My PSA Collector’s Club subscription expired so I decided to try out grading through GameStop because the math of renewing my subscription wasn’t adding up for me.
I did a little research into the process beforehand but was greeted with conflicting information and 30min long Youtube videos so I figured I’d summarize my experience, give some tips and relay some information I was told from the associate (Which may or may not be true).
Create a free GameStop account online beforehand. The associate told me that you can submit without an account, but without one you are unable to track your submission as it goes through the grading process.
No research/ID is done in store for the submission. You simply tell them how many cards you are submitting and they print off labels for each card and a master label for your entire submission. The cards are then sorted into batches of 8 and the associate takes pictures of the front of the cards, then takes pictures of the back of the cards with the label applied.
I didn’t ask for this but the associate encouraged me to take as many pictures or videos as I wanted during the process. According to her, that depends on the specific location and varies store to store. This was a relief because the whole “no research/ID” situation was giving me some anxiety.
Rubberband Training Once the cards were batched up I was told that the official GameStop training was to split them into batches of 4 and rubber band them together. She explained to me that GameStop did research and with 4 cards the rubber band wouldn’t bend them. Before I could say anything she told me that she would leave the choice of the rubber band up to me (but that varies by location).
Submission Sorting The entire submission is then placed in a tamper resistant bag, the master label is applied and the submission is locked up until shipment.
Local Tax(es) I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t applied 
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Upcharges Upcharges follow the standard PSA schedule and are paid in store at the time you pick up your order.
Tracking You can access the submission tracker in the “order details” of your account. One thing to note is that you do not get a tracking number for the shipment to PSA. Since multiple orders are combined and shipped in a single package it appears that the tracker will not update to “arrived” until PSA processes the package and scans your individual submission. This is concerning because once the package is shipped, there is no way of knowing if it’s waiting to be processed at PSA or lost in the mail.
Return You will receive an email notifying you that your cards have been graded and how many up charges were applied. At this point all of your grades and upcharges will be detailed in your Gamestop account if you would like to look at them.
Gamestop will call you when your order is ready for pickup. Your return will not be individually packaged and sealed. PSA ships all submissions from your local store in one box and relies on Gamestop employees to sort through/parse out orders. This was surprising. An employee could very easily pocket high value cards and just walk out of the store at the end of their shift.
Upon receipt all upcharges are due and you must sign a form that states all of your cards were returned to you with no damage. Unless you’re a big gambler, this forces you to go through the entire submission in store and see all of your grades in front of strangers.
My Summary/Opinion Submitting through Gamestop is easier and cheaper than submitting yourself. The process is designed to lower the barrier to entry for new customers. In my opinion it all comes down to your risk appetite. With a few changes to the process and implementation of additional controls I think it could be a game changer. As of 3/17/25 I will go back to submitting myself.
