PSA graded 23,914 Riftbound cards in September, more than double August: Ahri, Teemo and Irelia lead
PSA, the world’s largest card-grading company, published its September Riftbound report in the night between October 1 and 2: 23,914 cards graded in one month, up from 10,610 in August. That is +125 percent, and PSA explains it in one line: “submissions are surging ahead of Riftbound’s first-ever World Championship season”. The post lists the five most-graded Legends with monthly totals. Below I report PSA’s numbers and cross them with the data we collect every night: populations from GemRate and graded-card sales from 130point.
The reportSeptember’s five Legends according to PSA
| # | Champion | Card shown by PSA | Graded in September | vs August |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ahri | Ahri, Inquisitive overnumber, SFD 227/221 | 2,131 | +121% |
| 2 | Teemo | Teemo, Strategist signature, SFD 230*/221 | 1,803 | +49% |
| 3 | Irelia | Irelia, Fervent signature, SFD 225*/221 | 1,715 | +204% |
| 4 | Jinx | Jinx, Loose Cannon signature, OGN 301*/298 | 1,527 | +143% |
| 5 | Viktor | Viktor, Herald of the Arcane signature, OGN 308*/298 | 940 | +123% |
One clarification the post does not make, and it changes the reading: the counts are per champion, that is every Ahri, every Teemo and so on that PSA graded in the month, in any version. The card in the slab is PSA’s chosen example, almost always the chase one. Our data makes it plain: Teemo’s signature has 408 copies graded by PSA in its whole life, it cannot account on its own for September’s 1,803. The five Legends together make 8,116 cards, about a third of the month.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Grading | Sending a card to a company that assesses its condition, scores it from 1 to 10 and seals it in a hard case with a label. |
| PSA | Professional Sports Authenticator, the most used grading company in the world. It runs a dedicated Riftbound profile too, @psacardtcg. |
| GEM MT 10 | PSA’s top grade, “Gem Mint”. It is the one that makes the price difference. |
| Overnumber | A card numbered past the end of the set (227 of 221): a champion’s rarest version, with special print treatments. |
| Signature | The overnumber with the artist’s printed signature, marked with an asterisk (227*). About ten times rarer than the overnumber, as Dave Guskin said in the interview two days ago. |
| Pop (population) | How many copies of a card a company has graded in total. The lower it is, the rarer the graded card. |
| Gem rate | The share of copies that scored a 10: it measures how cleanly a card comes out of the printer. |
| Month over month | Change versus the previous month. |
Our numbersPopulations and grades of the cards shown
Riftbound Zone reads GemRate’s populations every night, which pool PSA, Beckett, CGC and SGC data, and shows them on every card’s price page. Here are the five cards from the post as they stand in PSA’s registers today, with Ahri’s base overnumber next to her signature:
| Card | Graded by PSA | PSA 10 | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahri, Inquisitive overnumber (227) | 872 | 797 | 91% |
| Ahri, Inquisitive signature (227*) | 671 | 618 | 92% |
| Irelia, Fervent signature (225*) | 514 | 446 | 87% |
| Teemo, Strategist signature (230*) | 408 | 372 | 91% |
| Jinx, Loose Cannon signature (301*) | 403 | 355 | 88% |
| Viktor, Herald of the Arcane signature (308*) | 317 | 274 | 86% |
Two things stand out. First: Ahri is the game’s most-graded card in both versions, and her 92 percent gem rate says she comes out of packs almost always perfect. Second: the gem rates of Jinx and Viktor, the two Origins cards, are lower than Spiritforged’s. That matches what Dave Guskin admitted two days ago about the first set’s imprecise cuts: the factory blades wore out sooner than expected, and a badly cut card does not get a 10.
PricesWhat a PSA 10 of these cards is worth
Our graded-sales archive, built from 130point on completed eBay auctions, recorded these PSA 10 sales in September, converted to euros at the day’s rate:
| Card | September sales | Median price | Latest sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahri, Inquisitive signature (227*) | 10 | €7,376 | €8,807 on September 25 |
| Ahri, Inquisitive overnumber (227) | 14 | €1,087 | — |
| Irelia, Fervent signature (225*) | 14 | €2,976 | €3,479 on September 24 |
| Jinx, Loose Cannon signature (301*) | 21 | €2,531 | €2,351 on September 25 |
| Teemo, Strategist signature (230*) | 9 | €1,704 | €1,431 on September 23 |
| Viktor, Herald of the Arcane signature (308*) | 2 | €1,682 | €1,617 on September 10 |
Ahri’s signature is the most expensive card in the game: a PSA 10 went from about €7,000 to nearly €9,000 in the last few weeks. Jinx is the most traded, with 21 PSA 10 sales in a month. Viktor, fifth in PSA’s report, has a much thinner graded market: two sales in all. Every price, updated nightly, sits on the individual card pages, with the raw-versus-graded comparison.
The contextWhy now
PSA ties the surge to the World Championship season, which starts with this autumn’s Regional Qualifiers and leads to regional championships and, next year, continentals. I also see the product calendar: Radiance releases on October 23, exactly one year after launch, and every new set brings attention back to the rare cards of the sets before it. And there is the scarcity effect Guskin talked about: as long as Origins boxes are not back on shelves, the Jinx and Viktor signatures stay vault material.
One number to keep in mind if you plan to grade: with gem rates between 86 and 92 percent, nine copies out of ten of these cards get a 10. The grade alone does not create rarity; the card does. For a signature the PSA route almost always pays, for a base overnumber it depends on the raw price, and for the rest of the set almost never.
Why it matters here. From Italy you grade through intermediaries, with longer waits and higher costs than in the United States, so it pays to know beforehand which cards deserve it. The five cards in PSA’s report are all in our price list with populations and graded sales updated every night, and from tonight with Cardmarket prices for every Origins card in Korean too. Anyone with a signature in a binder can compare raw price, pop and the latest PSA 10 sold in one glance, before deciding whether to ship it.
The short version
- PSA graded 23,914 Riftbound cards in September 2026, against 10,610 in August: +125 percent.
- The five most-graded Legends: Ahri 2,131, Teemo 1,803, Irelia 1,715, Jinx 1,527, Viktor 940. Together about a third of the month. Counts per champion, all versions.
- In PSA’s registers Ahri’s signature has 671 copies, 618 graded 10; Viktor’s has 317, 274 graded 10.
- A PSA 10 Ahri signature sold for €8,807 on September 25; the month’s median was €7,376. Jinx the most traded, 21 sales.
- PSA ties the growth to Riftbound’s first World Championship season.
Source: PSA on Instagram (@psacard and @psacardtcg), “September Grading Report”, post of October 2, 2026. Populations: GemRate, data of October 3, 2026. Graded sales: 130point, Riftbound Zone archive. Card images: Riot Games.
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