Pop Report: Baseball, Soccer Trend in August’s PSA Grading

PSA graded 895,193 items in August, which is down 11% compared to the 1,001,612 items graded in July and a 34% increase over the 669,865 graded in August 2021. Read this month’s Pop Report from GemRate for the latest news on PSA’s grading trends.

From a category perspective:

• Baseball and soccer outpaced overall activity in August.

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

18 – Basketball

13 – Baseball

10 – Football

8 – TCG

1 – Hockey

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 – August 2022

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Luka Doncic, Magic Johnson
• DOWN: LaMelo Ball, Larry Bird

BASEBALL

Top 10 Most-Graded Players & Top Graded Card – August 2022

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Fernando Tatis Jr, Bo Bichette, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron
• DOWN: Mike Trout 
• OUT: Bo Jackson (from 6 -> 14), Wander Franco (7 -> 13), Shohei Ohtani (9 -> 12)

FOOTBALL

Top 10 Most-Graded Players & Top Graded Card – August 2022

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Mac Jones, Trevor Lawrence, Trey Lance 
• DOWN: Tua Tagovailoa, Josh Allen
• OUT: Barry Sanders (from 10 -> 17)

SOCCER

Top 10 Most-Graded Players & Top Graded Card – August 2022

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Erling Haaland, Christian Pulisic, Pele 
• DOWN: Youssoufa Moukoko, Neymar Jr, Jude Bellingham
• OUT: Kevin De Bruyne (from 10 -> 13) 

HOCKEY

Top 10 Most-Graded Players & Top Graded Card – August 2022

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Ovechkin, Cale Makar, Joe Sakic, Auston Matthews
• DOWN: Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby
• OUT: Steve Yzerman (from 8 -> 16), Sergei Fedorov (from 9 -> 11), Martin Brodeur (from 10 -> 37)

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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