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Trading card grading volume peaked with a record 3.5 million cards holdered by the major authenticators in June. According to graded card tracker GemRate, June’s total easily passed the previous single-month high of 3.1 million cards behind record output from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), Certified Guarantee Company (CGC), Beckett (BGS) and TAG as the grading companies struggle to keep up with historic demand for their services. The high-end sports card market continued to thrive in June with four cards topping $1 million or more at public auction, including auction records for NBA stars LeBron James and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Here’s an overview of what happened across the hobby throughout the month of June.

Top sports card sales in June

1. 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection LeBron James Rookie Patch Autograph /23 BGS 9.5/Auto 10: $2,928,000
2. 2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani Superfractor 1/1 BGS 9.5: $2,562,000
3. 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 8: $1,830,000
4. 2025-26 Topps Chrome Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Gold Logoman Autograph 1/1: $1,061,000
5. 1958 Alifabolaget Pele PSA 9: $976,000

Source: Card Ladder (June 1 to June 30)

A handful of public sales stood out in June, including the more than $2.9 million paid through a Goldin auction for a 2003-04 James rookie patch autograph card limited to just 23 made. That result is a record for any James card sold at public auction, though there are four known private sales that have eclipsed that result. The 2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani Superfractor 1/1 sold for more than $2.5 million to set a record for an Ohtani rookie card at public auction. (The record for any Ohtani card is the $3 million paid for a one-of-a-kind card featuring an autograph and a gold MLB Logoman patch celebrating his 2024 MVP season.)

Best-selling athletes: Harper gets playoff bump

1. Michael Jordan (39.4k)
2. Victor Wembanyama (36.9k)
3. Cooper Flagg (19.6k)
4. Dylan Harper (17.1k)
5. Shohei Ohtani (15.0k)

Source: Market Movers

A quartet of regulars in this space was joined by Dylan Harper in June behind a run of strong performances throughout the NBA Playoffs. Cooper Flagg has been the hobby darling from the 2025 NBA Draft class, though Harper has now established himself as a key contributor in a crowded San Antonio Spurs lineup. Victor Wembanyama is the clear star for the Spurs but Harper averaging 14 points per game on 51 percent shooting from the floor during the playoffs has the No. 2 overall pick in the conversation for the team’s top sidekick. What’s noticeably absent from this NBA-heavy list, however, is anyone from the champion New York Knicks. Finals MVP Jalen Brunson certainly saw rises in card values last month, but collectors have been far more focused on the young Spurs than the veteran Knicks.

Notable rises in value: Collectors dig the fastball

1. Jacob Misiorowski (+28.5 percent)
2. Dylan Harper (+10.2 percent)
3. Michael Jordan (+5.5 percent)
4. Ken Griffey Jr. (+3.7 percent)
5. LeBron James (+3.5 percent)

Source: Market Movers (minimum 5,000 sales)

Collectors are somewhat cautious by nature, so the potential for elbow and shoulder injuries has typically made pitchers less popular than baseball’s top hitters. There are of course some exceptions — Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan are beloved by hobbyists — and Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes has broken the trend recently with a sale of $1.1 million in 2024. Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski and his record-setting 105.5 mph fastball appears to be the latest pitcher to buck collecting norms.

In addition to being almost unhittable so far this season, Misiorowski might be gaining some interest because he’s also a well-known hobbyist himself. Collectors love connecting with other collectors and Misiorowski is among MLB’s growing number of stars, including Mike Trout, Chris Sale and Bobby Witt Jr., who collect sports and/or Pokémon cards.

Going down: Trouble for Jaxson Dart

1. Victor Wembamyama (-15.0 percent)
2. Munetaka Murakami (-13.5 percent)
3. Jaxson Dart (-9.9 percent)
4. Stephon Castle (-8.6 percent)
5. Cooper Flagg (-5.7 percent)

Source: Market Movers (minimum 5,000 sales)

The NBA offseason drop hit the card markets for Kon Knueppel, Flagg and VJ Edgecombe last month and it’s now spread to Wembanyama and Castle following the NBA Finals. This is part of the normal card market cycle so collectors holding key cards shouldn’t be worried too much.

