Rookie cards of Ken Griffey Jr., Rickey Henderson and Jerry Rice topped the list of the hobby’s most popular cards that were graded most often last month.
Data compiled by GemRate utilizing PWCC’s Iconic 100 sports card list shows 932 copies of the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. card were processed across the four major grading companies in April.
The 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson was second on the list with graders verifying 679 of them over the 30-day period. The 1986 Topps Rice rookie card ranked third with 496 copies graded.
GemRate’s iconic tracker keeps score of the cards on the top 100 list that were graded and by which company. The list of tracked cards includes cards from across all eras. PSA saw the most 1989 UD Griffey cards of any grader at 643, with SGC second at 232. PSA graded 397 Henderson cards with SGC seeing 250. BGS graded 40 Griffeys while CGC saw 17 of them.
It may be surprising that a fairly large number of exceptionally popular vintage cards were still being submitted. Grading companies added 266 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan/Jerry Koosman rookie cards to their population reports in April–a 12 percent increase over the number graded in March and an average of nearly nine graded every day last month.
The 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card can usually be found on the list of most graded cards and April was no exception. A total of 242 were graded by the four authenticators last month–147 by PSA, 55 by BGS and 40 by SGC. The Jordan sticker insert was graded 188 times in April.
Collectors and dealers continue to submit large numbers of the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky rookie card, which ranked 14th on the list with 227 copies added to the population.
SGC graded more Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle rookie cards than any company last month. Mantle’s ’51 Bowman rookie was graded 15 times, with ten of those examined by the company. Only four 1952 Topps Mantle cards were graded last month–two by PSA and two by SGC.
Other notable cards and their total grading numbers from April:
- 1990 Score Bo Jackson #697 440
- 1981 Topps Joe Montana #216 426
- 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken FF error #616 362
- 1976 Topps Walter Payton #148 219
- 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson #260 200
- 1980-81 Topps Bird/Johnson/Erving 128
- 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax #123 125
- 1969-70 Topps Lew Alcindor #25 102
- 1954 Topps Hank Aaron #128 81
- 1958 Topps Jim Brown #62 79
- 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente #164 69
- 1953 Topps Mickey Mantle #82 46
- 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #92 16
- 1948-49 Leaf Jackie Robinson #79 15
- 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #139 14
- 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #144 13
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