Pop Report: Pokemon, TCG Top Major Sports in Latest PSA Returns

PSA graded 238,631 cards last week for a 5% increase compared to the prior week. In specific category news, TCG, led by Pokemon, saw huge growth in volume for its second straight week.

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

From a category perspective:

• It was another massive week for Pokemon at PSA – which spiked over 50% for the second consecutive week. As a result, the three major sports declined while soccer was the only larger sport to see an increase.

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

25 – TCG

13 – Basketball

5 – Baseball

4 – Football

1 – Golf

1 – Hockey

1 – F1

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.

BASKETBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: LeBron James, LaMelo Ball, Ja Morant, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett
• DOWN: Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird
• OUT: Kevin Durant

BASEBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Fernando Tatis Jr, Barry Bonds, Shohei Ohtani, Bo Bichette
• DOWN: Bo Jackson, Wander Franco, Nolan Ryan 
• OUT: Juan Soto, Randy Arozarena

FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Patrick Mahomes II, Mac Jones, Barry Sanders
• DOWN: Joe Burrow, Peyton Manning, Tua Tagovailoa, Deion Sanders, 
• OUT: Joe Montana

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Erling Haaland, Pedri, Jude Bellingham, Pele
• DOWN: Christian Pulisic, Youssoufa Moukoko, Neymar Jr.
• OUT: Alex Morgan

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: Connor McDavid, Peter Forsberg, Teemu Selanne, Dominik Hasek
• DOWN: Kirill Kaprizov, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin
• OUT: Sergei Fedorov, Eric Lindros, Joe Sakic

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.

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