June 2021 Recap

  • PSA delivers healthy ramp (28% growth) in grading volume
  • Low tier submissions dominate
  • Volume shifts from ultra modern to process the binders of Jordans and junk wax legends
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    Published July 2nd, 2021

    Welcome to the second update from GemRate on the current PSA grading situation. May’s recap is available here.

    PSA's output increased meaningfully in June, up 28% per day on average, with over 736,000 items graded.

  • PSA continues to show a healthy expansion in its daily grading volumes, which reached an average of ~24,500 in June. That’s a meaningful 28% daily increase compared to May.
  • PSA had 2 days in June where more than 40,000 items were graded.

    • PSA graded a LOT of those 80s and 90s cards that were brought out of storage

  • In May, more than two thirds the cards graded were manufactured after 2010. That number dropped below 50% in June.
  • On the flip side, the mix of 1980s and 1990s cards graded nearly doubled in June.

    • Over 50,000 Michael Jordan cards were graded during June.

  • The # of Jordans graded in June made up 7% of all items graded by PSA during the month.
  • This is 2.5 times more Jordans graded compared to May (Jordan cards made up less than 3% of items graded in May).
  • The list above includes the top 20 Jordan cards graded, yet those cards make up less than a third of all the Jordans graded during the month illustrating the vast array of MJ cards in the hobby.

    • Category Summary

    Basketball still rules while baseball accelerates meaningfully; hockey & golf volumes double

  • Basketball made up 38% of the cards graded in June
  • However, baseball had the largest absolute growth in cards graded - with an increase of more than 50,000 cards graded compared to May (a 44% increase).
  • Hockey, multi-sport, and golf saw meaningful % increases in the number of cards graded during June.

    • Set Summary

    Most top sets decline; Pokemon continues surge

  • As noted earlier, there was a large shift in the eras graded in June compared to May and that trend is very apparent in the chart above where many of the highest volume sets decline in June despite a large increase in total volume by PSA as a whole.
  • Pokemon moved up the charts in a big way during June with two sets showing strong growth in June, along with another 4 not pictured that were in the top 20 sets.
  • 1986 Fleer Basketball saw a huge spike as a large cohort of collectors learned of the value beyond Jordan (256 Jordans graded in June vs 242 in May).

    • Card Summary

    Hobby legends charge the leaderboard

  • Legends with highly produced cards from the junk wax era charged up the leaderboard in June.
  • Luis Robert continued to see a high volume of cards graded in June given a return profile that mostly supported lower tier submissions.
  • Price moves beyond Shaq and Kobe were fairly modest. This is very different from the moves seen in May related to ultra modern cards. This is likely due to the market starting to level out...but also the pricing data above is based off of PSA 10 grades. The ultra modern cards graded in high volume in May produced a meaningful number of gems whereas the 1990s modern cards being graded during June produced a very lower (sub 15%) gem rate. June’s activity was far more likely to impact cards graded PSA 9 or lower (or is about to).

    • What's Next?

    It’s very clear PSA is grading considerably more of the value submissions and this will continue as those tiers make up the bulk of the backlog. Expect to see similar trends in July with a further increase in bulk football emerging.