State of the Graded Market — September 2025
Methodology. We analyzed graded card sales using our Market Movers export, restricting to items with a last sale date between Sept 1–30, 2025. Unless noted, amounts are USD.
Executive summary
Total dollar volume: ~$81.35M
Total transactions: ~192,628
Liquidity engine: the sub-$500 tier drove the majority of trades; $2.5k+ captured most of the dollars
What this means: Depth is healthy. Prices, on average, nudged higher, but dispersion widened around hype-sensitive moderns. Vintage blue chips and true grails attracted decisive bidding; commodity modern in mid-grades was mostly price-taking.
Price tiers (by sales dollars)
$2,500+: ~$50.63M
$500–$2,499: ~$15.72M
$100–$499: ~$10.39M
< $100: ~$4.60M
Read: High-end still dictates the dollar narrative (grails and low-pop parallels), while $100–$499 and <$100 churn provide reliable velocity if priced to the market.
Notable September headlines (single-sale grails)
1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle (PSA 8) — $1,020,000 (Sept 25) Fanatics Collect
2004 Megacracks #71BIS Lionel Messi (PSA 10) — $960,000 (Sept 25) Fanatics Collect
2012 Prizm Gold /10 LeBron James (BGS 9.5) — $793,000 (Sept 13) Goldin
1996 Japanese Base No Rarity Symbol Charizard (PSA 10) — $641,721 (Sept 13) Goldin
High-velocity cards (most transactions)
Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat PSA 10 (2023 Scarlet & Violet Black Star Promo) — 603 sales, avg ~$1828
Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat PSA 9 (2023 Scarlet & Violet Black Star Promo) — 343 sales, avg ~$582
Magikarp PSA 10 2023 Japanese Scarlet & Violet: Triplet Beat 080/073 Art Rare — 312 sales, avg ~$196
Jayden Daniels Rookie 2024 Prizm #347 Base PSA 10 — 171 sales, avg ~$71.21
Michael Jordan 1990 Fleer #26 Base PSA 9 — 167 sales, avg ~$37.43
Data & disclosure
We build this report from Market Movers data and our own normalization of set names/grades. Datasets can carry gaps or mislabels; treat charts and tables as directional and always verify key comps before buying or selling.
