Pop Report: PSA Hits New Record-High for Graded Cards

PSA graded a record-high 212,768 cards last week with a 13% increase compared to the prior week. In category-specific news, Zion Williamson, Kylian Mbappe and Alexander Ovechkin all made jumps this week in their respective sports.

Read this week’s Pop Report for the latest news on PSA’s grading trends.

From a category perspective:

• Big increases across the board led by baseball, football and hockey – which all outpaced overall activity.

The mix of the top 50 players (and characters) graded during the period were as follows

23 – Basketball

12 – Baseball

9 – Football

5 – TCG

1 – Soccer

Below you’ll find a list of the top players graded for each category. 

An important consideration is what to make of this list. In the current situation where fears of junk slabs dominate the hobby, ranking high on this list likely is negatively correlated with price as that signals a meaningful number of slabs could move into the market in the near future. However, under normal circumstances, it could potentially be a leading indicator of positive price correlation as the list more accurately represents forward looking activity (i.e. bets being placed on players) and price potential.

BASKETALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Zion Williamson, Trae Young
• DOWN: Ja Morant, Kobe Bryant, RJ Barrett

BASEBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Randy Arozarena, Gavin Lux, Ken Griffey Jr., Juan Soto, 
• DOWN: Kyle Lewis, Mike Trout,
• OUT: Ronald Acuna Jr., Jasson Dominguez

FOOTBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Jalen Hurts, Cedee Lamb
• DOWN: Patrick Mahomes II, Tom Brady, Kyler Murray

SOCCER

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Youssoufa Moukoko, Kylian Mbappe, Christian Pulisic, Jude Bellingham, Ansu Fati, Jadon Sancho
• DOWN: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Giovanni Reyna
• OUT: Kevin de Bruyne, Giovanni Reyna, Marcus Rashford, Ronaldinho

Note: Hockey and soccer lists are more volatile because grading activity is lower. Much smaller moves in grading activity can have a big impact on these lists.

HOCKEY

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Alexander Ovechkin, Carey Price, Pavel Bure, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, Jack Hughes
• DOWN: Sidney Crosby, Sergei Fedorov,
• OUT: Jaromir Jagr, Eric Lindros, Cale Makar, Mike Modano, Steve Yzerman

Note: Hockey and soccer lists are more volatile because grading activity is lower. Much smaller moves in grading activity can have a big impact on these lists.

Data in the Sports Card Investor Pop Report series is provided by GemRate. Follow GemRate on Instagram and Twitter for more on the latest cards graded by PSA.

Track your collection and maximize your profit with Market Movers, the hobby’s most powerful sports card pricing platform! Learn more here.

Note to readers: If you purchase something through one of our affiliates, we may earn a commission.