Index › Articles
Articles
Written from what this index tracks, with every figure traceable to a listing.
What counts as a rookie card6
Rookie Card vs Second-Year Card: What the Rookie Premium Actually CostsMatched at the same PSA grade, the second-year Jordan asks about a tenth of the rookie a…How Many Rookie Cards Does Tom Brady Have? Pacific Alone Printed TwelveA sixth-round pick who threw three passes got more than thirty rookie cards in 2000. One…An 18-Year-Old Picked Griffey for Card #1 From a Shortlist of FourHe had reached Double-A, was injured the year before, and had never played a major leagu…Larry Bird's Rookie Card Is Also Magic Johnson's, and Topps Perforated ItThe whole 1980-81 set was printed as three-panel strips with perforations, meant to be t…Gretzky Has Two Rookie Cards. Jordan Has an Argument.The Great One's rookie exists as Topps #18 and O-Pee-Chee #18, same year and number, and…Mickey Mantle's Rookie Card Costs a Ninth of His Second-Year CardThe 1951 Bowman #253 is unambiguously his rookie. The 1952 Topps #311 is his second-year…
Grading and population5
The 1970s Did Not Have Bad Card Stock. It Had Black Borders.1970 Topps: eight-tenths of one per cent grade PSA 10. 1971 Topps, with black borders: o…PSA Refused to Grade the Star Jordan for Thirty Years, and It Started With Four CardsA collector sent one in around 1992. It came back a Mint 9. He told them it was not from…A Population Report Counts Submissions, Not CardsCracked and resubmitted cards are counted twice, and the resubmissions cluster at the 8-…Why the 1984 Star Jordan Is Worth More Than the Fleer RookiePSA has graded 562 of the 1984-85 Star Michael Jordan #101 and 29,963 of the 1986 Fleer.…335 Perfect Jordans Exist. Nineteen Were Added in Five Years.PSA has graded 28,000 copies of the 1986 Fleer Jordan, so it is not rare. But the gem po…
Where the survivors came from3
The 1980s Did Not Print Too Many Cards. It Kept Too Many.Of the pre-1960 cards this index tracks, one class grades PSA 9 or better. Of the cards …One Attic in Massachusetts Set the Price of the World's Most Valuable CardAbout 5,500 1952 Topps cards sat in a truck driver's attic for three decades. Much of th…The Barge, the Warehouse, and Why Nobody Can Find a Clean 1952 MantlePSA has graded 1,705 of them and three are PSA 10. The card is not rare - Topps double-p…
What sets the price2
Why a $3 Basketball Card Is Worth $16,000 in a PSA 10Two copies of the same Alton Lister card sold on the same day in April 2025, one for $65…Why There Are Only Two Perfect O-Pee-Chee Gretzky RookiesPSA has graded 13,582 copies of the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Gretzky rookie and two are PSA 10…
Everything else6
PSA Authentic vs PSA 1: What a Genuine but Ungradable Rookie Is WorthPSA's Authentic label says a card is real and nothing more, and it can hide an altered c…Same Card, Same Grade, Different Price: How Far Apart Are Identical Graded Cards?Two copies with the same PSA grade are supposed to be interchangeable. On a typical card…PSA 9 vs PSA 10: What the Last Grade Point Costs on Rookie CardsFrom PSA 8 to 9 the price roughly doubles on almost every card. From 9 to 10 it multipli…Off-Centre Rookie Cards: Which Early Cards PSA Most Often Marks OC or MCThe O-Pee-Chee Gretzky carries a centering label half as often again as the Topps. A 198…What a PSA Qualifier Actually Costs, Measured on Matched PairsOff-centre and miscut cost around forty per cent. A mark or a print defect costs about f…Willie Mays Has the Same Four Early Cards as Mickey Mantle. Nobody Argues About His.Mantle is card 311 and Mays is card 261. Only one of those was in the series that did no…