Starstock no longer accepting raw cards

[rms13]

Don’t know how many people here have used them but just got an email that they are suspending intake of raw cards and reorganizing business to focus on graded cards, wax, breaks and other collectibles. When they launched the entire business model was raw cards and seemed like a possible alternative to comc. I submitted a bunch of cards in the past that weren’t valuable enough to grade and seemed easier then listing individually on eBay. I will say their raw grading seemed questionable. Almost everything I sent in got Starstock B grade which killed any value they had. I’m definitely not a grading expert but I sent more valuable stuff to CSG and most got graded 9 or higher. To my eye there wasn’t much difference between stuff I had graded at CSG and stuff Starstock graded B which would equate to PSA 7-8 based on their scale.

[Sonnys88]

Originally Posted by rms13

Don’t know how many people here have used them but just got an email that they are suspending intake of raw cards and reorganizing business to focus on graded cards, wax, breaks and other collectibles. When they launched the entire business model was raw cards and seemed like a possible alternative to comc. I submitted a bunch of cards in the past that weren’t valuable enough to grade and seemed easier then listing individually on eBay. I will say their raw grading seemed questionable. Almost everything I sent in got Starstock B grade which killed any value they had. I’m definitely not a grading expert but I sent more valuable stuff to CSG and most got graded 9 or higher. To my eye there wasn’t much difference between stuff I had graded at CSG and stuff Starstock graded B which would equate to PSA 7-8 based on their scale.

Not surprised at all. It was clear from their start that their business model for raw cards wasn't sustainable.

They began with no ingestion fees to gain users / submissions, then added a submission fee for raw cards after being overwhelmed with submissions (it was clear that would happen at some point even though they denied it over and over again).

Their "grading" scale for raw cards is basically useless as they don't show the actual card you are getting, and is clearly inaccurate for anyone who submitted or bought from them. I think when they were swamped with submissions they just assigned the "B" grade a lot of the time to play it safe and get through the submissions quickly.

I think they lost a ton of buyers and submitters for raw cards due to the reasons above and due to the hobby cooling off.

[RealDocStrange]

It’s the hobby cooling off part that got them. All the 2019 and 2020 basketball stuff just sits there. People are just far less interested in raw prospect cards from the new releases if you can’t send them to psa for a reasonable price.

I think they had something with a form of futures market that easy raw card transactions could mimic. But they never really had the deposit liquidity in their market place to fully support that.

I will say there has been about four times as much activity from my eyes over the last 24 hours.


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[RealDocStrange]

Just re reading their notice - so if you sent cards in say a week before the announcement. Postmarked and all. But they arrived Saturday, they aren’t going to accept them and they will “hold” the cards, or will mail them back to you?

Seems like they should at least accept the packages sent well in advance of their policy change.


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[boxbuster7]

I'm not sure why anybody would use this company over COMC

[Budler]

When they started, I was very interested in it. I messaged back and fore for several weeks asking questions and getting information. At the end both them and me figured it was not right for me. What I wanted to do was not what they were planning on doing.

Glad I double check with them before just sending cards to them.

[premium1981]

Never heard of them.

[mc1]

Starstock fired over 50 employees on Friday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZWyJkSJej0/?hl=en

[Swipe79]

He reiterates over and over in the video that he has one source, and he's not sure if it's true, etc. So, not a verifiable fact, but something to consider.

Doesn't sound super positive if it's true.

Originally Posted by mc1

Starstock fired over 50 employees on Friday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZWyJkSJej0/?hl=en

[mc1]

Correct, the video does have that disclaimer.

The post mentions multiple sources.

[Swipe79]

CEO of Starstock this morning:

https://youtu.be/3AUOHrKJPS8

[Swipe79]

Having listened to that - it just seems like a poorly run company.

We let a bunch of people go...we're also having staffing issues...we can't process or ship cards in a reasonable amount of time. We're not profitable, so we're changing directions instead of analyzing what's working v what's not.

Lots of company speak in the video - plenty or reassurances and claims of business as usual (except maybe waiting months for ship home requests).

[RealDocStrange]

I took that video - and their “star stock NFT twitter” account activity today - as saying they are going to plow into NFTs. Probably a smart thing to do from a valuation perspective if they aren’t too late to catch the wave! Need to compete with all the other startups (there are hundreds!)

But seriously the market functionality was the absolute best thing they developed. I think that interface is better than any other bid/ask/sell for cards that I’ve seen. No reason they couldn’t have scaled and marketed that properly.

But that YouTube is basically saying “we are abandoning that marketplace”.


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[bloodwings19]

Another black eye for the sports cards market. Another finance guy companies not prepare for the base card depression. Ebay just got stronger.

[boxbuster7]

Originally Posted by Swipe79

Having listened to that - it just seems like a poorly run company.

