Pop Report: PSA Grades Nearly 50,000 Items in Single Day

Despite PSA’s overall grading volume dropping 9% over the last week because of the Labor Day weekend, the company nearly hit 50,000 graded items on two different days.

Read this week’s Pop Report with GemRate for the latest news and notes on PSA’s graded population.

Overall Trends (9/6-9/12)

Grading volume by PSA was 168,797 items – which is a decline of 9% compared to the prior week. 

The main five sports noted below tracked ahead of the overall activity with only a 3% decrease collectively (tcg [not pictured] saw a big drop in volume).

From a category perspective:

• Only baseball and hockey increased slightly compared to last week. 
• Football saw the largest decline at 16% compared to last week.

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

24 – Basketball

12 – Baseball

7 – Football

4 – TCG

2 – Soccer

1 – Misc (Serena Williams)

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: Michael Jordan, Trae Young, Shaquille O’Neal
• DOWN: LeBron James 
• OUT OF TOP 10: RJ Barrett

Baseball

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

Noteworthy moves;

• UP: Mike Trout, Ken Griffey Jr.,Ronald Acuna Jr, Juan Soto
• DOWN: Luis Robert, Fernando Tatis Jr.,  Bo Bichette, Kyle Lewis, Yordan Alvarez, Gavin Lux
• OUT OF TOP 10: Jasson Dominguez

FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves;

• UP: Patrick Mahomes II, Tua Tagovailoa,  Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Brett Favre
• DOWN: Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Tom Brady,
• OUT OF TOP 10: Barry Sanders 

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves;

• UP: Kylian Mbappe, Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland, Christian Pulisic, Ansu Fati, Ronaldinho 
• DOWN:  Cristiano Ronaldo, Giovanni Reyna, Neymar Jr., 
• OUT OF TOP 10: Mason Greenwood

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, Jaromir Jagr,  Mats Sundin, Rob Blake, Kirill Kaprizov, Brayden Point
• DOWN: Wayne Gretzky, Alexis Lafreniere, Cale Makar
• OUT: Quinn Hughes, Bobby Orr, Alexander Ovechkin, Sebastian Aho, Gordie Howe

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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