PSA pop report: how to read it, and why population moves graded Pokémon prices

The PSA population report, or “pop report,” is PSA’s running tally of every card it has graded and slabbed, broken down by set, card, and grade. It’s free at psacard.com/pop and updated daily.

It is the closest thing the hobby has to a supply count for graded cards, but it isn’t a count of every card that exists. And the number most people look at, the total, is usually the least useful one.

Key takeaways

• The pop report counts cards PSA has graded, not cards that exist. Cards PSA rejected, and cards nobody sent in, aren’t in it.
• Read the grade, not the total. What matters is how many copies sit at your grade and above.
• The share that gets a 10 varies hugely. About 2.1%–2.3% of graded 1st Edition Base Set Charizards are PSA 10s. For Moonbreon (Umbreon VMAX #215), it’s about 69%.
• Counts run high. Cards cracked out and resubmitted, or crossed over from another grader, can be counted more than once.
• Every grader keeps its own report. A card’s PSA count says nothing about its CGC or BGS copies.

How to find a card in the pop report#

1. Go to psacard.com/pop and search for the set, or browse to the trading card category.
2. Pick the year and set as PSA names it. The English Base Set is filed under 1999 as Pokemon Game, with each printing as a separate variety.
3. Find the card by number and name, and make sure the variety matches your card: 1st Edition, Shadowless, holo, and other varieties each get their own row.
4. Read across the row. There’s a column for each grade from 1 to 10, plus half grades, Authentic (genuine but not given a number), and the total.

A row’s counts are for that exact card and variety only. A 1st Edition Charizard and an Unlimited Charizard are different rows with very different numbers.

What the numbers mean: three Charizards#

Here’s how PSA has graded the Base Set Charizard in its 1st Edition, Shadowless, and Unlimited varieties:

Trackers that mirror PSA’s report agree on the PSA 10 counts but differ by a few percent on totals, depending on whether they count half grades, qualified grades, and Authentic slabs, so we show the range. Figures as of Oct 20, 2026.

Two things stand out. The 1st Edition is the scarcest printing by total, with fewer than 6,000 copies graded against more than 90,000 Unlimited ones. And it’s the one most likely to get a 10: roughly 4 to 6 times the rate of the other two. The pop report can’t tell you why; it only tells you how many.

That’s why the PSA 10 count, not the total, drives the price of a top-grade card. There are 123 1st Edition PSA 10 Charizards, ever. That number is what a buyer bidding on one is really looking at.

Modern cards: big totals, lots of 10s#

Modern cards are the opposite case. PSA has graded 31,507 copies of Moonbreon, the Umbreon VMAX alternate art from Evolving Skies, and 21,776 of them are PSA 10s, about 69% (as of Oct 13, 2026), the reverse of the vintage Charizards.

With that many 10s, a PSA 10 Moonbreon is a common slab: its price rests on demand for the card, not on the grade being rare. And a PSA 9 of a card where most copies get 10s sits below thousands of better copies, unlike a 9 of a card where 10s are rare.

What the pop report leaves out#

PSA itself points out the first two:

• Cards that exist but were never sent in. Most people don’t pay to grade low-grade cards, so low grades are underrepresented, especially for vintage cards.
• Cards PSA rejected. Cards PSA turns away for alteration, restoration, or questionable authenticity aren’t counted.
• Other graders. CGC, Beckett, and SGC each keep separate reports. A card with a small PSA population may have more copies in other holders.

And some numbers run high:

• Resubmissions. Collectors crack cards out of slabs and resubmit them hoping for a better grade. Unless the old certification is removed from the report, one card can be counted twice, most often just below a 10, where resubmitting is most tempting.
• Crossovers. A card graded by another company and then by PSA can appear in both companies’ reports.
• Cards in the queue. The report only counts cards PSA has finished. During a rush, many more may be waiting.

Qualifiers you’ll see on labels#

Some cards are graded with a qualifier: a code for one significant flaw on a card that otherwise meets its grade. PSA uses six:

A qualified grade like “PSA 8 OC” flags a flaw the number alone doesn’t show, so read the whole label, not just the number.

How to use it#

• Before buying a graded card, check how many copies share its grade and how many sit above it.
• Before grading your own, check what share of submitted copies reach a 10. If it’s high, a 9 will be competing with a lot of 10s for buyers. Our guides cover what grading costs and how to get cards graded.
• Verify the slab itself with a cert lookup; the pop report can’t tell you whether a particular slab is genuine.
• For the all-time records behind cards like the 1st Edition Charizard, see the rarest Pokémon cards.

Sources#

• PSA, Population Report and Market Report: Population Perspective (what the report counts and leaves out).
• PSA, FAQ (qualifiers).
• Charizard counts, as of Oct 20, 2026:
  • TCGScreener, Charizard #4 1st Edition
  • Better Pop, 1st Edition Charizard pop report
  • Cardboard Police, 1999 Pokémon #4 Charizard 1st Edition
  • Pikawiz, Base Set PSA population report
• Moonbreon counts: PSA population via TCGScreener, as of Oct 13, 2026.
• Resubmissions and crossovers: Cardhound Vintage and GrailRank.