My First Submission to StarStock (Full Review)
In 2020, I sold a $700 card to someone who requested a refund for it a few hours AFTER I had shipped it.
I got in contact with the platform I sold it on (you can probably already guess which one), asked them how could someone cancel an order after it shipped with the reason for the cancellation being that they “accidentally bought it.”
They apologized that it happened, but their best advice was to go and see if I could get the card back from the post office.
Because I did not want the buyer to get a refund and the card for free, I took the time out of my day to go back to the post office and try to track it down.
It was in transit, so no luck.
Thankfully, that issue resolved itself and the sale went through, even though I spent half the day chatting online with customer service reps.
That whole experience, on top of a few other situations, made me really want to find another way to sell cards….avoiding issues that arise with shipping and returns.
Enter StarStock.
You send in your cards, it stores them for free, lists your cards on its online marketplace, handles the buying and selling, and deposits money (minus a selling fee) into your StarStock account when something sells.
No more hassles worrying about a package arriving damaged or not making it to its destination at all.
No more dealing with people who may be trying to pull a fast one.
No more talking with customer service reps who seem to be trained to always side with the buyer first over the seller.
In short, it sounded like a headache remover.
I bought and sold a few cards last year on StarStock, but I decided to send in few of my cards for the first time this past February.
Here’s what happened…
What Happened With My First StarStock Submission
The submission process is fairly simple — all you have to do is fill out a form online.
StarStock suggests providing a word document with a list of the cards you are submitting, and I ended up doing that for my own records.
For the cards I was sending in, these were, for the most part, ones that I did not expect to receive a PSA 10 because the corners weren’t perfect.
Some of them would not be worth it to grade and receive a 9 on, so instead of having them just sit around, these were the cards I decided to send in. StarStock lists its cards as StarStock A and StarStock B, so I expected most would fall into the B category.
Here was my list, which was a total of 27 cards (all photos are from StarStock):
Joe Burrow Rated Rookie #301
Jalen Hurts Rated Rookie #314
J.K. Dobbins Rated Rookie #311
J.K. Dobbins Rated Rookie Press Proof Yellow #311
I received an email on February 11 that StarStock received my cards and that it would take between six to eight weeks to get them processed and uploaded into my account.
Well, on April 2, I received an email that they were ready to go, which was right in the timeline that I was originally provided.
Here’s how I did:
My Burrow card received a B.
My Hurts cards all received a B.
Four of my Dobbins cards received an A, while nine received a B.
One Dobbin Press Proof Yellow received an A, while the other received a B.
That was about what I was expecting, so I wasn’t disappointed.
Since sales will be at their peak in August, I set the card prices for what I project they will sell for around that time. I can always go in and change it and move them higher or lower.
Conclusion on Submitting Cards to StarStock
Overall, I liked my experience, and I’m planning on sending in a few graded cards, which StarStock says can be entered in as little as a week.
Of course, this was just my experience, and I’ve seen from comments that not everyone has been happy after sending in their cards.
One of the issues is turnaround time, which again, was a little less than two months for my cards. StarStock is upfront that they are receiving a lot of inventory and it can take up to eight weeks to get them processed and into your account.
I would plan ahead.
If you want your cards up for sale for the NFL season by July, you will need to send them in now to be safe.
The second issue I’ve seen is people not receiving alerts that their cards have made it to the company or that they have been posted. I’m not sure if that was an issue when StarStock first started or might still be happening for some people, but I know I did receive two emails — one confirming the cards were received and the second that the cards were uploaded to my account.
Finally, the issue that I see most talked about is the rating.
Some folks who are fairly certain their card should be rated an A are receiving a B. If they don’t agree with that, they then have to spend money to get the cards shipped back to them.
This is how StarStock says it rates cards:
I can’t really add any personal experience with this, as most of the cards I sent in, I was already expecting them to grade out at a B. But if you’re on the fence about whether it would receive an A or a B from StartStock, you may be better off just keeping it and selling it on your own.
The company also has a thorough F&Q page that is worth checking out before deciding to send in your cards.
I hope you found this useful!
Cheers,
Jack D.
P.S. Have you submitted your cards to StarStock? What did you think? Before PSA shut down the majority of its services, did you try having StarStock submit your cards to PSA for grading? What grade did you get? I’d love to hear your experience, so let me what you have to say in the comments.