The same can’t be said for Jaxson Dart, who has now landed in this space for four consecutive months. Some of his market drop can be explained by normal regression following a significant price run-up during last season. But casual collectors will be shifting some focus to football with the NFL season closing in and hardcore hobbyists have likely already done so to grab key cards at a discount. It’s hard to say Dart’s market is in serious danger right now, but it could get there fast if we don’t start to see more evidence of a turnaround soon.

Best-selling cards: Murakami rises despite injury

1. 2026 Bowman Jacob Misiorowski Sterling #BST-13 (2.1k)
2. 2026 Bowman Mega Box Jacob Misiorowski Chrome #35 (1.6k)
3. 2026 Topps Jacob Misiorowski Base #10 (1.5k)
4. 2026 Bowman Mega Box Munetaka Murakami Chrome #9 (1.5k)
5. 2026 Bowman Munetaka Murakami Base #9 (1.3k)

Source: Market Movers

Misiorowski’s jump in price growth above makes these three cards landing here unsurprising, but it’s a bit of a shock to see Munetaka Murakami so popular in June. The market for Murakami to come to the United States this offseason wasn’t as strong as expected. Collectors adapted quickly when he slugged 15 home runs in his first 40 games and his early Bowman cards have been key targets.

Murakami missed all of June with a hamstring strain but when these cards are trending for less than $25, it’s not a big risk to snag them even when he’s on the Injured List. Don’t be surprised if his market surges when he’s back in the lineup.

Grading recap: Volume hits record high

1. PSA (2.5 million total cards, 726k sports cards)
2. CGC (763k total cards, 135k sports cards)
3. BGS (146k total cards, 52k sports cards)
4. TAG (54k total cards, 3k sports cards)
5. SGC (39k total cards, 37k sports cards)

Source: GemRate (June 1 to June 30)

Grading has been a key part of the hobby for more than two decades but we’ve simply never seen submission volume like this. GemRate recently dropped data for the first half of 2026 and PSA has already eclipsed 12 million graded cards (the company graded a little more than 19 million in all of 2025). Trading card games, largely made up of Pokémon submissions, have accounted for 12.5 million of the 17.5 million total graded cards from the major authenticators through June, which has caused major slowdowns that have heavily impacted sports card collectors too.

A key question hobbyists have had is whether any of the other major authenticators could challenge PSA’s dominance in the space. Based on these returns, the gap might end up being bigger than ever in 2026.

What sellers are saying

June was a big month for basketball with the NBA Playoffs and collectors have now shifted some focus to soccer during the FIFA World Cup. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are among the most collectible soccer players ever, while Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe are more younger favorites in the hobby.

“Soccer’s been crazy. I mean, I expected that to be good going in. It’s definitely exceeded expectations. It’s been really, really good,” said eBay Live seller Stephen Tingwall, owner of Columbia Sports Cards in Vancouver, WA. “(Collectors are) definitely chasing the GOATs. Ronaldo, Messi, Haaland, Neymar, all the guys that you would expect. Those guys have had a great run, but I think that run has really been more than expected.”

Hobbyists have been closely monitoring PSA’s grading backlog, which has been cut from about 14 million cards at the beginning of June to roughly 12 million cards last week. PSA paused its cheapest services in order to cut into that backlog and anticipates reopening those impacted services when the backlog is below five million cards. Some shops like Columbia Sports Cards, which act as group submittors to PSA, stand to be impacted as the backlog continues. According to Tingwall, Columbia Sports Cards will be most impacted by fewer graded cards coming in to bolster the shop’s inventory.

“When it comes to PSA, that’s never been something where we make a ton of profit off the submissions. We’re charging pretty much what we make off of it,” Tingwall said. “I think we’re going to see a little more of it in the next few months when a lot of the cards would have been coming back from these submissions, and now all of a sudden we’re not going to see those cards coming back.”

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