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The No PSA 10 Club: These cards have never been graded as a gem

A small percentage of cards have never gemmed at PSA; cllct highlights eight important ones

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Big names such as Jim Brown, Hulk Hogan, Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle and Wilt Chamberlain all have cards on the list.

Since launching in 1991, PSA has graded more than 75 million sports and trading cards.

Of those cards, more than 25 million have received a PSA 10 grade — the company’s highest score and one of the hobby’s most coveted labels.

Collectively, PSA 10s are far from rare, however, with some cards piling up thousands of copies, including six sports cards that have topped 20,000.

To find something truly exclusive, collectors will instead have to look for the group of cards where a PSA 10 has never been found.

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According to third-party grading tracker GemRate, the “No PSA 10 Club” is highlighted by some of the most coveted chases in the hobby, as well as the roughly 470 cards that have been submitted more than 1,000 times without ever achieving a gem-mint grade.

The 1984 Star set was printed on flimsy paper stock, making card condition quite fragile.
The 1984 Star set was printed on flimsy paper stock, making card condition quite fragile.

Cllct Media recently asked PSA’s grading room about the common fatal flaws for some of the No PSA 10 Club’s most important cards.

1984 Star Basketball Michael Jordan No. 101

It’s possible no card has been more controversial in 2024 than the 1984 Star Basketball Jordan No. 101. Is it Jordan’s true rookie card? That has been the question now more than ever, and the card’s surge in price this year points toward a potential shift in collector sentiment, even if the 1986 Fleer still reigns supreme for many.

Regardless, none of PSA’s 404 graded copies have achieved a 10 — and it’s not just a Jordan problem. Of the more than 7,000 total graded cards from 1984 Star Basketball, just 13 have gemmed.

The highest sale for one of the three PSA 9 examples is the $925,000 paid via private sale in May 2024.

PSA notes: “Usually centering is the No. 1 issue with this card since we resumed grading it in 2022. There is typically a slight tilt to it. Also, the paper stock on this set is very flimsy and fragile, so this leads to easy chipping on the edges, plus corner damage.”

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1958 Topps Baseball Mickey Mantle All-Star No. 487

Print defects are very common with the 1958 Topps Baseball set.
Print defects are very common with the 1958 Topps Baseball set.

Of the cards without a single PSA 10 example, none has been graded more than the 1958 Topps Baseball Mantle All-Star with 11,997 total grades.

Known for delivering baseball to a whole new region, this was the first set to feature the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. The 1958 Topps release also benefited from Topps expanding distribution to the West Coast after never previously extending beyond St. Louis.

Packed with color, both the base set and high-number All-Star series are plagued with surface issues, resulting in just 173 PSA 10s out of the more than 294,000 grades.

The highest public sale for a Mantle All Star PSA 9 is the $63,000 paid at Heritage in 2023.

PSA notes: “Besides the obvious typical culprits — centering and corners — print defects are common with this card. Print dots and "snow" are usually an issue that pops up on the card's red background and can have an effect on eye appeal.

1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A Andre the Giant No. 1 and 1982 Wrestling All-Stars Series A Hulk Hogan No. 2

Centering is often an issue on the 1982 Hulk Hogan card.
Centering is often an issue on the 1982 Hulk Hogan card.

Considered one of the most important wrestling sets ever created, 1982 Wrestling All-Stars also contains two of the most important individual cards for the category.

Featuring bold colors and large borders, centering and surface issues are typically easy to spot. Of the set’s more than 8,000 total grades, just 69 cards have earned 10s, with zero for both Andre the Giant No. 1 and Hulk Hogan No. 2 across a combined 824 grades.

To date, the highest price paid publicly for a PSA-graded Andre Giant No. 1 is $9,000 for a PSA 8 at Goldin in 2023. The top sale for a Hulk Hogan No. 2 is $36,000 for a PSA 9/DNA AUTO at PWCC in 2020.

PSA notes: “On both the Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan cards from this set, centering is almost always the key issue that keeps even the cleanest of copies from earning a PSA 10. It's typically the top-to-bottom centering, specifically.”

1958 Topps Football Jim Brown No. 62

Arguably the best football player of all time, Brown’s 1958 Topps rookie is also considered one of the most important football cards ever.

