Pokémon PSA population report
How many of each card exist in gem mint? This is the PSA population report across 16,941 Pokémon cards — the most valuable PSA 10s, the cards with the fewest gems in existence, the hardest and easiest cards to pull a 10 from, and how the whole population breaks down by grade, era and set. Also see the CGC pop report.
What a gem rate tells you
| Gem rate | What it signals |
|---|---|
| <5% | Very scarce — PSA 10s are a small fraction of everything submitted. |
| 5–30% | Hard — most submitted copies come back below a 10. |
| 30–60% | Common — a large share of submitted copies are 10s. |
| >60% | Easy — most submitted copies come back a 10. |
Worked example: Rayquaza C LV.X has just 1 PSA 10 out of 1,378 graded — a <0.1% gem rate, in the scarcest band of the table above. A gem rate is a share of what has been submitted, not of what exists — it says nothing about raw (ungraded) circulation or current demand, and it is PSA-only. See the CGC pop report for the other major grader's numbers on the same cards.
Most valuable PSA 10s
The highest-value gem-mint Pokémon cards by current PSA 10 market price.
Rarest gems in existence
Valuable cards with the fewest PSA 10s ever graded — the scarcest gem-mint copies on the planet.
Hardest cards to grade
The lowest PSA gem rates — cards where a perfect 10 is hardest to pull (min. 100 graded).
Easiest cards to grade
The highest PSA gem rates among well-graded cards (min. 100 graded) — where a clean copy usually comes back a 10.
Most graded cards
The most-submitted Pokémon cards — highest total PSA population.
The whole population by grade
Every graded copy across the tracked cards, by the grade PSA gave it. Half grades and authentic-only slabs fold into the bottom band.
Gem rate by era
| Era | Cards | Copies graded | PSA 10s | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vintage (1999–2003) | 2,017 | 1,892,391 | 147,386 | 7.8% |
| Classic (2004–2010) | 3,242 | 526,498 | 39,424 | 7.5% |
| Modern (2011–2019) | 5,173 | 2,656,027 | 901,178 | 33.9% |
| Current (2020–) | 6,509 | 7,655,864 | 3,466,994 | 45.3% |
Most-graded sets
Sets with at least 500 graded copies, by graded volume, with each set's gem rate.
| Set | Cards | Copies graded | PSA 10s | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 151 | 175 | 732,485 | 213,344 | 29.1% |
| Base | 100 | 595,375 | 43,081 | 7.2% |
| SWSH Black Star Promos | 242 | 576,715 | 190,556 | 33.0% |
| Crown Zenith Galarian Gallery | 70 | 541,474 | 287,060 | 53.0% |
| Scarlet & Violet Black Star Promos | 169 | 492,379 | 184,796 | 37.5% |
| Evolving Skies | 195 | 321,935 | 194,268 | 60.3% |
| Hidden Fates Shiny Vault | 94 | 314,285 | 187,801 | 59.8% |
| Evolutions | 109 | 310,401 | 72,023 | 23.2% |
| Surging Sparks | 227 | 277,364 | 95,419 | 34.4% |
| Destined Rivals | 180 | 275,885 | 117,316 | 42.5% |
| Mega Evolution | 123 | 275,419 | 163,185 | 59.2% |
| Celebrations: Classic Collection | 23 | 264,344 | 164,224 | 62.1% |
| Phantasmal Flames | 95 | 223,770 | 115,213 | 51.5% |
| SM Black Star Promos | 116 | 208,236 | 86,418 | 41.5% |
| Paldean Fates | 227 | 199,570 | 80,746 | 40.5% |
Population figures are cumulative — they count what has been graded, not what exists — and self-selected, since collectors submit their cleanest copies and resubmit near-misses. A gem rate is therefore an upper bound on what a random raw copy would achieve. Rankings use the PSA crawl snapshot; card pages read the same data and can run a day ahead. Turn these into grading decisions.
What population means for price
A PSA 10 price is set by supply against demand, and the population report is the supply side of that equation. Across every tracked card, 4,554,982 copies have come back a 10 — 35.8% of everything PSA has graded — and that share, the gem rate, is what separates a card whose gem copies are genuinely scarce from one where a 10 is routine. The most-graded card in the report, Mega Charizard X ex (Mega Evolution Black Star Promos), has 118,426 graded copies and a 48% gem rate: a huge population in which a large share of copies come back 10 (57,130 of them), so its gem copies are plentiful rather than scarce. Compare Charizard (Base), with 103,922 graded copies and a 0.5% gem rate: a huge population, yet a 10 remains hard to find, which is the combination a premium is built on. When a population grows quickly, every new 10 is another copy competing for the same buyers.
A population of one is the number most often misread. 2,226 tracked cards have exactly one PSA 10 in the catalogue's population data, and their median raw price is $0.25 — 98.5% of them are worth under $25 raw, and only 1 is $500 or more. For most of these cards the pop of one means one collector has sent the card in so far, not that gem copies are scarce; nobody grades bulk commons, so their populations stay tiny whatever condition the raw copies are in. Scarcity only carries a price when the card is one people want — the rarest Pokémon cards are low-pop and in demand — and enough copies have been submitted for the low count to mean something.
Read a gem rate in three steps. First check the sample: a rate over a dozen submissions is noise, and the hardest and easiest lists on this page will not quote one below a hundred. Then place it in its era — cards from the vintage era gem at 7.8% across 1,892,391 graded copies, against 45.3% for cards released since 2020, so a vintage card at a rate that would look poor on a modern card may be entirely normal for its age. Finally remember that the rate is lifetime and self-selected: it averages every submission ever made, including the cleanest copies collectors picked out on purpose, so it tells you how hard a 10 has been to earn, not the odds your own copy will earn one — for that, start from its condition and price the submission with the grading ROI tool.
Frequently asked questions
What is a PSA population report?
PSA's running count of every card it has graded, by card and by grade. CardTrack tracks it for 16,941 Pokémon cards and reports the PSA 10 count, the total graded and the gem rate (PSA 10s as a share of everything graded).
What is the overall PSA gem rate for Pokémon cards?
Across 12,730,780 graded copies of 16,941 tracked cards, 35.8% came back PSA 10 and 37.5% PSA 9. The median card gems 25.9% of the time; the average is pulled up by modern cards that gem easily.
Why do gem rates overstate my odds?
The population is self-selected. Collectors grade their cleanest copies, and near-misses get cracked and resubmitted, so the share of 10s in the report is higher than a random raw copy would achieve. Treat a gem rate as an upper bound and weight it by the sample size.
How current is this data?
The PSA population snapshot behind the rankings was taken on 28 September 2026 (6 days ago). PSA adds to the population daily, so counts on a card page can run ahead of a ranking.
Is a pop 1 PSA 10 valuable?
Usually not on its own. 2,226 tracked cards have exactly one PSA 10, and their median raw price is $0.25 — 98.5% of them are worth under $25 raw. A population of one most often means one person has bothered to grade the card so far, not that gem copies are scarce. A low population only carries a premium when the card is in demand and many copies have been submitted, which is why the rarest-gems list above is restricted to valuable cards.