Nobody publishes PSA population history. PSA shows a current count and every downstream source passes it through, so the question that actually matters, how fast a card is being graded, has no public answer. We snapshot the registry daily, which makes the deltas ours. This page is the weekly read. The background study is The Gem Rate Curve.
Which cards people are actually paying to grade right now, measured as copies added to the PSA population over the trailing 21 days. Submissions are a leading indicator that costs real money to send: somebody decided this card was worth a fee and a two-month wait.
| # | Card | Per day | Copies added | Growth | Population | Gem rate | Window |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mega Charizard X exMEP Black Star Promos | +298.4 | +5,371 | +5.3% | 106,786 | 48.0% | 18d |
| 2 | ClefairyPerfect Order | +105.7 | +2,008 | +37.2% | 7,401 | 68.5% | 19d |
| 3 | Mega Charizard X exPhantasmal Flames | +102.4 | +1,741 | +3.5% | 51,345 | 59.8% | 17d |
| 4 | PsyduckAscended Heroes | +97.2 | +1,264 | +10.2% | 13,673 | 61.9% | 13d |
| 5 | Mega Gengar exAscended Heroes | +55.3 | +995 | +8.1% | 13,292 | 63.5% | 18d |
| 6 | PikachuCrown Zenith | +52.7 | +949 | +1.6% | 61,418 | 53.0% | 18d |
| 7 | Meowth exPerfect Order | +51.5 | +670 | +10.6% | 7,012 | 74.3% | 13d |
| 8 | Umbreon exSVP Black Star Promos | +50.6 | +911 | +3.8% | 24,720 | 57.1% | 18d |
| 9 | AlakazamExpedition Base Set | +50.5 | +959 | +399.6% | 1,199 | 6.0% | 19d |
| 10 | Erika's TangelaAscended Heroes | +46.9 | +891 | +22.4% | 4,877 | 68.3% | 19d |
| 11 | Pikachu exAscended Heroes | +46.3 | +880 | +8.6% | 11,132 | 61.9% | 19d |
| 12 | PiplupPhantasmal Flames | +46.1 | +875 | +5.2% | 17,719 | 50.0% | 19d |
| 13 | Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GXSM Black Star Promos | +44.4 | +710 | +0.9% | 76,546 | 56.2% | 16d |
| 14 | Mega Dragonite exAscended Heroes | +43.7 | +830 | +10.4% | 8,826 | 62.7% | 19d |
| 15 | Pikachu with Grey Felt HatSVP Black Star Promos | +42.2 | +675 | +0.6% | 117,048 | 42.7% | 16d |
| 16 | CharizardBase Set | +40.1 | +721 | +0.7% | 104,907 | 0.5% | 18d |
| 17 | _____'s PikachuCelebrations Classic Collection | +39.2 | +666 | +1.6% | 42,958 | 62.0% | 17d |
| 18 | Pikachu exAscended Heroes | +37.4 | +710 | +11.4% | 6,950 | 55.9% | 19d |
| 19 | Lillie's Clefairy exAscended Heroes | +34.4 | +654 | +16.3% | 4,662 | 66.6% | 19d |
| 20 | Mega Charizard X exPhantasmal Flames | +33.1 | +596 | +3.4% | 18,304 | 10.2% | 18d |
| 21 | Charizard VMAXSWSH Black Star Promos | +31.2 | +592 | +1.3% | 46,093 | not recorded | 19d |
| 22 | Mega Gardevoir exMega Evolution | +29.0 | +522 | +3.0% | 18,169 | 62.7% | 18d |
| 23 | Mega Zygarde exPerfect Order | +28.0 | +504 | +24.4% | 2,567 | 25.4% | 18d |
| 24 | Lucario VSTARSWSH Black Star Promos | +27.2 | +516 | +1.2% | 43,384 | 57.6% | 19d |
| 25 | PikachuLost Origin Trainer Gallery | +26.0 | +468 | +2.6% | 18,584 | not recorded | 18d |
Scroll the table sideways for the full desk
Ranked by copies added per day. Each card's two readings sit a different distance apart depending on when the snapshot rotation reached it, so the raw delta column is shown for transparency and is not what the list is ordered by.
