High-dollar sales of sportscards are headline grabbers. But you’re just not going to see high-dollar sales of raw post-war cards anymore (whether you like card grading or not, at least authentication is something most people can get behind, but that’s a conversation for another day). Within the post-war sports card market, when PSA grades a Gem Mint 10, it carries weight. But there are a few cards that have yet to have a PSA 10 variant encapsulated. Here is a list of 6 cards that if one were to hit a PSA 10 grade, they would be a monster Pop 1 in the post-war market and command astronomically high prices.
1948 Bowman #18 Warren Spahn
Over the entire release, there are only 25 PSA 10 1948 Bowman baseball cards. But none of them are the Warren Spahn, even after over 1200 submissions. The last PSA 9 Spahn sold for over $15k.
1951 Bowman #305 Willie Mays
This incredible card of the center fielding GOAT has over 1500 cards in the population report, but no perfect 10s. I haven’t seen a sale of a 9 in over a decade, and even then, they were $70k cards.
1952 Topps #407 Ed Mathews
The last card in the most iconic post-war set is hard enough to find in a grade over 7. Zero 10s exist after over 800 submissions. PSA 9 pricing is estimated at over $200k. Imagine what a ten would sell for!
1954 Bowman #66 Ted Williams
The 1954 Bowman Ted Williams is already a famous card in the hobby. Since Williams was under an exclusive contract with Topps, this card was pulled from production. And over 1000 have been graded, again with no 10s. PSA 8s are 5-figure cards.
1969 Topps #85 Lou Brock
There are a few 1969 Topps cards that haven’t even received a grade of 9 yet. And while there are eight 9s out of the 1000 Brock’s graded, there have been zero 10s. Those 9s aren’t readily available either; the last recorded sale is for $4500 in 2012.
1981 Topps #302 Perconte/Scioscia/Valenzuela
Over 2000 Dodger Future Star cards have been submitted to PSA for grading, but there isn’t a single PSA 10. PSA 9s are going for around $150. But this card has become so iconically challenging to get a high grade on that I think the price for a ten would be insane.
There are a bunch of vintage commons that PSA Set Registry competitors would go crazy that may still be “out there,” which haven’t popped a 10 yet. But it’s starting to seem unlikely any of the cards I listed will be among future 10s. The best odds being for perhaps the 1981 Topps Scioscia/Valenzuela.
What zero PSA 10 population baseball cards did I miss that we would consider monsters? Let me know down in the comments or over on Twitter.