For starters, we’ll use 1986 Topps as our subject.  The black portion of the card at the top can make it a bit difficult to find a PSA 10 worthy card, but since it is a junk wax era card, you have millions of shots at each card.

A fellow collector that goes by the name of jordangretzkyfan has a quest to build PSA 10 sets of all the 80s sets by busting box after box.  He has documented it here and it has been a real treat to follow.  Many times, it looks as though he can open an entire box, and only find 2 or 3 PSA 10 contenders on average.  Could you imagine???

I decided to look into prices of a few of these cards in PSA 10 form.  It’s no secret that there are likely millions of these printed, but just to show you how readily available they are in raw form, check out the ’86 Topps Nolan Ryan just from COMC alone:

180 of them ready to be sent to your mailbox at any given time for about a buck a pop.

The pop report of PSA 10 Ryan shows 91.

Now check out the PSA 10 sold prices ….

This isn’t just for Nolan, either!  (Ryno has 7 PSA 10 ’86 Topps in the pop report.)

Heck, even Eric Davis!

If you think this is exclusive to 1986 Topps, think again.  (This is just one of MANY examples.)

To be fair, the pop report is much, MUCH lower for these guys than Ryan, but even if these had pop reports of 1, I would have never guessed the prices would be this high.  All of this research leads me to one thought:

1986 Topps will never be made again.  PSA 10 cards however, will.  Throughout the years, more and more PSA 10 cards will pop up.

Since there really is no “cap” to how many PSA 10 cards there will be in the future, do you think the high prices of junk wax PSA 10 cards will hold their value, increase or decrease?  Will their numbers rise higher than the collectors of them, making the prices drop?  Or will the higher prices spark the interest of more people, thus causing their prices to rise if the supply simply can’t keep up?

What are your thoughts?  I’m curious to hear what you think.