My experience: The new Goldin / PSA "Guaranteed 2 Week Turnaround" Program

[bshaw19]

Please share any advice (recent college grad in over my head) or your experience if you tried this new program out yourself.




Let me start off by saying that this post is not intended to disparage Goldin or PSA in anyway - I just want to come here and share my (unfortunately negative) genuine experience with the two week grading program with Goldin/PSA. Everyone I've met or spoken to at Goldin have been great people, but unfortunately the guarantees that were made at the time of consignment were not met. After hitting some big cards in Optic this year, I was thinking about the best way to sell my high end cards (some over $5k or higher depending on grade) and came across the new Goldin / PSA 2 Week Grading and Listing guarantee. A connection at Goldin (not naming names) told me that if I went to Nationals and dropped off my cards, that they would be graded by PSA and listed for the August auction. As a new grad in need of some cash, I figured it was worth taking the trip up to Atlantic city in order to deliver the cards in person and get them into the upcoming auction so I could unload some high end cards and pay off some past debt / add a chunk to my first house fund.

A couple thousand dollars in travel expenses later, time off of work, and a long drive up the East Coast, I finally made it to the National Convention (my first one) and went straight to the Goldin booth on Saturday. When I was at the booth I was told over and over again that they would for sure be graded and listed "within the week" in time for the August auction. I dropped off the cards (some graded some needing grades), and left very happy and confident that they would be listed this month. Told parents, girlfriend, friends, etc. the date of the auction so they could watch along.

After leaving nationals after dropping off my cards, I was eager to get back the grades and follow the auctions. A week went by and I had not gotten grades still, so I messaged my consignment rep, and was told again not to worry, they would be listed in time for the auction.

Long story short, the auction rolls around on August 10th, and NONE of my cards that required grades have been graded and listed, only the slabs. I could understand one or two cards not meeting the two week guarantee, but the entire lot? I was upset. Again, the people at Goldin are very nice people, but the original guarantee simply wasn't met

Sales went fine, but I had not heard anything back about withdrawal a week or so after the auction ended. I went to log into the customer dashboard to withdraw and saw that I had nothing attached to my account. No worries, customer service connected my lots (my email was misspelled when signing up) and the cards all popped up. To withdraw, I contacted customer service again and was sent a selling report with a tax amount subtracted from the total (no explanation, was not mentioned before, so I was very worried). they reassured me that I just had to submit a 1099 form and the FULL payment amount without deductions would be sent within 24-48 hours. I submitted the 1099 form and started monitoring my account for the transfer... nothing. A week goes by - still nothing. More emails to customer support and no response, got escalated eventually to an account manager who was GREAT. Got my transfer initiated (albeit a week later than expected now) and haven't had any issues so far.

In the meantime, it has now been over 1 month, and I am still waiting on two more cards to be graded (the most valuable of the lot included). I am extremely upset as at this point as I don't even know if they are going to make it into the SEPTEMBER auction, and I have already had to wait LONG after the two week mark that was promised, August auction listing that was promised, 24-48 hour payment that was promised, etc etc. Had I not badgered support about my account, payment, etc. I don't know if it would have taken even longer.

At this point, I have lost thousands between travel expenses, as there was no need for me to drive all the way up to Atlantic City, take off work, etc. to list these cards over a month (maybe two we will see) later, on the original promise that they would be listed in sold within a few weeks.

I can't be mad at any individual at Goldin, and I honestly do not feel scammed or taken advantage of. I understand this was a brand new program, and the reps / customer service have all been great to work with, what upsets me is that I made this decision based on promises and guarantees that keep not being met. I didn't get a chance to speak personally to Ken at nationals, but from what I see/hear he is a genuine, nice guy who isn't out to get anybody.

As a new grad this is all pretty daunting to deal with, and I have not reached out yet to Goldin to see what can be done about the guarantees and promises not being met. Obviously this has had an impact between interest payments that weren't expected, lost travel expenses, etc. but what's done is done.

TLDR: Cards were not graded and listed within two weeks as guaranteed and promised during consignment. The people at Goldin are nice and not out to scam anybody in my opinion, from what I've seen it's just a throughput issue.

At this point any advice would be greatly appreciated as a recent college grad in over my head, and I would love to hear from others what your experience was like with this two week guarantee grade and list with Goldin program.