Victor Wembanyama Became the King of PSA Grading in His Rookie Year
It should come as no surprise to collectors who wanted to grade cards the most this year. We haven’t seen an NBA player enter the league with as much excitement from both the card world and sports world as Victor Wembanyama. Over the past year, more than 400,000 of his cards were graded by PSA, putting him far ahead of the player in second place, Michael Jordan, who had 138,000 fewer cards graded.
The Top 10 Players With The Most Graded Cards by PSA in 2024:
1. Victor Wembanyama: 407,000
2. Michael Jordan: 269,000
3. CJ Stroud: 223,000
4. Shohei Ohtani: 211,000
5. Anthony Richardson: 107,000
6. Kobe Bryant: 91,000
7. LeBron James: 89,000
8. Elly de la Cruz: 83,000
9. Anthony Edwards: 80,000
10. Ken Griffey Jr.: 77,000
Six of the top ten most graded individual cards by PSA in 2024 were Wembanyama cards, with his Prizm rookie card ranking number one.
𝐏𝐒𝐀 𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐄𝐃 📊 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
— PSAcard (@PSAcard) December 20, 2024
You might pick up on a theme in terms of who dominated the grading room this year on the sports side. 👽
Take a closer look at data insights & highlights from the year that was at PSA.
➡️ https://t.co/VArjPTgQJ1 pic.twitter.com/AxD8SAtie4
For modern basketball players, Prizm basketball cards are often the most heavily graded. Players like Luka Dončić and Zion Williamson have seen significant grading activity since their NBA debuts. Luka has an incredible 20,422 total PSA 10s, while Zion has 23,110. However, Zion hasn’t fully lived up to his hype, and many of his cards were graded during his first few years in the league.
The 2023 Prizm basketball set, released in February 2024, has already produced 24,068 PSA 10 Wembanyama Prizm rookie cards—a number that surpasses both Zion and Luka. That figure doesn’t even include other grades of the same card, which boasts a 60% gem rate. In total, over 40,000 copies of this card have been graded by PSA.
Just his Prizm card alone is already approaching the top 20 most graded cards of all time, based on data from GemRate. The number one card on this list remains the iconic Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 Upper Deck rookie, with 115,000 total graded copies.
When focusing on just PSA 10s, Wembanyama’s Prizm rookie card is currently ranked fifth. The four cards ahead of it are all Pokémon cards. Right behind Wembanyama’s Prizm card is Juan Soto's 2018 Topps Update rookie card.
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In addition to the 24,000 PSA 10 Prizm cards, Wembanyama also has over 10,000 PSA 10 Prizm Monopoly cards. Prizm Monopoly was a unique product Panini debuted during his rookie year. While these numbers combined don’t make it the highest PSA 10 total ever, they place it at number three—an impressive feat for cards that have been on the market for less than a year.
Grading has become an essential part of the sports card industry, and in 2024, collectors prioritized grading Wembanyama’s cards across the board. Heading into 2025, with a few more 2023 basketball releases featuring Wembanyama still to come, his grading numbers are expected to continue rising. There’s even a strong chance he could remain one of the most graded players in 2025 as well.
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Adam has been a sports content creator since 2016, initially focusing on creating sports-related graphics for his Instagram page. In 2018, he transitioned to writing and podcasting about sports cards. Since then, he has worked both independently and with companies within the industry, producing podcasts, videos, and written content on sports cards.