Pop Report: Williamson Steals Top Basketball Spot From Morant

PSA graded 176,950 cards last week for a 28% increase compared to the prior week. In category specific news, Zion Williamson overtook Ja Morant as the most-graded basketball card last week while Joe Burrow slid back into football’s top spot.

From a category perspective:

• All major categories increased last week with baseball and soccer having the largest increases.

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

23 – Basketball

14 – Baseball

9 – Football

4 – 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: Zion Williamson, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tyler Herro, Coby White
• DOWN: Ja Morant, Michael Jordan, Lamelo Ball
• OUT: Jaren Jackson Jr

BASEBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Kyle Lewis, Yordan Alvarez, Juan Soto, Randy Arozarena, Ken Griffey Jr.
• DOWN: Mike Trout, Ronald Acuna Jr
• OUT: Jasson Dominguez

FOOTBALL

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes II, Tom Brady, Jordan Love, Kyler Murray
• DOWN: Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Jefferson
• OUT: Ceedee Lamb

SOCCER

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

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Lionel Messi, Youssoufa Moukoko, Giovanni Reyna, Jude Bellingham, Jude Bellingham, Jadon Sancho, Joao Felix
• DOWN: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Christian Pulisic
• OUT: Ansu Fati

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, Alexander Ovechkin, Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros
• DOWN: Cale Makar, Jack Hughes, Alexis Lafreniere
• OUT: Sidney Crosby, Nick Robertson, Adam Fox

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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