Quarterly market reports
8 quarterly market-pulse reports — written like a research note, not a marketing post.
Each quarter, we document tracked sales across the eight memorabilia categories, decompose the structural drivers behind the headline numbers, and call out what we are watching into the next quarter. Free to read.
Q1 2026 Market Pulse: A Year of Quiet Strength in Memorabilia
Tracked sales across eight memorabilia categories during the first quarter of 2026. Trading cards remained dominant; political/historical documents posted the steepest year-over-year gain; movie-prop sales softened on supply, not demand.
Of 184 individually-tracked sales above the Field Index threshold ($5,000 for cards, $10,000 for memorabilia, $25,000 for documents and props), Q1 2026 cleared $138.4M in publicly-reported hammer-plus-premium. That is a 9.1% YoY increase over Q1 2025's $126.8M, the slowest quarterly growth rate of the trailing eight quarters but well above the 10-year category average.
Highlights
- 184 tracked sales above category thresholds; 67% sold at or above their high estimate.
- Modern basketball cards posted the strongest single-category quarter since Q4 2021 — three RPA sales above $500K.
- A 1933 Goudey #53 Babe Ruth PSA 9 sold at the conservative low estimate, signaling normalization of pre-war card pricing.
Q4 2025 Market Pulse: The Year Modern Caught Vintage
Q4 2025 sealed the year in which modern-era memorabilia tracked sales caught and briefly passed vintage-era tracked sales for the first time in the recorded series. The shift was not driven by single record-setting outliers — it was the mid-tier.
Q4 2025 saw $164.2M in publicly-reported tracked sales, the fourth quarter in a row above $150M. Across the calendar year, $584.7M flowed through tracked Field Index sales — up 11.4% from 2024's $524.8M. Modern-era memorabilia (1981–present, by category-specific cut-off) accounted for 51% of tracked dollars for the first time.
Highlights
- $584.7M in 2025 tracked sales — second-highest annual figure on record, behind 2022's $621.4M.
- Modern-era tracked dollars (51%) edged vintage-era (49%) for the first calendar year.
- Five sales above $5M in Q4 alone, including the Ruby Slippers ($32.5M at Heritage in December).
Q3 2025 Market Pulse: Authentication Bottleneck Becomes the Story
Q3 2025 saw $144.6M in tracked sales — solid, sequential growth — but the operative story was the widening authentication-service backlog. PSA, BGS, and SGC all extended turnaround times. Items in queue are not items on auction.
Tracked sales held above $140M for the fourth consecutive quarter, but PSA's reported turnaround time for standard service crossed 90 days for the first time in two years. The backlog is a leading indicator: items in queue today are auction lots in 2026.
Highlights
- $144.6M in tracked sales — within +3% of Q2 2025's $140.3M.
- PSA standard turnaround crossed 90 days for the first time since Q4 2022.
- BGS announced a 'submission pause' for non-bulk service tiers in August.
Q2 2025 Market Pulse: Documented Provenance Becomes the Premium
Q2 2025 was the quarter the market re-priced provenance documentation. Items with verifiable chain-of-custody — auction-house archives, museum records, estate trust documents — pulled away from otherwise-comparable items lacking that trail. The spread is now 30–60%.
Tracked sales held at $140.3M, essentially flat to Q1 2025. Under that surface, provenance-documented items posted significant outperformance versus items relying on COA-alone, signaling a market re-pricing event around documentation quality.
Highlights
- $140.3M in tracked sales, sequentially flat to Q1 2025.
- Documented-provenance items outperformed COA-alone equivalents by 30–60%.
- Heritage's June Sports Signature Auction cleared $25.4M, the strongest June since 2022.
Q1 2025 Market Pulse: A Stable Start After Two Hard Years
Q1 2025 was the first quarter that did not require a 'compared to a difficult prior period' caveat. Tracked sales held above $125M, modern-cards recovered to within striking distance of 2021 levels, and the foundational comps stabilized.
Q1 2025 produced $126.8M in tracked sales — sequentially up from Q4 2024's $122.4M, and the first 'normal' quarter since the 2023 corrections. Modern football cards, movie props, and political/historical documents drove the gains.
Highlights
- $126.8M in tracked Q1 sales — the strongest Q1 since 2022's $164.1M.
- 1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 cleared $717K at Heritage in April — a high-water mark for the year.
- Modern football cards returned to within 15% of 2021 highs.
Q4 2024 Market Pulse: The Year of the Comeback
Q4 2024 sealed the year of recovery. After 2023's broad correction, 2024 closed at $524.8M in tracked sales — up from $487.2M in 2023. Modern football cards, movie props, and political/historical documents led the recovery.
Q4 2024 tracked $122.4M in sales — the strongest Q4 since 2022. The Mahomes RPA /99 ($4.3M, October Goldin) and the Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 ($6M, April Heritage carried into Q4 narrative) anchored the year. The recovery is real but uneven across categories.
Highlights
- $122.4M in Q4 tracked sales; $524.8M for full-year 2024.
- Mahomes 2017 Immaculate RPA /99 sale ($4.3M, October) was the year's defining modern-cards moment.
- Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 ($6M, April) reset the Golden Age ceiling.
Q3 2024 Market Pulse: The Quiet Quarter That Set Up the Year
Q3 2024 was a quiet quarter that built the foundation for the Q4 recovery story. The 1952 Mantle PSA 9.5 follow-on at Heritage, the Brady RPA stabilization, and the political/historical surge all signaled the recovery was real.
Tracked $118.4M in Q3 2024 sales. Modest sequentially, but the breadth of category performance — gains across all eight tracked categories for the first time since Q2 2022 — was the operative signal. The narrative shifted from 'correction concerns' to 'recovery confirmed'.
Highlights
- $118.4M in Q3 tracked sales — modest sequentially but breadth was the story.
- All eight tracked categories posted positive YoY growth for the first time since Q2 2022.
- Heritage Sports Signature August cleared $33.4M, the strongest Sports Signature since 2021.
Q2 2024 Market Pulse: The Recovery Begins
Q2 2024 produced the year's pivotal data point: the Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 sale at Heritage in April ($6M). Combined with the 1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 ($717K, also April), Q2 signaled that the 2023 correction had bottomed.
Q2 2024 tracked $129.8M in sales, the strongest quarter since Q1 2022. Two April sales — Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 ($6M) and 1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 ($717K) — anchored a quarter that signaled the broad memorabilia recovery had begun in earnest.
Highlights
- $129.8M in Q2 tracked sales — the strongest quarter since Q1 2022.
- Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 sale ($6M, April Heritage) was the quarter-defining event.
- 1986 Fleer Jordan PSA 10 cleared $717K, reset the modern basketball card tier.