It’s been a busy month for us, as we’ve now gotten results from 5 different submissions. We’re going to look at one of these submissions, a Value Max sub with just 8 cards. While this is a bit of a smaller submission in terms of the number of cards, it’s a pretty normal submission in terms of card value.
In total, the submitted cards were worth just under $5,100 before the cost of grading. We also had very strong grading results, which contributed to the strong profitability you will see below.
In total, we projected just a 43% gem rate on our submitted cards (which would mean just 3 or 4 of the 8 cards grade as PSA 10s), but we actually received 6 PSA 10s, good for 75%.
This isn’t too surprising — we generally overperform our estimates and are actively working on improving our modeling to be more accurate. With that said, usually the overperformance is not this extreme.
Biggest Surprises
There were a few cards which we thought had fairly low chances at grading as PSA 10s that wound up grading as 10s. When these low probability cards grade as PSA 10s, they usually drive strong profitability above projections.
1. 2024 Caitlin Clark Prizm WNBA Logo #145
Main Defect: White dots/marks covering portion of the front surface.
Expected PSA 10 Probability: 30%
Actual Grade: PSA 10
We felt that this card had a chance of grading as a PSA 10, as these surface marks were small and didn’t create any indentations into the card (read more here). With that said, we’ve never submitted a card with marks quite like this, so we were pleasantly surprised by the result.
2. 2023 Victor Wembanyama Prizm Silver #136
Main Defect: Small indent on top edge on back of the card.
Expected PSA 10 Probability: 25%
Actual Grade: PSA 10
We’re very cautious with edge issues because we find that PSA is very strict with these, but in this case the defect was pretty small. Also note that there is a print line in the picture above, but because this print line was only visible in certain lighting, it was unlikely to have a major effect on grading (read more here).
Profitability Review
Net Purchase Price includes all PSA grading costs. Net Sale Price includes the sale price less any eBay/PSA selling fees. Cards that have not sold yet will show the Net Sale Price based on CardLadder Value Estimate.
1. 2018 Yordan Alvarez Bowman Chrome Auto Blue PSA 9
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price (estimated) | $1,364.40
Net Purchase Price | $744.96
Total Profit | $619.44
Total ROI | 83.15%
Notes: We’ve gotten a bit of a boost in value from this card from Alvarez’s Triple Crown-contending season, which is why we’re projecting solid profit even on a PSA 9. Net Sale Price estimated based on CardLadder’s value estimate of $1,516, less the 10% fee that PSA Vault charges on cards over $1,000.
2. 2024 Caitlin Clark Prizm WNBA Logo #145 PSA 10
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price (estimated) | $1,642.50
Net Purchase Price | $715.55
Total Profit | $926.95
Total ROI | 129.54%
Notes: Pretty much all the 2024 Prizm cards graded at pretty low Gem Rates, so I was a bit surprised by this PSA 10. Net Sale Price estimated based on CardLadder’s value estimate of $1,825, less the 10% fee that PSA Vault charges on cards over $1,000.
3. 2023 Victor Wembanyama Prizm Silver #136 PSA 10
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price | $2,798.25
Net Purchase Price | $894.00
Total Profit | $1,904.25
Total ROI | 213.00%
Notes: This is generally a card that has a high multiple (i.e. the PSA 10 price is much higher than the raw price), but we also got a boost in value from Wemby’s NBA Finals run.
4. 2025 Cooper Flagg Topps Chrome Sapphire #251 PSA 10
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price | $2,502.50
Net Purchase Price | $1,138.32
Total Profit | $1,364.18
Total ROI | 119.84%
Notes: We got a bit lucky here, as this card’s market rose a bit for no apparent reason while it was in grading. Note too that the centering for 2025 Topps Chrome products is quite tricky. You can read our analysis of that here.
5. 2018 Shohei Ohtani Topps Chrome #150 PSA 10
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price | $1,461.40
Net Purchase Price | $601.37
Total Profit | $860.03
Total ROI | 143.01%
Notes: This is a card we’ve bought a lot of, and almost all have graded as PSA 10s. We’ve made more money on Shohei Ohtani cards than any other player/TCG character since starting this business.
6. 2024 Konnor Griffin Bowman Chrome Auto PSA 10
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price | $1,117.43
Net Purchase Price | $770.95
Total Profit | $346.48
Total ROI | 44.94%
Notes: Unfortunately, Griffin has missed most of this season due to an injury, which held down the profit on this card in spite of it grading as a PSA 10.
7. 2018 Shohei Ohtani Topps Chrome #HMT32 PSA 10
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price | $1,012.32
Net Purchase Price | $479.99
Total Profit | $532.33
Total ROI | 110.90%
Notes: This is another Topps Chrome Ohtani that we’ve gotten mostly PSA 10s on, leading to strong profitability.
8. 2018 Shohei Ohtani Topps Gold Label Class 1 #17 PSA 9
ROI & Profitability:
Net Sale Price | $390.92
Net Purchase Price | $461.61
Total Profit | -$70.69
Total ROI | -15.31%
Notes: We thought this card looked like a PSA 10 when we submitted it, but grading is subjective and paper cards can be tricky. In general, we have no problem with small losses on anything that grades as a PSA 9.
Overall Results
Total Net Sale Price | $12,289.72
Total Net Purchase Price | $5,806.75
Total Submission Profit | $6,482.97
Total Submission ROI | 111.65%
Generally we target a minimum of 25% ROI, but on average we outperform this by a lot. This is for a few reasons. One is that this is a minimum threshold, which means we actually project about 25% returns on most of what we buy. Additionally, we usually get more PSA 10s than we estimate. Finally, for this submission in particular, the cards we submitted rose in value on average, which of course further helps to boost returns.
This is a good look at what a strong PSA submission looks like. Even for us, our average ROI tends to be closer to 40%, and we usually have a handful of losses on cards that grade as PSA 9s and under.
Most Profitable To Buy & Grade Now
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1. 2023 All Aces Shohei Ohtani
This is our most bought card of 2026 by a lot. These go for around $1,000 as PSA 10s and have a Gem Rate north of 50%.
2. 2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani HMT1
This continues to be one of our most bought cards, with PSA 10 values around $1,000, raw values around $300, and a Gem Rate above 60%.
3. Dylan Harper Topps Chrome #252
This might be the card with the best grading math on the market now. Specifically, the Refractor and Blue X-Fractor have great grading math, while the Prism Refractor and X-Fractor are great if you’re buying on a budget.
4. 2020 Bowman Chrome Pete Crow-Armstrong Refractor
Great cheap card to get some exposure to the MVP favorite. Raw cards go for around $150, while PSA 10s are over $800.
5. 2022 Bowman Chrome Sapphire Jacob Misiorowski
Like the PCA above, this is a cheap way to buy the Cy Young favorite. You can find raw cards for as low as $200, while PSA 10s go for around $800.