlier card stock.

Hope that all helps.

Ian