Pop Report: Franco, McDavid Cards Rise During Latest PSA Returns

PSA graded 192,977 cards last week for a 4% increase compared to the prior week. In category-specific news, Wander Franco’s cards made a jump in volume last week while Connor McDavid’s have done the same just in time for the NHL Playoffs.

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

From a category perspective:

• Football and soccer both increased in activity compared to last week, while basketball, baseball and hockey declined. TCG activity increased meaningfully last week.

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

18 – Baseball

14 – Basketball

9 – Football

6 – TCG

1 – Hockey

1 – Golf

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: Ja Morant, Zion Williamson, Kevin Durant
• DOWN: Shaquille O’Neal, LaMelo Ball
• OUT: Magic Johnson

BASEBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Fernando Tatis Jr, Wander Franco, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, 
• DOWN: Ken Griffey Jr, Derek Jeter, Ronald Acuna Jr.
• OUT: Alec Bohm

FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Jordan Love, Josh Allen, Mac Jones
• DOWN: 
• OUT: Barry Sanders

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Christian Pulisic, Neymar Jr., Marcus Rashford
• DOWN: Jude Bellingham, Pedri
• OUT: Jamal Musiala

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, Kirill Kaprizov, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Cale Makar, Adam Fox, Brett Hull
• DOWN: Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr
• OUT: Mike Modano, Ed Belfour, Eric Lindros, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov

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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