Pop Report: Jeter, Griffey Jr. Rise Leading Up to MLB Opening Day

PSA graded 211,407 cards last week for a 4% decrease compared to the prior week. In category specific news, Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. were two of the big risers last week leading up to MLB’s Opening Day.

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

From a category perspective:

• Only basketball and football had positive increases compared to last week.

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

17 – Basketball

17 – Baseball

7 – Football

7 – TCG

1 – Hockey

1 – Golf

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: Shaquille O’Neal, Magic Johnson
• DOWN: Ja Morant
• OUT:  Stephen Curry

BASEBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Ken Griffey Jr, Derek Jeter, Ronald Acuna Jr., Randy Arozarena 
• DOWN: Fernando Tatis Jr, Luis Robert, Bo Bichette
• OUT: Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez

FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, Peyton Manning
• DOWN: Joe Burrow, Tom Brady, Justin Jefferson,
• OUT: Josh Allen

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Youssoufa Moukoko, Giovanni Reyna, Ansu Fati, Florian Wirtz
• DOWN: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Christian Pulisic
• OUT: Jude Bellingham, Tammy Abraham

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: Jaromir Jagr, Kirill Kaprizov, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov
• DOWN: Connor McDavid, Alexander Ovechkin, Martin Brodeur, 
• OUT: Sidney Crosby, Pavel Bure

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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