The steady volume of trading card grading submissions continues with another monthly record set in August.
The four major grading firms processed over 1.8 million cards in August, according to GemRate. That includes sports, non-sports and gaming cards. That surpassed the previous record of 1.78 million cards graded in May.
PSA graded nearly 1.4 million cards over the 31-day period, up 10 percent from July and up 13% compared to August 2023. Of that number, 818,000 were sports cards, up slightly from July but 22% higher than the volume they saw in August of last year.
The majority of the cards (54.6%) graded by PSA were those produced over the last five years. About 13% of the cards PSA saw last month were from sets issued prior to 1980.
SGC saw 159,000 cards in August, down 13% from July but up 42% year-over-year. Nearly 74,000 of those cards were baseball, with nearly 47,000 basketball and just over 28,000 football.
CGC graded 21,000 sports cards last month, up 60% from a year ago. Baseball dominated their submissions, too, with 9,200, followed by 4,800 basketball and 3,900 football.
Beckett graded 80% more baseball cards in August than in July, according to Gem Rate, seeing over 12,000. Basketball (10,700) and football (8,200) were second and third on the list.
Victor Wembanyama was again the most popular submission, especially at PSA which graded over 42,000 cards of the NBA Rookie of the Year last month. The company graded about 23,800 Michael Jordan cards, about 21,700 of NFL Rookie of the Year CJ Stroud, 12,300 of Colts rookie Anthony Richardson, over 10,000 of Shohei Ohtani and nearly as many of Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes.
The most graded card at PSA was Wembanyama’s 2023-23 Prizm base rookie card (3,700). The company has graded about 31,000 of them in all so far.
Second on the list was the 2023-24 Select Blue rookie card (3,100 and a total of 10,100 to date). Stroud’s Donruss Optic rookie was the third most graded card at PSA with about 2,200 sent back to collectors.
SGC’s push to grade more current baseball cards paid off with about 5,100 2024 Bowman and 3,200 2024 Topps cards passing through its Florida offices. The most graded individual card at SGC was Elly De La Cruz’s 2024 Bowman (approximately 800).
SGC graded Jordan more often than any other player, though, with 6,700 various issues slabbed in August, followed by Wembanyama (5,400)and Ohtani (2,900).
Related Stories:
Over 1.5 Million Cards Graded in June; Wemby Tops List
Stroud, Ohtani Among Most Graded Players in February
Record Month for SGC as April Grading Numbers Tallied
May Was a Record Month for Trading Card Grading
More Than 2 Million Michael Jordan Cards Have Been Graded but the Wembys are Piling Up
Card Grading Numbers Ticked Upward in July
Notes: May Grading Numbers, Project100 Week 2; Brewers ’82 Party Includes HOF Autographs
March Grading: 1.3 Million Items
