Is a Griffey UD rookie a PSA 10?

About the Griffey UD rookie

The 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie #1 is a 1989 Baseball card from the junk wax era. High-population rookie from the junk-wax era. PSA 10s are plentiful — only pristine copies are worth submitting.

What graders look for

Every grading company — PSA, BGS, SGC, and CGC — uses the same four sub-scores: centering, corners, edges, and surface. On this card specifically, watch for:

• Off-center front-to-back
• Corner nicks from binder pages
• Print dots on the green background
• Edge whitening

Pro tip

Only submit if every sub-grade is clearly a 9.5+. The PSA 10 premium is solid but the raw card is inexpensive.

Should you send it in?

Before paying grading fees, scan the card with ID Grader to get an instant AI pre-grade across all four sub-scores. If the pre-grade comes back a confident 9.5 or 10, you probably have a submission candidate. If it comes back an 8 with any sub-score below a 9, you likely do better selling the card raw.

Related grading guides

• Is a 1952 Mantle a PSA 10?
• Is a Trout Topps Update rookie a PSA 10?