Stephen Curry's Prestige rookie is a PSA 10 nearly half the time it's graded

Stephen Curry passed Dominique Wilkins for 18th on the NBA's all-time scoring list on Oct. 30, scoring 31 with eight threes in a 112-95 win over the Lakers. He goes into Monday's game against the Suns needing 37 more to pass Oscar Robertson for 17th.

The Curry rookie everybody frames is his 2009 Topps #321. Collectors chase it as his flagship card, which is why a PSA 9 sells for about $6,300. It's also a tough card to gem, with PSA giving a 10 to just 372 of the 6,848 copies it has graded, about 5% of them. His 2009 Panini Prestige #207 grades far better. PSA has given a 10 to 1,021 of the 2,133 Prestige rookies it has seen, 48% of them, while most of the rest came back 9s.

A raw Prestige sells for about $145, while sending one to PSA's Value tier costs about $40. A Prestige that comes back a 10 is worth about $825, judging by October's sales, which moves it up to PSA's Standard tier at about $60. A Prestige PSA 9 sold for $311 on Nov. 1.

The man Curry passed would love those numbers. Wilkins' 1986 Fleer rookie comes back a 10 on 95 of the 8,751 copies PSA has graded, about 1% of them.

The rest of the 2009 Topps rookie class never got trophy money, with James Harden's #319 selling for about $86 in PSA 9 while Blake Griffin's #316, from the No. 1 pick that year, has sold for about $40 in PSA 9 this year.

None of this makes the #321 a worse card, since it's the Topps rookie collectors want and its 9s will keep selling for real money while he climbs the list. But I'd leave the $6,300 slab to people who want a trophy. I'd buy a raw Prestige #207 around $145 and send it in, because PSA has handed out 10s to nearly half the copies it has seen and 9s to most of the rest.