Pop Report: Josh Allen, Ken Griffey Jr. Rise in Latest PSA Returns

PSA graded 201,791 cards last week, which was roughly flat compared to the prior week. In category-specific trends, Ken Griffey Jr. retook the top spot in baseball while Josh Allen made a jump in football.

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

From a category perspective:

• Basketball, baseball, and football all held fairly steady while soccer and hockey saw meaningful increases in activity last week.

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

20 – Basketball

17 – Baseball

9 – Rootball

3 – TCG

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, LaMelo Ball
• DOWN: Ja Morant, Zion Williamson 

BASEBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Ken Griffey Jr, Fernando Tatis Jr, Derek Jeter, Wander Franco, Yordan Alvarez
• DOWN: Luis Robert, Mike Trout, Bo Bichette, Juan Soto 
• OUT: Ronald Acuna Jr., Kyle Lewis

FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers
• DOWN: Justin Jefferson 
• OUT:  Mac Jones

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Cristiano Ronaldo, Ansu Fati, Christian Pulisic, Youssoufa Moukoko,
• DOWN: Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, Giovanni Reyna
• OUT: Pedri

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, Mario Lemieux, Cale Makar, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Roy, Sergei Fedorov
• DOWN: 
• OUT: Martin Brodeur, Alexis Lafreniere, Eric Lindros

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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