1977 Topps Star Wars Space Pirate Han Solo #4

the card

notes

In December 2024 a PSA 10 of this card sold for $10,800. Fourteen days later a PSA 6 sold for $29.

Three hundred and seventy-two times the money, for the same card, in the same fortnight. That is the widest gap between two grades this site has recorded, and the reason is visible in the population report.

PSA has graded 1,567 copies of card 4 and eleven are PSA 10 - a gem rate of 0.70 per cent. That makes it the fifth hardest card in the sixty-six-card series to find perfect, behind Luke Skywalker at 0.17, Darth Vader at 0.31, the May the Force Be With You card at 0.36 and the Peter Cushing at 0.68.

The population bunches in the middle and dies above it. Three hundred and twenty-nine copies sit at PSA 8, 321 at 7 and 303 at 6. Only 116 have reached 9.

No other grader has ever put a 9 on this card

Beckett has recorded 34 copies and its best is an 8, of which there are four. SGC has 139 and its best is an 8.5, of which there are six. CGC has 90 and its best is also an 8.5, with five.

That is 263 copies across three companies and not one of them has reached 9, let alone 10. Every high-grade example of this card that exists anywhere is in a PSA holder.

On most cards this site has looked at, Beckett awards its top grade more sparingly than PSA but still awards it. Here it has not come close. The card simply does not survive well enough, and the 1977 printing is why.

What the border does

The blue starfield runs to all four edges - Topps lifted it from their own Star Trek cards and dropped an X-wing in where the Enterprise had been. Blue that runs to the edge shows every chip as a white fleck, and Topps' cutting in 1977 was poor even by the standards of the time.

Then the packaging finished the job. A fifteen-cent pack held seven cards, one sticker and a stick of gum. The gum sat against the top card and the wax against the one at the back, so two of the eight things in a sealed pack were spoiled before anybody opened it. The set page sets that out in full.

The gem has moved a long way in two years

Three PSA 10s have sold publicly at Heritage. One made $7,500 in November 2023, one made $10,800 in December 2024, and one made $47,580 in October 2025.

That is 6.3 times the money in under two years, on a card whose population did not change meaningfully over the same period. Eleven copies exist at that grade and three of them traded inside twenty-four months, which is a high turnover for a supply that small.

Everything below is a different market entirely. A PSA 7 made $23 at Goldin in June 2023. PSA 6s made $12, $20 and $29 across 2023 and 2024. A PSA 3 made $12.

So the honest summary of this card is that it costs either a few dollars or the price of a car, and there is almost nothing in between that has sold in public.

population

PSA

graded elsewhere

recorded 27 sep 2026. figures are a snapshot on that date, not a live count.

recorded sales

dated past results, not an estimate of what a copy is worth today. figures published by an auction house normally include the buyer's premium, so they are more than the seller received.

where to buy one

Decide first whether you want the card or the grade, because on this one they are separated by three orders of magnitude.

The card is cheap. PSA 6 sells for twenty or thirty dollars, PSA 7 for a little more, and those grades hold more than six hundred copies between them. It is the same photograph the expensive ones carry.

PSA 8 is the sensible ceiling for most people at 329 copies. Above that the market thins sharply: 116 at PSA 9 and eleven at 10, with recorded PSA 10 sales at $7,500, $10,800 and $47,580.

Do not expect to find a high-grade example outside PSA. Beckett, SGC and CGC have 263 copies between them and not one has reached 9. If you want this card in 9 or 10, PSA is the only place it exists.

Raw submissions are a poor bet. At 0.70 per cent you should expect about one ten in every hundred and forty cards you send.

Check the series. All five 1977 Topps Star Wars series look alike apart from the border colour, and blue is Series 1. A card numbered above 66 is a different series whatever the listing says.

And check it is the Topps card. Wonder Bread issued a Han Solo also numbered 4 in 1977, in a different set with a different design.

what to check before you buy

Read the blue border along all four edges. It runs to the edge on every side and chipping shows as white flecks. This is the main reason the card grades where it does.

Check centring on both sides.

Look at the print quality under angled light. Topps printed this series from 35mm slides with poor quality control, so soft focus and print defects are original to the card rather than damage - and they cap the grade anyway.

Check the back for gum residue or wax staining. Packs held seven cards, a sticker and a stick of gum, with the gum against the top card and the wax against the back one.

Look at the copyright line for one or two small stars, which mark the two print runs. PSA does not separate them and collectors treat them as the same card.

Confirm the set. The 1977 Wonder Bread Han Solo is also card 4 and is a different card entirely.

sources