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Howdy folks. Welcome to the September 2021 WNBA card PSA POP count update.
It’s clear that PSA has been hard at work grading cards. With over 833,000 of them graded in September, it should come as no surprise that WNBA cards saw another large increase in total population.
Since our last update late in August, PSA graded 761 WNBA cards. This falls short of the record August, but is still 2-3X what we’ve seen in previous months.
Thanks to this output there’s now almost 13,000 WNBA cards in PSA slabs.
2020 Panini Prizm Continues to See It’s POP Count Grow
Already the second most graded WNBA card set of all time, 2020 Panini Prizm WNBA set saw its population grow by almost 400 cards.
The growth in population continues to be fueled by Sabrina Ionescu rookie cards, while Signature series auto and insert sets have cooled off.
If the population growth continues at this rate, we could 2020 become the most graded set ever in the next six months.
That said, it was 2019 Panini Donruss WNBA which saw the largest jump in population growth amongst sets, with a 39% bump from August. This is the largest jump since we’ve been tracking population, and moved the set up a few spots on our list.
| Rank | Set | POP Count | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1997 Pinnacle Inside | 3890 | 3% |
| 2 | 2020 Panini Prizm WNBA | 2359 | 16% |
| 3 | 1999 Hoops | 1959 | <1% |
| 4 | 2000 SkyBox Dominion WNBA | 1030 | <1% |
| 5 | 2000 Fleer Ultra WNBA | 998 | <% |
| 6 | 1999 Fleer Ultra WNBA | 915 | <1% |
| 7 | 2019 Panini Donruss WNBA | 435 | 39 |
| 8 | 1998 Pinnacle WNBA | 353 | <1% |
| 9 | 2001 Fleer Tradition WNBA | 335 | 5% |
| 10 | 2001 Fleer Ultra WNBA | 213 | 1% |
Sabrina Ionescu Base Rookie Card is Now the Most Graded WNBA Card Ever
Well, that didn’t take long.
Thanks to Sabrina madness, her 2020 Panini Prizm WNBA rookie card is now the most grade WNBA card of all time. Let that sync in for a minute.
A second year player, who is finishing their first full season as a pro, is now the most graded card across over 25 years of players and sets. It’s almost unbelievable, and sounds the arrival of WNBA cards or will become one of the poster childs of the hobby’s pandemic era.
Whether or not Sab’s base Prizm rookie becomes our UD Ken Griffey Jr rookie still remains to be seen of course.
But it does make one wonder how much longer before new collectors, flippers, and investors start to more aggressive move into the lower production WNBA cards.
Other notable WNBA rookie cards that saw sizeable jumps include 2001 Ultra WNBA Tamika Catchings, 2001 Ultra WNBA Lauren Jackson, and the 2010 Rittenhouse WNBA Tina Charles.
| Rank | Card | POP Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1997 Pinnacle Inside Sheryl Swoopes | 873 |
| 2 | 2020 Prizm Sabrina Ionescu | 873 |
| 3 | 1997 Pinnacle Inside Cynthia Cooper | 789 |
| 4 | 1997 Pinnacle Inside Lisa Leslie | 604 |
| 5 | 1997 Pinnacle Inside Rebecca Lobo | 149 |
| 6 | 1999 Ultra Chamique Holdsclaw | 143 |
| 7 | 1997 Pinnacle Inside Tina Thompson | 120 |
| 8 | 2000 Fleer Ultra Becky Hammon | 115 |
| 9 | 2004 Ultra Diana Taurasi | 75 |
| 10 | 1999 Ultra Katie Smith | 64 |
| 11 | 1999 Ultra Yolanda Griffith | 59 |
| 12 | 1999 Ultra Dawn Staley | 59 |
| 13 | 2001 Ultra Tamika Catchings | 52 |
| 14 | 2002 Authentix Sue Bird | 46 |
| 15 | 2002 Ultra Sue Bird | 43 |
| 16 | 2020 Prizm Satou Sabally | 43 |
| 17 | 2016 Rittenhouse Breanna Stewart | 38 |
| 18 | 2008 Rittenhouse Candace Parker | 25 |
| 19 | 2011 Rittenhouse Maya Moore | 23 |
| 20 | 2001 Ultra Lauren Jackson | 22 |
| 21 | 2008 Rittenhouse Sylvia Fowles | 21 |
| 22 | 2002 Ultra Swin Cash | 21 |
| 24 | 2013 Rittenhouse Brittney Griner | 19 |
| 25 | 2002 Authentix Swin Cash | 18 |
| 26 | 2013 Rittenhouse Elena Delle Donne | 18 |
| 27 | 2018 Rittenhouse A’ja WIlson | 18 |
| 26 | 2006 Rittenhouse Cappie Pondexter | 16 |
| 28 | 2006 Rittenhouse Seimone Augustus | 15 |
| 29 | 2010 Rittenhouse Tina Charles | 15 |
| 30 | 2011 Rittenhouse Courtney Vandersloot | 12 |
| 31 | 2011 Rittenhouse Liz Cambage | 9 |
| 32 | 2013 Rittenhouse Skylar Diggins | 7 |
| 33 | 2017 Rittenhouse Kelsey Plum | 5 |
| 34 | 2012 Nneka Owgumike | 4 |
| 35 | 2016 Rittenhouse Jonquel Jones | 1 |
That’s it for this month. As the season wraps up in the coming weeks, do you expect to see the same sort of growth, or are we in for an off-season lull?