7 Sports Cards to Potentially Grade Found Using Market Movers' Intelligence Reports

Back with another batch of raw sports cards you might want to think about grading. Today I'm looking solely at PSA 9 vs. raw value to find big gaps that could be used to your advantage.

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This is not buying or investment advice. I’m simply reporting the data I’m seeing. Please do your own research and make your own decisions. Just because cards have increased in value up to this point or have sold at a certain amount, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so.

I’m getting all of this data from either the the Market Movers or Card Hedge platform. There are not my platforms, I’m simply a user and affiliate of them. If you want to do your own research, you can grab a free trial to Market Movers with code BALLCARDGENIUS. You’d also get 20% off of your membership forever if you wanted to continue once your trial has been completed. You can also grab a free trial for Card Hedge as well.

These tools aren’t perfect; no tool is. So trust, but verify.

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Last week, I talked about how I approach grading and shared some cards that might be worth sending into PSA.

Today, I’m back with another set of opportunities—this time, though, using a different research method to find potential grading candidates.

To recap, if you recall, for the last post I used this table from Card Hedge below to compare raw, 9, and 10 values…doing so took a lot of time! While I plugged everything into a Google Sheet for calculations and conditional formatting, it was still pretty tedious.

But the data is key—once you know the values, it comes down to simple math, and you can more or less calculate what your expected profit/loss might be depending on the grade your card receives.

Something like:

Price of raw card + grading cost (and shipping) = total cost
Expected grade sales value - total cost - sales fees = profit, etc.

Of course, you’ll still need to make a lot of assumptions along the way—assuming you can find the card in gradable condition at that low raw value; assuming you get the grade you think the card deserves; assuming the market doesn’t change, and more.

Because of those assumptions, I still don’t love the risk that grading introduces, but when the numbers make sense, I pay attention.

So, I went back to the research lab (Market Movers this time) and used their Intelligence Reports to simply compare PSA 9 values to raw values to see which cards had the biggest gaps between the two.

Logically, there will be a LOT of vintage to weed through because pretty much every vintage card can be had for a few bucks (in not so great shape) and those that grade as high as 9 can be quite valuable because they are rare. (Right off the bat you see the top cards are all from the 1980s.)

All of that said, I ran the numbers and dug through them for you, and here’s what I found.

As I said before, I’ll leave the ultimate decision-making to you! You still need to find the card cheap enough and in good enough condition for a PSA 9 worst-case scenario.

It’s tough, but it’s possible.

Remember:

• eBay is far from the only place to buy cards.

• Plus, even if these aren’t available now, they could be soon.

• COMC has a pre-grade service for $5/card for year 2000 and newer.

1. Drake Maye 2024 Mosaic Reactive Yellow

Think about the market here. Pro Bowl was announced and upcoming, but football season for Maye is a long ways away. Also think about what those numbers look like with a population increase.

• PSA 10: $NA

• PSA 9: $160 on 1/5/25

• Raw: $12.50 on 1/29/25

Lowest raw option looks to be around $18 on eBay, with a PSA 9 sitting unsold for $99.

2. Barry Sanders 1999 Topps Chrome Refractor

It shocked me the at PSA 9 of this card has a population as low as 20 (keep that in mind!). Knowing that, it’s equally as shocking that a PSA 8 last sold for $44.80 in September (seems low).

• PSA 10: $NA

• PSA 9: $306 on 1/16/25

• Raw: $42.99 on 1/23/25

Lowest on eBay is a COMC item around $70. Lowest graded is a PSA 8 for $160 and 9 watchers (that’s more like it, in response to my comment above).

Next card is a first for me!