Best Cards to Grade in the Base Era
The 27 best Base cards to grade across 6 sets, ranked by PSA 10 ROI. Dark Charizard 004 (First Edition Stamp) leads at 13.8x ($702.78 raw vs $23,581.78 in PSA 10).
ROI is the PSA 10 price against the raw price plus grading cost and PSA's value-tier upcharge, from live market prices and PSA population data. Cards are ranked highest ROI first.
| Rank | Card | Raw | PSA 10 | Gem rate | PSA 10 pop | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dark Charizard 004 (First Edition Stamp) | $702.78 | $23,581.78 | 4.5% | 555 | 13.8x |
| 2 | Zapdos 016 | $22.16 | $2,322.80 | 3.5% | 685 | 13.5x |
| 3 | Mewtwo 010 | $26.99 | $4,456.92 | 1.9% | 597 | 11.8x |
| 4 | Poliwrath 013 | $15.50 | $1,127.74 | 3.7% | 567 | 11.7x |
| 5 | Entei 034 (Reverse Holo) | $22.75 | $1,140.07 | 4.4% | 1,032 | 11.0x |
| 6 | Mew 008 | $10.15 | $414.50 | 20.7% | 3,497 | 9.6x |
| 7 | Surfing Pikachu 028 | $65.94 | $1,406.74 | 18.7% | 1,218 | 9.6x |
| 8 | Venusaur 015 | $69.84 | $4,000.00 | 1.2% | 583 | 9.5x |
| 9 | Dark Dragonite 022 (First Edition Stamp) | $73.24 | $1,350.39 | 11.8% | 535 | 8.8x |
| 10 | Dragonite 005 | $59.08 | $1,800.62 | 8.4% | 1,165 | 8.6x |
17 more Base cards are ranked for Pro members.