Sports Card Investing - Targeting MLB and NBA PSA 9 Cards: July 8, 2020
With the return of MLB and NBA both just a few weeks away, I’m going to use SportsCardInvestor.com’s Market Movers data to check out the recent price action in these players and see if I can find some PSA 9 cards which might present good buying opportunities. You can sign up for your own Market Movers Subscription to access the data on your own and by using the promo code GRINDERS you will get 20% off your first payment on any subscription. You will want to sign up for Market Movers specifically in order to access the great tools and data, and if you sign up for the annual Market Movers subscription, you will save you 20% on the entire year instead of just the first month. I’ll be adding additional targets at the end of the article from previous articles so you can see if you can still find the cards within the target range.
We will generally target Panini brands for football and basketball as they own exclusive NFL and NBA rights for sports cards. Just like DFS, be sure to manage your bankroll and don’t spend more than what your budget allows. Make sure you pay attention to the grading when looking at targets. Grading makes a huge difference in price, so price targets will be based on grading. An ungraded card is referred to as “Raw”. When targeting a Raw card, try to find one with the best centering, corners and edges (and surface if you can tell) as that is a card that might be worth sending in for grading. We’ll use SportsCardInvestor’s Market Movers data to evaluate current-market price targets based on what people have been paying most recently. Go above/below that market rate based on your convictions and confidence levels by player.
NBA and MLB Sports Card Targets For July 8th, 2020
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Gleyber Torres – We’ll start with Gleyber Torres here. I’m going to take a look at the PSA 9 version of his 2018 Topps Heritage card. I found the PSA 10 on the Market Movers “Price Movements By Card” list and noticed it had been moving significantly to the upside recently. When I see this happen I run a comparison of the PSA 9 and 10 cards using the Market Movers “Popular Card Charts” feature to try and see if the PSA 9 is lagging in price action. With this Gleyber card, I did find some lagging of the PSA 9 and wanted to note it in today’s article as a potential target. Back on May 21st, the PSA 9 caught up a bit to a PSA 10 move to reach 40% of the value. Currently the PSA 9 is only worth 24% of the PSA 10 value so there is an opportunity to almost double your return there if the PSA 9 trend follows that upward price action. Consider buying several in order to make the investment worthwhile as the PSA 9 price is only $14. If you’re more interested in the PSA 10 I would target under $50.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2018 Gleyber Torres Topps Heritage PSA 10 | Target Under $50 |
 | 2018 Gleyber Torres Topps Heritage PSA 9 | Target Under $15 |
Shohei Ohtani – Shohei’s 2018 Topps Chrome Update PSA 10 cards have been on an upward swing recently and it seems the gap between PSA 9 and 10 is significantly more than normal right now. As of July 8th, as I write this article, the PSA 9 is valued at 32% of the PSA 10 vs 41% back on May 30th. If the PSA 9 can close that gap closer to that June 20th difference we could be looking at 60%+ upside. MLB demand will likely be up as the season starts so if you can find a lot of the PSA 9 cards it would be worth considering as they are only $45 currently.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2018 Shohei Ohtani Topps Chrome Update PSA 10 | Target Under $105 |
 | 2018 Shohei Ohtani Topps Chrome Update PSA 9 | Target Under $45 |
Devin Booker – We’re going to shift gears now and take a look at some NBA players starting with Devin Booker. The Phoenix Suns are still in the playoff hunt so Devin Booker still has an opportunity to drive his card values up this season. This comparison chart between his 2015 Devin Booker Prizm Base PSA 9 and 10 cards is exactly what I like to look for when searching for value. You can see diverging trends and if you are betting that the PSA 10 is a leading indicator of where the PSA 9 is headed then it should be an easy flip. As recently as June 7th the PSA 9 held 36% of the PSA 10 value. Currently, at $123.40 the PSA 9 is 25% of the value so if the PSA 9 can catch up to that recent trend, we could be looking at close to 50% upside.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2015 Devin Booker Prizm Base PSA 10 | Target Under $480 |
 | 2015 Devin Booker Prizm Base PSA 9 | Target Under $130 |
Brandon Ingram – Brandon Ingram is a name that’s been named several times on our Sports Card Grinders shows. Ingram is playing on the New Orleans Pelicans with the hottest name in the sports card industry, Zion Williamson, so it’s easy to overlook him. But if New Orleans is going to make any noise in the playoffs they will need more than Zion to be successful, and Ingram is a solid player that can help his team succeed. His recent 2016 Prizm Base PSA 10 chart shows that people are waking up to Brandon Ingram, but his PSA 9 chart hasn’t caught on yet. As of July 8th, his PSA 9 holds 37% of the PSA 10 value. At the end of May that was closer to 40%. That’s only about 10% upside in that context but judging from the widening gap in the chart it might be worth getting ahead of an exponential rise. I’d focus on the PSA 9 here, but if interested in the PSA 10 maybe target under $300.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2016 Brandon Ingram Prizm Base PSA 10 | Target Under $300 |
 | 2016 Brandon Ingram Prizm Base PSA 9 | Target Under $120 |
Shai Gilgeous Alexander – Shai is a player I’ve head Sports Card Investor’s Geoff Wilson mention on our show a couple times in the past and based on the recent price action, it looks like a good time to buy his 2018 Prizm Base PSA 9 cards. If OKC goes far in the playoffs he will likely have a significant role and the added attention on him could drive his card prices up even higher than the PSA 10s have already gone. In early June the PSA 9 held 35% of the PSA 10 value. As of July 6th, the PSA 9 held 27% of the PSA 10 value. That represents about 30% upside if the PSA 9 can catch up to that recent price difference. At $72.75 the PSA 9 cards represent a good value with pretty low risk and might make a decent flip if you can buy several.
Chart Courtesy of SportsCardInvestor.com
| Sports Card | Description | Target Price |
 | 2018 Shai Gilgeous Alexander Base PSA 10 | Target Under $270 |
 | 2018 Shai Gilgeous Alexander Base PSA 9 | Target Under $75 |
As always you can sign up for your own Market Movers Subscription to access the data on your own and by using the promo code GRINDERS you will get 20% off your first payment on any subscription.
As a new bonus in our articles, we are going to list all the cards from recent articles that you can check out to see if you can still buy at the target prices. Just click right on the links next to the cards to get to the eBay searches. Here are the additional targets we’ve recently featured in our articles:
