The Grading Desk
Nobody publishes PSA population history. PSA shows a current count and every downstream source passes it through, so the question that actually matters, how fast a card is being graded, has no public answer. We snapshot the registry daily, which makes the deltas ours. This page is the weekly read. The background study is The Gem Rate Curve.
Registry movers
Which cards people are actually paying to grade right now, measured as copies added to the PSA population over the trailing 21 days. Submissions are a leading indicator that costs real money to send: somebody decided this card was worth a fee and a two-month wait.
| # | Card | Per day | Copies added | Growth | Population | Gem rate | Window |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pikachu (Cosmos Holo)Miscellaneous Cards & Products | +1355.3 | +18,974 | +6324.7% | 19,274 | 15.0% | 14d |
| 2 | PikachuBase Set | +991.7 | +18,842 | +1611.8% | 20,011 | 15.6% | 19d |
| 3 | CharmanderBase Set (Shadowless) | +610.8 | +10,994 | +831.0% | 12,317 | 11.7% | 18d |
| 4 | MoltresWizards Black Star Promos | +459.6 | +5,975 | +1446.7% | 6,388 | 53.8% | 13d |
| 5 | CharmanderMEP Black Star Promos | +438.6 | +8,772 | +24.0% | 45,256 | 83.9% | 20d |
| 6 | ArticunoWizards Black Star Promos | +417.9 | +5,851 | +1095.7% | 6,385 | 53.1% | 14d |
| 7 | BulbasaurMEP Black Star Promos | +399.1 | +8,382 | +25.1% | 41,829 | 79.3% | 21d |
| 8 | SquirtleBase Set (Shadowless) | +370.8 | +5,933 | +635.2% | 6,867 | 10.6% | 16d |
| 9 | SquirtleMEP Black Star Promos | +351.4 | +4,919 | +15.1% | 37,491 | 76.8% | 14d |
| 10 | MewtwoBase Set (Shadowless) | +344.7 | +7,239 | +1946.0% | 7,611 | 1.0% | 21d |
| 11 | ZapdosWizards Black Star Promos | +322.2 | +5,799 | +1407.5% | 6,211 | 53.5% | 18d |
| 12 | GyaradosBase Set (Shadowless) | +320.6 | +6,733 | +1891.3% | 7,089 | 0.9% | 21d |
| 13 | HitmonchanBase Set (Shadowless) | +273.5 | +4,650 | +2048.5% | 4,877 | 0.8% | 17d |
| 14 | Mega Charizard X exMEP Black Star Promos | +261.4 | +4,966 | +4.0% | 128,104 | 48.3% | 19d |
| 15 | BulbasaurBase Set (Shadowless) | +258.6 | +5,171 | +527.7% | 6,151 | 12.7% | 20d |
| 16 | CharmeleonBase Set (Shadowless) | +254.6 | +5,092 | +799.4% | 5,729 | 11.5% | 20d |
| 17 | Oricorio exMEP Black Star Promos | +231.1 | +4,621 | +7.4% | 67,018 | 53.1% | 20d |
| 18 | NidokingBase Set (Shadowless) | +211.8 | +3,812 | +3562.6% | 3,919 | 1.4% | 18d |
| 19 | Pikachu (Reverse Cosmos Holo)Miscellaneous Cards & Products | +199.0 | +2,786 | +974.1% | 3,072 | 16.5% | 14d |
| 20 | Eevee ex (Prismatic Evolutions Stamp)Miscellaneous Cards & Products | +196.5 | +2,751 | +84.7% | 6,000 | 44.3% | 14d |
| 21 | ChanseyBase Set (Shadowless) | +196.3 | +3,729 | +3160.2% | 3,847 | 0.4% | 19d |
| 22 | ZapdosBase Set (Shadowless) | +188.1 | +3,574 | +2320.8% | 3,728 | 1.7% | 19d |
| 23 | PsyduckAscended Heroes | +186.4 | +3,729 | +18.4% | 23,958 | 61.3% | 20d |
| 24 | RaichuBase Set (Shadowless) | +184.0 | +3,680 | +2453.3% | 3,830 | 0.7% | 20d |
| 25 | PoliwrathBase Set (Shadowless) | +178.3 | +3,388 | +2710.4% | 3,513 | 1.4% | 19d |
Ranked by copies added per day. Each card's two readings sit a different distance apart depending on when the snapshot rotation reached it, so the raw delta column is shown for transparency and is not what the list is ordered by.
Hardest to gem, against its own era
The bottom decile of gem rate inside each era cohort. The comparison is deliberately not a flat threshold across the catalog: measured on the live universe, a fixed 35 percent bar fires on 92 percent of WOTC cards and 20 percent of Sword and Shield cards, so it ranks age rather than difficulty. Cards need at least 50 recorded submissions to appear.
| Card | Era | Gem rate | Era percentile | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CharizardBase Set | WOTC | 0.5% | p2 of 1675 | 108,652 |
| Charizard VSTARSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 15.0% | p4 of 1704 | 61,911 |
| Greninja ☆SWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 5.0% | p1 of 1704 | 61,045 |
| CharizardEvolutions | XY | 1.1% | p6 of 596 | 54,327 |
| BlastoiseBase Set | WOTC | 0.7% | p3 of 1675 | 53,276 |
| PikachuCelebrations | Celebrations | 2.0% | p0 of 50 | 49,892 |
| VenusaurBase Set | WOTC | 1.2% | p6 of 1675 | 47,906 |
| Charizard VMAXSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 21.0% | p7 of 1704 | 47,308 |
| Charizard VSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 17.3% | p5 of 1704 | 44,663 |
| Special Delivery CharizardSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 13.8% | p3 of 1704 | 33,121 |
| MewtwoBase Set | WOTC | 1.9% | p9 of 1675 | 32,203 |
| MagikarpPaldea Evolved | Scarlet & Violet | 15.1% | p6 of 1780 | 26,550 |
| GyaradosBase Set | WOTC | 2.1% | p10 of 1675 | 25,891 |
| CharizardBase Set 2 | WOTC | 0.3% | p1 of 1675 | 25,270 |
| GengarLost Origin Trainer Gallery | Sword & Shield | 22.0% | p7 of 1704 | 24,522 |
| Mega Charizard X exPhantasmal Flames | Mega | 9.8% | p3 of 400 | 21,021 |
| Dark CharizardTeam Rocket | WOTC | 0.9% | p4 of 1675 | 20,265 |
| CharizardLost Origin Trainer Gallery | Sword & Shield | 25.9% | p10 of 1704 | 19,705 |
| PikachuLost Origin Trainer Gallery | Sword & Shield | 20.3% | p6 of 1704 | 19,481 |
| DragoniteFossil | WOTC | 0.3% | p1 of 1675 | 17,690 |
| HitmonchanBase Set | WOTC | 1.2% | p6 of 1675 | 17,608 |
| RaichuBase Set | WOTC | 1.5% | p8 of 1675 | 17,553 |
| VaporeonJungle | WOTC | 0.2% | p0 of 1675 | 17,009 |
| MewCelebrations | Celebrations | 2.4% | p2 of 50 | 16,760 |
| ChanseyBase Set | WOTC | 0.9% | p4 of 1675 | 16,583 |
What a PSA 10 costs, by era
Median gem rate and median PSA 10 premium over raw, per era. The two columns are the two halves of a grading decision: how likely the ten is, and what it is worth when it arrives. A high premium on an easy-to-gem card is a fee you can compute; a high premium on a hard one is a lottery. Only cards whose PSA 10 median stands on at least 10 recorded sales enter the premium column, so a card we hold a thinner reading for is counted in the card totals and not in the premium.
| Era | Cards | Median gem rate | PSA 10 over raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mega | 400 | 60.4% | 15.5x n=167 |
| Celebrations | 50 | 54.3% | 12.5x n=27 |
| Sword & Shield | 1,704 | 50.5% | 9.3x n=686 |
| Sun & Moon | 1,117 | 39.6% | 7.4x n=422 |
| Scarlet & Violet | 1,780 | 33.5% | 11.6x n=833 |
| WOTC | 1,675 | 21.3% | 56.0x n=409 |
| Other | 1,293 | 17.9% | 9.8x n=96 |
| XY | 596 | 13.5% | 26.5x n=125 |
| EX | 740 | 10.2% | 30.0x n=53 |
| Black & White | 335 | 6.4% | too few graded to rate |
| HeartGold SoulSilver | 137 | 4.5% | too few graded to rate |
| Diamond & Pearl | 344 | 3.8% | too few graded to rate |
Every RATE on this page is computed from a subset of the tracked universe: 10,171 of 25,021 cards carry at least 50 submissions and a gem rate their row can actually support, covering 17,690,483 submissions and 6,337,912 PSA 10s at 35.8%. The header counts the full tracked universe. The two totals differ on purpose, and the companion study quotes the subset.
Population counts are read from the PSA registry through our provider and snapshotted daily, one row per card per day. Gem rate is the PSA 10 count divided by total population, computed by us from the per-grade breakdown rather than read from the provider's own rate field, which arrives in mixed units. A row whose PSA 10 count is absent rather than zero is withheld instead of being shown as zero percent. The PSA 10 premium is our recorded graded median over the same day's raw mark, bounded to exclude comp-pool artifacts, and a median is quoted only when it stands on at least 10 recorded sales: measured against an independent source, medians resting on fewer than that deviated 30.7% on average against 8.4% for those resting on twenty or more. A graded figure is also pooled by TCGplayer product, and one product can carry more than one printing of a card, so a premium describes that product's slabs. Editions are immutable once published.