1976 Topps Star Trek #3 Dr. "Bones" McCoy — the Most-Graded Card in the Set, and the Only One of 88 That Peaks at a Seven
PSA has straight-graded 259 copies of card 3 from the 1976 Topps Star Trek set — more than any other card in it. Not one is a PSA 10, and only six are PSA 9s. That is the fewest nines on the 88-card checklist.
The card is Dr. "Bones" McCoy, third in a set the Trading Card Database lists at 88 cards: a head-and-shoulders portrait of DeForest Kelley as the Enterprise's chief medical officer, shot against black in a teal tunic, the ship's gold insignia set into the lower right and the name in white block capitals beneath. The example above is one of the six nines. Its certificate, 19605914, returns MINT 9, PSA Population 6, PSA Pop Higher 0 — a second PSA endpoint confirming nothing on this card has ever been recorded above it.
PSA Population Report
| PSA Grade | Population | Value |
|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 0 | $2,500 |
| PSA 9 | 6 | $750 |
| PSA 8 | 70 | $75 |
| Total Graded (All Grades) | 259 | — |
* Population data as of September 21, 2026. PSA population counts are dynamic and increase as more cards are submitted for grading.
PSA's Price Guide carries a Gem Mint 10 value for a grade no copy of this card currently holds.
The Whole Set, Card by Card
CardFacts numbers the set sequentially, so all 88 cards read straight off PSA's population endpoint — ids 593117 to 593204, with 593205 restarting at card 1 of the companion sticker series. Pulled on September 21, the base set totals 13,741 straight grades plus 275 half and 1,179 qualified: 15,195 slabs holding 241 PSA 10s, a set gem rate of 1.75 percent. Fourteen of the 88 cards have no ten at all, and card 3 is much the largest of them — the next-most-graded card with none is card 6, Lieutenant Uhura, at 199.
The nines are where it separates. Six is the lowest count on the checklist; card 23, "Mysterious Cube," is next at eight. It also holds the lowest PSA 9 rate in the set — 6 of 259, or 2.32 percent, against a set-wide 17.49 percent. Count and rate point the same way, which is not always true of a population leader.
The Only Card of 88 That Peaks at a Seven
Eighty-seven of the 88 cards in this set have PSA 8 as their single largest bucket. Card 3 does not:
- PSA 9 — 6
- PSA 8 — 70
- PSA 7 — 97
- PSA 6 — 50
- PSA 5 — 22
- PSA 4 — 11
- PSA 3 — 2
- PSA 2 — 1
Ninety-seven copies at PSA 7 is 37.5 percent of everything submitted, and only 76 of the 259 reach PSA 8 or better.
Analysis: a population peaking a full grade below the rest of its own set, on the card submitted most often, is the profile of a card people kept sending in and graders kept turning back. PSA publishes the counts and the grades; it does not publish a reason, and nothing in the data supplies one.
The contrast sits two cards away. PSA has seen card 4, Science Officer Spock, 110 fewer times than McCoy and returned three tens and twenty nines against McCoy's none and six.
The most-submitted card in the 1976 Topps Star Trek set has never produced a PSA 10, carries the fewest PSA 9s on the checklist by both count and rate, and is the only one of 88 whose population tops out at a seven. Six copies stand above the crowd, and the card above them does not exist.