We let a bunch of people go...we're also having staffing issues...we can't process or ship cards in a reasonable amount of time. We're not profitable, so we're changing directions instead of analyzing what's working v what's not.

Lots of company speak in the video - plenty or reassurances and claims of business as usual (except maybe waiting months for ship home requests).

I kind of feel bad for them because it was so clear to me from day 1 that they weren't card people. The gravy train wasn't going to last forever with base cards, and any person who has been in the hobby long enough should've seen that coming (and been able to forecast properly).

[rms13]

Sports Cards Nonsense podcast talked about this today. Starstock was formerly a sponsor and they reached out to the CEO to come on the show to address the situation but he apparently declined or ignored them. I guess they are focusing on their NFT business whatever that means. And yes it seems they laid off almost their entire staff so good luck getting cards back. Sounds like they were just a very poorly run business. They had a good idea at first but then decided to pivot to graded cards then they pivoted to wax then they pivoted to breaks and now NFT so it sounds like they were just throwing things at the wall hoping something sticks.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by Swipe79

Having listened to that - it just seems like a poorly run company.

We let a bunch of people go...we're also having staffing issues...we can't process or ship cards in a reasonable amount of time. We're not profitable, so we're changing directions instead of analyzing what's working v what's not.

Lots of company speak in the video - plenty or reassurances and claims of business as usual (except maybe waiting months for ship home requests).

If you don’t have physical possession of your cards, you better be careful with who is holding them. Grading companies, storage companies, marketplaces, etc. There’s not enough room for everyone at the table. And you’re already seeing some of these bozo companies go bye bye.

[mintacular]

I knew these morons would never make it when:

1) They didn't scan actual cards. Any card buyer wants to see a scan
2) They only accepted "rookie cards" (unnecessary limitation)
3) They started to shift to wax, breaks, graded cards, etc. (i.e. desperation set in)

[Swipe79]

Agreed - full disclosure, I have a couple hundred rookie cards that I've already requested shipment for. Not a crazy amount of stuff but enough to make me worry a bit. After conclusion of business with them, it will probably be a rear window for the site as I am not interested in the NFT stuff.

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

If you don’t have physical possession of your cards, you better be careful with who is holding them. Grading companies, storage companies, marketplaces, etc. There’s not enough room for everyone at the table. And you’re already seeing some of these bozo companies go bye bye.

[jamcas997]

Again as I have said on the COMC board it is so much better to keep and control my own cards. While I like COMC and places like Ship My Cards for outside US buyers so they can buy from us without large postal fees I just cant see letting someone else hold and sell my cards.

[seanrs1]

Wanted to get the temperature of the room? Is everyone here that uses starstock cashing out and requesting their cards back immediately? Is there fear that the company will go out of business within the near future?

[Swipe79]

I requested my raw stuff yesterday - if it's going to take a while, I want to be in queue. It seems like they've just abandoned one part of their business instead of doing the right thing for their customers and scaling down over time. I don't think they go out of business soon but based on past decisions, they seem to be burning through money and it will eventually run out.

Seems like those in charge don't or never did understand much about sports cards.

Originally Posted by seanrs1

Wanted to get the temperature of the room? Is everyone here that uses starstock cashing out and requesting their cards back immediately? Is there fear that the company will go out of business within the near future?

[seanrs1]

Anyone on here trying to take advantage of the situation by making low offers on low end raw cards and hoping people just want to cash out? If you are in no hurry to to receive the card (and assuming they stay in business) this might be a great strategy.

[RealDocStrange]

Originally Posted by Swipe79

I requested my raw stuff yesterday - if it's going to take a while, I want to be in queue. It seems like they've just abandoned one part of their business instead of doing the right thing for their customers and scaling down over time. I don't think they go out of business soon but based on past decisions, they seem to be burning through money and it will eventually run out.

Seems like those in charge don't or never did understand much about sports cards.

Requested about 60 of my better raw and almost all graded cards.
Wasn't worth shipping back much of the other raw stuff at $0.50 per card. Been trying firesale approach and honestly the market was kind of humming (maybe 200 sales since Saturday?) Cheap prices but nice volume compared to maybe 8-10 cards sold per day on average over past year.

I'll probably keep the cards left at starstock, what's left for me is stuff that otherwise would be sitting on my shelf and hard to move anyway or a few players I tried to hoard on the site and have pretty large quantity of $.75 or lower value cards. Not much to do with those.

[boxbuster7]

Originally Posted by seanrs1

Wanted to get the temperature of the room? Is everyone here that uses starstock cashing out and requesting their cards back immediately? Is there fear that the company will go out of business within the near future?

I don't think they are going anywhere, So I wouldn't panic. They are VC backed. With that said, I wouldn't be rushing to buy cards there. I've got about $200 worth of cards on their site.