The bottom decile of gem rate inside each era cohort. The comparison is deliberately not a flat threshold across the catalog: measured on the live universe, a fixed 35 percent bar fires on 92 percent of WOTC cards and 20 percent of Sword and Shield cards, so it ranks age rather than difficulty. Cards need at least 50 recorded submissions to appear.
| Card | Era | Gem rate | Era percentile | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CharizardBase Set | WOTC | 0.5% | p2 of 1632 | 104,907 |
| Mew exSVP Black Star Promos | Scarlet & Violet | 18.1% | p9 of 1449 | 60,581 |
| Charizard VSTARSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 15.5% | p4 of 1625 | 59,839 |
| Greninja ☆SWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 5.3% | p1 of 1625 | 56,974 |
| CharizardEvolutions | XY | 1.1% | p6 of 508 | 53,539 |
| BlastoiseBase Set | WOTC | 0.7% | p3 of 1632 | 51,522 |
| PikachuCelebrations | Celebrations | 2.0% | p0 of 38 | 46,070 |
| Charizard VSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 17.8% | p5 of 1625 | 43,198 |
| Special Delivery CharizardSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 14.0% | p3 of 1625 | 32,339 |
| MagikarpPaldea Evolved | Scarlet & Violet | 15.5% | p5 of 1449 | 25,679 |
| CharizardBase Set 2 | WOTC | 0.3% | p1 of 1632 | 24,290 |
| GengarLost Origin Trainer Gallery | Sword & Shield | 22.8% | p7 of 1625 | 23,260 |
| Dark CharizardTeam Rocket | WOTC | 0.9% | p4 of 1632 | 19,498 |
| Mega Charizard X exPhantasmal Flames | Mega | 10.2% | p6 of 437 | 18,304 |
| DragoniteFossil | WOTC | 0.4% | p1 of 1632 | 16,881 |
| VaporeonJungle | WOTC | 0.2% | p1 of 1632 | 16,529 |
| MewCelebrations | Celebrations | 2.5% | p3 of 38 | 15,598 |
| Jolteon VMAXSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 26.4% | p10 of 1625 | 14,413 |
| Umbreon & Darkrai GXSM Black Star Promos | Sun & Moon | 8.1% | p5 of 1073 | 14,136 |
| GengarFossil | WOTC | 0.4% | p1 of 1632 | 14,020 |
| ClefairyBase Set | WOTC | 1.2% | p6 of 1632 | 13,562 |
| LaprasFossil | WOTC | 0.4% | p1 of 1632 | 13,453 |
| Galarian MoltresSWSH Black Star Promos | Sword & Shield | 23.7% | p8 of 1625 | 13,388 |
| LugiaNeo Genesis | WOTC | 0.1% | p0 of 1632 | 12,258 |
| DrowzeeScarlet & Violet | Scarlet & Violet | 14.3% | p5 of 1449 | 12,011 |
Median gem rate and median PSA 10 premium over raw, per era. The two columns are the two halves of a grading decision: how likely the ten is, and what it is worth when it arrives. A high premium on an easy-to-gem card is a fee you can compute; a high premium on a hard one is a lottery.
| Era | Cards | Median gem rate | PSA 10 over raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| Celebrations | 38 | 60.8% | 9.9x n=12 |
| Mega | 437 | 58.8% | 4.6x n=59 |
| Sword & Shield | 1,625 | 51.8% | 5.2x n=171 |
| Sun & Moon | 1,073 | 39.9% | 6.3x n=93 |
| Scarlet & Violet | 1,449 | 36.3% | 6.6x n=236 |
| WOTC | 1,632 | 20.7% | 27.4x n=70 |
| XY | 508 | 12.6% | 15.4x n=28 |
| EX | 828 | 9.8% | 20.0x n=42 |
| Other | 220 | 9.7% | too few graded to rate |
| Black & White | 304 | 6.4% | 18.1x n=8 |
| HeartGold SoulSilver | 135 | 4.6% | too few graded to rate |
| Diamond & Pearl | 341 | 3.8% | too few graded to rate |
Every RATE on this page is computed from a subset of the tracked universe: 8,590 of 13,901 cards carry at least 50 submissions and a gem rate their row can actually support, covering 15,708,231 submissions and 5,904,682 PSA 10s at 37.6%. The header counts the full tracked universe. The two totals differ on purpose, and the companion study quotes the subset.
Population counts are read from the PSA registry through our provider and snapshotted daily, one row per card per day. Gem rate is the PSA 10 count divided by total population, computed by us from the per-grade breakdown rather than read from the provider's own rate field, which arrives in mixed units. A row whose PSA 10 count is absent rather than zero is withheld instead of being shown as zero percent. The PSA 10 premium is our recorded graded median over the same day's raw mark, bounded to exclude comp-pool artifacts. Editions are immutable once published.