Pop Report: Basketball, Baseball Rise After TCG Surge

PSA graded 194,378 cards last week for a 29% increase following the holiday-shortened week. Basketball and baseball topped the TCG category after several weeks of Pokemon-driven volume.

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

From a category perspective:

• All major sports were up this week as Pokemon momentum finally showed some signs of slowing

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

17 – Basketball

11 – Baseball

10 – TCG

7 – Football

1 – Golf

1 – Hockey

1 – Soccer

1 – F1

1 – Tennis

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: LaMelo Ball, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Anthony Edwards, Allen Iverson
• DOWN: Ja Morant
• OUT: Luka Doncic, Zion Williamson

BASEBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Shohei Ohtani, Barry Bonds, Nolan Ryan
• DOWN: Mike Trout, Wander Franco, Juan Soto
• OUT: Bo Bichette, Luis Robert
• FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Tua Tagovailoa, Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders
• DOWN: Mac Jones, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers
• OUT: Trevor Lawrence

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Pedri, Christian Pulisic, Alex Morgan
• DOWN: Cristiano Ronaldo, Jude Bellingham, Pele, Youssoufa Moukoko 
• OUT: Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

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: Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Alexander Ovechkin, Henrik Lundqvist, Martin Brodeur, Cale Makar
• DOWN: Kirill Kaprizov, Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux
• OUT: Auston Matthews, Patrick Roy, 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.

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