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In the world of sports and trading cards, the smallest imperfection can cost you thousands, if not hundreds of thousands when grading your cards. For example, say you have two rookie cards of the stolen base leader Rickey Henderson. One of the cards is flawless: the centering is perfect, sharp corners, and has a pristine surface. The other card? It’s just a bit off center because of the way that the manufacturer cut the card, which is out of your control. The difference? $145,000. A Gem Mint PSA 10 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson sold for $148,000 on Goldin Auctions in March 2025, while the most recent sale of a PSA 9 copy of this card last sold for $1,900 in August 2025, this sale on eBay.
It all comes down to condition scarcity and the premium placed on PSA 10’s. If we take a look at the PSA population report for the same 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson, there are only 25 PSA 10s versus more than 2,300 PSA 9s. With a gem rate of only 0.06%, this is the kind of scarcity that causes these price gaps between grades. And it’s not just this card that drives a premium for one grade higher, there are multiple examples where this takes place which is what we’ll break down.
1969 Topps Reggie Jackson #260
PSA 10 Recent Sale: $1,005,600 in March 2021 on Heritage Auction
PSA 9 Recent Sale: $67,100 in February 2025 on Heritage Auction
This rookie card of Reggie Jackson is the perfect example of condition scarcity in the card market. With over 13,000 copies of this card being sent to PSA to be graded, there is only one Gem Mint PSA 10 copy of the 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson. With there only being one perfect copy of this card, it has led to almost a million dollar price gap.
1999 1st Edition Charizard Holo #4
PSA 10 Recent Sale: $264,000 in July 2025 on Fanatics Collect
PSA 9 Recent Sale: $33,000 in August 2025 on Fanatics Collect
Next up is the most iconic card in all of Pokémon which is the 1st edition Charizard holo. Just one imperfection on this card can cost you over $200,000. PSA has graded over 5,000 copies and only 124 have received the Gem Mint 10.
1981 Topps Joe Montana #216
PSA 10 Recent Sale: $84,000 in August 2025 on eBay
PSA 9 Recent Sale: $2,225 in June 2025 on Fanatics Collect
With over 34,000 graded copies with PSA, you would assume that there would be a lot of high grades for this card. That’s not the case. Of the 34,000 submissions, Joe Montana’s rookie card has only received the Gem Mint 10 115 times making the gem rate 0.33%, which is less than one in every 300 cards submitted. One small defect and it could be the difference between $82,000.
1993 SP Foil Derek Jeter #279
PSA 10 Recent Sale: $334,000 in March 2025 on Fanatics Collect
PSA 9 Recent Sale: $4,320 in August 2025 on REA
The foil on the 1993 SP Foil Derek Jeter being so easy to chip and scratch is what makes this card so hard to gem.
This is another example of where collectors pay an extreme premium for the Gem Mint 10 due to the scarcity of it. According to PSA, there have been 26,554 1993 SP Foil Derek Jeter cards graded and only 22 have gemmed. Just 633 have received a 9, and nearly 10,000 have came back an 8 making it the most common grade for this card.
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