PSA and CGC lead record breaking grading report for May
With more than 2.4 million cards graded during the month of May, the sports and trading card grading industry saw yet another record-breaking month, with total grading activity up 14% from April and an impressive 36% year-over-year increase, according to GemRate.
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When we take a closer look at each of the individual grading companies, and how they performed in May, PSA led the way, followed by CGC, SGC, and Beckett. PSA graded an impressive 1.65M cards which was up 6% vs. April and 21% on a year-over-year basis, which was a record high. CGC, which posted a strong showing being 2nd overall, graded 570K cards which was up 67% vs. April and 209% on a year-over-year basis, which was led my nearly 100,000 submissions related to the Topps 50/50 Shohei Ohtani cards. Coming in 3rd place was SGC, which graded 145K cards and that number was down 13% vs. April and down 17% on a year-over-year basis. Lastly, Beckett graded 59K cards, which was a 3% increase vs. April but a 1% decrease on a year-over-year basis.
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🚨GemRate | May ’25 Grading Recap
— GemRate (@gemrate) June 2, 2025
📝 Overall grading activity was ⬆14% in May compared to April and ⬆36% YoY.
— May results set a new high for the fourth consecutive month.
— Grading activity crossed 2.4 million cards in May, up ~300k compared to April.
📊Overall Summary
—… pic.twitter.com/kFrL8t6qgX
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In an effort to help clarify these respected increases and decreases in overall volume, we must also note the difference in the number of days in April 2025 vs. May 2025. For example, there were 21 business days in May 2025, 22 business days in April 2025, and 22 business days in May 2024. On a per business day basis, PSA’s numbers were 11% higher month-over-month, CGC’s numbers were 75% higher month-over-month, SGC’s numbers were 9% lower month-over-month, and lastly Beckett’s numbers were 8% higher month-over-month.
When it comes to the sports card category, PSA graded 602K cards, while CGC graded 177K cards, SGC graded 133K cards and Beckett graded 26K cards. For PSA this was an increase of 6% vs. April, but a 30% decrease vs. the year ago period. For CGC this was a decrease of 474% vs. April, but a 631% increase vs. the year ago period. For SGC this was a decrease of 13% vs. April, as well a 13% decrease vs. the year ago period. Lastly, for Beckett this was an increase of 28% vs. April, but a 16% decrease vs. the year ago period.
When it comes to the Trading Card Game (TCG) category, PSA graded 1.05M cards, while CGC graded 393K cards, Beckett graded 33K cards, and SGC graded only 7K cards. For PSA this was an increase of 7% vs. April, as well as a 101% increase vs. the year ago period. For CGC this was an increase of 26% vs. April, as well as a 146% increase vs. the year ago period. For Beckett this was a decrease of 10% vs. April, but a 16% increase vs. the year ago period. Lastly, for SGC this was a decrease of 12% vs. April, as well as a 52% decrease vs. the year ago period.
Now that we’ve examined the four leading grading companies, we must now broadly analyze the two key segments of the grading marketplace, Sports and TCG. We do this by removing the grading companies themselves from the equation and examining the broader numbers. One we do that, we can then see that there were 1.483M TCG cards that were collectively graded by PSA, CGC, SGC and Beckett versus only 942K Sports cards that were collectively graded by PSA, CGC, SGC and Beckett, which means that there were 1.57 TCG cards graded for every 1 Sports Card that was graded.
In summary, not only was May 2025 another record-breaking month for the grading industry, but it was clear that the surge in grading demand was led far and away by TCG vs, Sports Cards. As grading activity across each of the top four grading companies continues to accelerate, it’s a clear sign that momentum could carry well into the summer at which point we could see if more records broken.
Passionate sports card collector and writer based in Queens, NY. Lifelong fan of the New York Mets, Jets, and Rangers. Covering sports cards and collectibles with deep industry knowledge and enthusiasm, while bringing a fresh perspective to the ever-evolving hobby world on http://SI.com/collectibles.
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