Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) has reached several significant milestones since its inception in 1991. Over the past 28 years, it has certified more than 34 million different trading cards, autographs and sports collectibles. On March 22, 2018, it announced its 30 millionth collectible certified with the submission of a 2000 Playoff Contenders #144 Tom Brady autographed rookie card. But because this hobby is not built on sports alone, it has also been amassing an impressive lineup of non-sports cards that have been submitted for authentication and grading purposes. Toward that end, PSA is happy to announce that it has just reached another milestone: the certification of its 1 millionth graded Pokémon card!
“The support shown by the Pokémon collecting community has been tremendous. The majority of the million cards were graded inside the last three years, which is quite remarkable,” said Collectors Universe CEO Joe Orlando. “There is also a lesson to be learned here: Every generation defines what is nostalgic to them. Pokémon started its rise in the U.S. during the late 1990s. Today, the young people who were playing the classic game then are now well into adulthood. As a result, the game has enjoyed a kind of rebirth in the hobby. That fact coupled with the continued global popularity of the game enabled PSA to reach the million-card milestone.”
The historic, PSA-certified Pokémon card turned out to be the Full Art Charizard GX card (#SV49) from the 2019 Pokemon Sun and Moon Hidden Fates expansion set. A colorful card depicting the popular monster, it boasts a powerful 300 HP attack using its Crimson Storm. This Charizard example is featured in its alternate and rare ‘shiny’ black color. It received PSA’s highest grade of Gem Mint 10.
The highly successful trading card game (TCG) debuted in 1999 and has cultivated an incredible following of Pokémon devotees ever since. After its release, some of the cards started trickling into PSA for authentication, grading and encapsulating. In mid-1999, for instance, PSA received its first submission of 11 Pokémon cards. That number grew slowly over the next several years, but in 2008, PSA received 757 Pokémon card submissions, which was followed by 1,060 submissions in 2009 and 1,842 submissions in 2010. In 2013, however, those numbers picked up dramatically with 18,874 Pokémon submissions. Note: Not every card submitted passed authentication, but a significant number of them did. Those numbers have continued to grow from tens of thousands of Pokémon card submissions every year to hundreds of thousands more recently.
PSA President Steve Sloan added: “We’ve seen a phenomenal rise in the number of Pokémon cards being submitted to us each year and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Pokémon collecting community for putting their trust in us.”
PSA is the world’s largest trading card, autograph and memorabilia authentication and grading service. Since 1991, PSA has examined and certified over 34 million collectibles with a combined value of over $1 billion. For more information, visit www.PSAcard.com.
