Pop Report: Morant Holds Top Spot; Bryant Climbs in Latest PSA Returns

PSA graded 179,505 cards last week for a 6% increase compared to the prior week. Ja Morant retained the top spot as the most graded player in basketball while Kobe Bryant jumped several spots to No. 7.

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

From a category perspective:

• For a second straight week there was little movement in the big three categories; however, soccer had a 13% drop while hockey had a strong 83% spike.

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

26 – Basketball

11 – Baseball

8 – Football

5 – TCG

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: Kobe Bryant
• DOWN: Coby White , RJ Barrett

BASEBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Mike Trout, Yordan Alvarez, Gavin Lux, Ken Griffey Jr.
• DOWN: Bo Bichette
• OUT: Juan Soto

FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Tom Brady, Jordan Love
• DOWN: Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Jefferson

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Cristiano Ronaldo, Youssoufa Moukoko, Christian Pulisic, Vinicius Junior, Ronaldo
• DOWN: Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Pedri, Jude Bellingham 
• OUT: Jadon Sancho

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: Eric Lindros, Connor McDavid, Patrice Bergeron, Sergei Fedorov, Mike Modano
• DOWN: Mario Lemieux
• OUT: Sidney Crosby, Alexis Lafreniere, Ray Bourque, Jonathan Toews/Steve Downie, Jack Hughes

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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