Jim Brown's rookie ranks as one of the most important football cards.
Jim Brown's rookie ranks as one of the most important football cards.

But as expected, 1958 Topps Football suffers from a number of issues that make it an extremely tough grade, including centering, registration and surface damage.

To date, PSA has graded more than 40,000 cards from the 1958 set, and just seven have secured PSA 10 grades. A little more than 700 cards have been awarded PSA 9s, with more than 100 of those getting there with a qualifier.

PSA has awarded just six PSA 9s and zero 10s for Brown, and those PSA 9 examples have been extremely expensive on the secondary market. According to Card Ladder, one PSA 9 copy sold for $358,000 at Heritage in 2016, and another sold for $336,000 at Heritage in 2017.

PSA notes: “Once again, with cards from the 1950s and this era, print defects — ‘PDs’ as we call them internally — are the culprit here. The fact the background on this card is predominately black, it makes those PDs and that "snow" stand out even more.”

1969 Topps Basketball Wilt Chamberlain No. 1

One of the most important basketball sets to date, 1969 Topps Basketball is easily spotted due to its “tall boy” design, which measures 2-1/2 inches by 4-11/16 inches.

The 1969 Topps "tall-boy" cards do not usually grade well.
The 1969 Topps "tall-boy" cards do not usually grade well.

Of the more than 68,000 examples graded by PSA, just 46 have gemmed.

Outside of the Lew Alcindor rookie card, which has just two PSA 10s, no card has been graded as much as the Chamberlain No. 1, which has never gemmed across more than 2,900 examples.

PSA has awarded the Chamberlain No. 1 just nine total PSA 9s, making it one of the most coveted cards in the entire set. To date, the highest public sale for a PSA 9 was the $276,000 paid at Heritage in 2023 — back when the card had a population of just four.

PSA notes: “Usually, centering has been an issue with this card, along with PDs. These "tall boy" cards also have a much bigger surface area, which makes avoiding PDs on clean copies incredibly tough. You also need to consider that, given the odd size of these cards, preserving them over the years was even tougher than it was with standard sized cards.”

2023 S.I. for Kids Victor Wembanyama No. 1053

Sports Illustrated for Kids cards have a long history in the hobby, but are likely best known for their high difficulty in grading, mostly caused by the perforated edges.

Perforated cards are always very condition sensitive.
Perforated cards are always very condition sensitive.

Not only do collectors have to hope the cards are centered well without print defects, but they must retrieve the cards by tearing them from a larger sheet.

Overall, PSA 10 examples for Wembanyama aren’t hard to find collectively — he’s already among the most graded athletes of all time, and his 2023 Prizm Base already has a PSA 10 population of nearly 23,000.

Wembanyama’s S.I. for Kids card is a very different story, however, and has yet to receive a PSA 10 across more than 1,700 total grades.

At one point, this was among Wembanyama’s key rookie cards, though the market has since shifted to sets released by the traditional manufacturers.

PSA notes: “The centering on this card will always stand out as the biggest issue. It's also worth noting that edges on this perforated card are also tough. You compare this to the iconic Tiger Woods S.I. for Kids card from 1996, that Tiger card seemed to have cleaner separation and edges when removed from the sheet in the magazine than this Wemby card did.”

1964 Topps Baseball Pete Rose All-Star Rookie No. 125

Print defects often plague Pete Rose's 1964 Topps card.
Print defects often plague Pete Rose's 1964 Topps card.

With more than 6,500 total graded examples, the 1964 Topps Baseball Pete Rose All-Star Rookie is the fifth-most graded card to never receive a PSA 10 grade, according to GemRate.

It should be noted this isn’t Rose’s rookie card — that’s his 1963 Topps alongside three other players — but this second-year card remains a popular chase among collectors with Rose featured solo.

There are less than 50 PSA 9 examples, with the highest public sale to date the $42,000 paid at Heritage in October 2024, just a month after Rose’s death.

PSA notes: “Once again, PDs are the most common issue with copies of this card we still see submitted raw to PSA. The most common area where they show is down by Pete Rose's name and "Second Base" on the black stripe at the bottom of the card.”

Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.