@DTROM1776Correct. Any item purchased from the cartel market direct has to be first claimed from the unclaimed items which puts it in that character inventory and then must be used as an item from your inventory.
This applies to Titles, Emotes, species, inventory unlocks, etc. Anything like weapons and armor need to be equipped to unlock them from collections as well.
There is another way to unlock most of the species which is via the legacy window. If you go there and go to the species section you can click to unlock all of them except cathar and togruta but species unlocked here apply automatically and it is still the same cost of 600 cartel coins.
Also you can unlock any species except cathar or togruta but creating a character under the open species / class combination that is available. Once you hit level 50, it automatically unlocks that species for other classes.
