Pokémon PSA 9 vs PSA 10 Price Gaps — Week of October 11, 2026
Oct 15, 2026 · prices as of Oct 11, 2026 · generated from CardPrice market data
Why the 9-to-10 jump matters
A PSA 9 and a PSA 10 of the same card can look nearly identical in the holder. One centering nitpick, one faint whitening on a back corner, and a card drops a full grade. But the price difference between those two grades is often not small — it can be the difference between a card that's a nice pickup and one that's a four-figure chase piece. The size of that gap, and how often a given card actually comes back a 10, tells you a lot about whether chasing gem mint is worth it.
The widest gaps right now
| Card | Set | Raw | PSA 9 | PSA 10 | Gap | Multiple | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luxray #71 | Miscellaneous Cards & Products | — | $15.00 | $269.69 | $254.69 | 18 | +38% |
| Victini #XY117 | XY Black Star Promos | — | $329.00 | $5,909 | $5,580 | 18 | +1.9% |
| Victini #XY117 | XY Promos | — | $329.00 | $5,909 | $5,580 | 18 | +1.9% |
| Ivysaur #34 | Crystal Guardians | $17.51 | $34.53 | $620.02 | $585.49 | 18 | +15.9% |
| Glaceon #20 | Majestic Dawn | $18.34 | $66.00 | $1,184 | $1,118 | 17.9 | +3.3% |
| Glaceon #20 | Deck Exclusives | — | $66.00 | $1,184 | $1,118 | 17.9 | +4.9% |
| Chandelure #57 | Hail Blizzard (Japanese) | — | $132.00 | $2,365 | $2,233 | 17.9 | +41.8% |
| Swellow δ #40 | Dragon Frontiers | $1.71 | $50.27 | $899.90 | $849.63 | 17.9 | +25.9% |
| Rayquaza-EX #85 | Dragons Exalted | $37.52 | $190.17 | $3,399 | $3,209 | 17.9 | +20.7% |
| Dark Vileplume #13 | Team Rocket | $41.27 | $89.42 | $1,596 | $1,507 | 17.8 | +3.6% |
| Meowth #53 | Generations | $0.30 | $29.99 | $535.00 | $505.01 | 17.8 | +10.1% |
| Meowth #53 | Miscellaneous Cards & Products | — | $29.99 | $535.00 | $505.01 | 17.8 | +9.7% |
A few things jump out. Victini #XY117 has the largest dollar gap on the list by a wide margin — a PSA 9 sits at $329 while a PSA 10 commands $5,909.39, a gap of $5,580.39. That's true across both its XY Black Star Promos and XY Promos listings, which track together since they're the same physical card. The gem rate behind that gap is just 1.9%, among the lowest on this list. That combination — a huge price jump and a low gem rate — is what drives the gap that high in the first place. Scarcity at the top grade is doing a lot of the work.
Rayquaza-EX #85 from Dragons Exalted is the next-biggest gap in raw dollars, at $3,208.83 between its $190.17 PSA 9 and $3,399 PSA 10. Its gem rate of 20.7% is comparatively healthy, which says the card isn't impossible to find in gem mint — it's just that collector demand at PSA 10 is intense enough to pull the price far ahead of 9s anyway.
Chandelure #57 from Hail Blizzard (Japanese) sits in between, with a $2,233.17 gap and a notably high 41.8% gem rate — the highest on this table. Even with nearly 42% of submissions coming back gem mint, the PSA 10 price still outpaces the PSA 9 by a wide margin, which tells you demand for this card in top grade is simply strong regardless of how available it is.
What the gem rate actually tells you
Gem rate is the share of graded copies that come back a PSA 10. It's a useful gut-check against the price gap. When gem rate is low and the gap is wide — like Victini #XY117 at 1.9% and Glaceon #20 at 3.3% to 4.9% depending on listing — that's a card where a 10 is genuinely hard to pull, and the market is pricing that scarcity in. Dark Vileplume #13 fits the same pattern, with a 3.6% gem rate and a $1,506.70 gap.
Contrast that with Luxray #71. Its gap is the smallest in dollar terms at $254.69, with a gem rate of 38%, and it carries the same 18x multiple between grades as several other cards here. A gem rate in the high 30s or 40s means a meaningful chunk of raw copies are already clean enough to grade well, so the all-or-nothing gamble on a 10 is less steep — the gap exists, but it's smaller in absolute dollars because PSA 9s and 10s aren't as separated by scarcity.
Meowth #53 from Generations is a good low-dollar example of the same math. Raw copies run $0.30, a PSA 9 brings $29.99, and a PSA 10 jumps to $535 — a gap of $505.01 on a gem rate around 10%. The multiple between 9 and 10 lines up closely with the rest of the list, right around 17-18x, which suggests this spread isn't unique to expensive cards. It shows up across price points whenever gem rate drops into the single digits or low teens.
Reading the multiples
Almost every card on this list carries a multiple between roughly 17.8x and 18x from PSA 9 to PSA 10. That consistency is worth noting — it suggests the market treats a 9-to-10 jump similarly across very different cards and eras, as long as the gem rate is low enough to make a 10 genuinely scarce. The dollar amount of the gap scales with the card's overall price level, but the multiple stays in a tight band.
A practical takeaway
If you're deciding whether to submit a raw card for grading, the gem rate here is more informative than the price gap alone. A card with a wide gap but a healthy gem rate — like Chandelure at 41.8% — is less of a gamble than one with the same size gap and a gem rate under 5%. None of this is a guarantee of future returns; grading outcomes vary by submission batch and print run. But the numbers are a reasonable starting point for sizing up risk before you send a card in.