It got me thinking with so many people now in the hobby looking at PSA populations, grading cards and WOTC era cards in particular becoming rarer and rarer to find, what are some of the cards out there that surprised you after researching the population.
That can be higher then expected or lower, for me:
Low -
Unlimited Shining Gyarados - I have one of these and love the artwork, couldn’t believe the PSA 10 pop is only 90!
Unlimited Dark Magneton - PSA 10 population of 1, its crazy to think Team Rocket Booster Packs and Boxes seem to of been on ebay freely available forever (and still are), yet the population of this card is still 1.
Charizard Base Set 2 - Base set 2 was always seen as a poor set, though i strangely like it, and the big card in this set has a pop of just 50, which is incredibly low given its a Charizard from the WOTC era.
High -
Charizard SV49 - Currently 1255 PSA 10 examples, its a remarkable amount of copies considering how strong the price is for this card. To think of how many more are in submission also…when you compare the pop of this to other Charizards such as a base set 2 Charizard with a pop of 50
Low: Basically any promo other than pikachu or charizard
High: Japanese first editions in comparison to unlimited, its a known fact that unlimited is rarer but for some sets its nearly unnoticeable on the pop report
Basically most of the neo unlimited holos, if I just take a very very unpopular card as an example like t17 has got a pop of 4 in unlimited grade 10. And it is not only neo, basically any set that has a 1st edition variant excluding base set. the 1st edition holos almost always have higher pop than unlimited in these sets.
I would imagine these will correct with people grading with psa now more than ever and they are worth grading now, but for now that has surprised me for a while.
Very little. PSA card pop goes up for 3 reasons: either people want the card graded for their own collection; they want the card graded to make a profit; or they’re doing it to authenticate the card (and as we’ve seen recently PSA aren’t very good at doing this with autographs). A low pop on a card from a set which isn’t very profitable more often than not means that people aren’t interested in grading it, but it doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone out there who would be willing to pay high for it. As a Pichu collector I’m happy to pay a premium for PSA 10 Pichu cards from any set, but being a niche card not many people grade these anyway - and even if they did I’m not going to buy a second copy of a PSA 10 I already own.
In terms of the question in the thread: I put together a PSA End of Year 2019 Report in December last year which collated a load of population data. The thing which surprised me the most was that Kricketune, a Pokémon which had been introduced back in 2007 and has appeared in 12 different sets which PSA grade has had no cards sent in to PSA whatsoever. That’s still the case. There’s no love for Kricketune.
Using the same data I took in 2019, it was unsurprising that Charizard and Pikachu take the top 2 spots for most graded Pokémon overall, however it did surprise me that Mew ties 2nd place with Pikachu.
I’m often surprised by the low pops on some of the old back Japanese promos. Admittedly some of them are not especially rare or valuable, but for the age and significance, I assumed they would be much higher.
I’ve recently looked at mini-sets like the Corocoro promos, and several were only in the teens, all grades combined.
I would say the most surprising has been the 1997 Stamp Rally Mt Fuji Pikachu and Lily Pad Mew Promos. Mew is currently sitting less than 100 and Pikachu is 111. Also PSA 10 for the Pikachu is 14 which I find crazy.
Call of Legends SL cards in PSA 10 are apparently tough grades. Beautiful cards, but I think some even rarer Japanese cards shared the same art if I recall—at least the Suicune and Lugia.
Agree the 1997 Stamp Rally Mew and Pikachu pair is lower than I’d thought, but many also had centering issues so the low 10 pops are less surprising
The Coros are tough anyway but the #1 Ivy Pikachu is not only super tough to find mint but with that glossy finish you may as well forget GemMint.
Need more?
This card came in a very popular comic book. I mean, there were thousands produced. That was in Pokémon’s first year. 25 years and less than 20 have ever made it to PSA. I’ve had dozens and could only grade two if I recall right.
