The Pokémon Trading Card Game and its Extensive History (Introduction & Generation 1)
Interesting Tidbits and Information on the All-Time Best-Selling Card Game, Generation 1!
Welcome all, to a little passion project I made with my spare time. This is episode one of “The Pokémon Trading Card Game and its Extensive History” (uncreative? yes. short and to-the-point? also yes), where you can listen to me ramble about my favourite thing in the world: the Pokémon Trading Card Game, or TCG for short. If you’re a Pokémon fan yourself, welcome! I hope I don’t bore you with information you’re familiar with, but I hope you enjoy my perspective on some things, along with numbers. A lot of numbers. If you’re not a Pokémon fan or don’t know much about Pokémon… what are you doing here? Leave. Now.
I’m kidding of course.
Consider this an introduction, a gateway into the wondrous the world of Pokémon. My first few articles will focus on a lot of vintage stuff, so if you’re looking to get into the TCG, and maybe buy some cards yourself, come back after a bit. It’ll be a while yet before I finally reach modern sets. Enough human words. Let the mechanical speech pattern begin.
The year is 1996. The not-so-indie Japanese company Nintendo has just created and released the first game of their latest franchise, dubbed “Pocket Monsters.” A turn-based role-playing game, putting greater emphasis on strategy than mechanical skill, which was rare at the time. Following commercial success in its home country of Japan, Nintendo decided to launch the franchise overseas as well, under the new moniker of “Pokémon.” I’m sure you know how the story goes from here.
February 1996 — In only its first two weeks overseas, Pokémon Red and Blue combined to sell over 200,000 copies in the United States alone. This number reached a staggering 4 million copies by the end of 1998, with extremely positive reception from critics and fans alike. Hoping to monopolize on the successful venture, Nintendo would go on to release lines of merchandise; plushes, tableware, schoolbags, you name it. The most interesting and unique of these, however, were their line of trading cards, intended to be used to (unsurprisingly) trade and collect, as well as being used in a turn-based strategic card game, staying faithful to the theme of the franchise.
At this point in time, brands like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic: The Gathering held dominance over the trading/strategic card game market, with intricate stategies of play, and beautiful card artwork. While this means many fans of the genre would likely not make the switch over to a different card game, Pokémon had the advantage of having a fanbase in place beforehand, ensuring that at least some people would give it a try.
Cards in the First couple Generations of Pokémon had few levels of rarity. Common, uncommon, rare, and holographic rare were the only ones we were given, with the exception of a number of accidental “errors,” “secret rares,” and Legendary Collection’s reverse rares.
Similarly to Magic: The Gathering’s Limited Edition Alpha, Limited Edition Beta, and Unlimited Edition of their original set (each consisting of the same set of cards), the printing of Pokémon’s Base Set was split into three as well; First Edition, First Edition Shadowless, and Unlimited.
The First Edition of Pokémon’s Base Set was printed in January of 1999, Pokémon’s first print run. Unlike Magic: The Gathering’s print runs, the publisher, Wizards of the Coast, were surprisingly more secretive with the print numbers of their sets, with Pokémon’s print numbers being largely unknown for every set they’ve made, with sales being ambiguous as well. Regardless, it is clear that the set was popular enough to elicit more print runs after First Edition’s seemingly small and prestigious run.
First Edition remains the most expensive and elusive of the base set, with a single unweighed pack fetching around $5000 (all prices will be in USD). Pack prices for earlier generations will be affected by weight; holographic cards are noticably heavier than non-holographics, and with no code card (will be of relevance in later articles) to balance the weight, heavier packs are exceedingly easy to identify. Lighter packs are usually used for display, or to grade (yes, you can grade a booster pack), but beware that if a seller does not specify the weight of the pack, it will most likely be a light pack, so make sure to buy with caution online. A heavy First Edition pack, on the other hand goes for around $15,000. The fact that you are guaranteed a holo and a better chance at the coveted holographic Charizard is a huge selling point for buyers.
All Base Set packs depict one of three arts; Venusaur, Blastoise, or Charizard, with the Charizard art — as the fan favourite — fetching the highest price. First Edition packs can be differentiated from the other print versions with a few small details: The “trading card game” logo located near the bottom of the pack and more importantly, the First Edition stamp next to it, present on all First Edition cards as well. First Edition cards can be further seperated into “thick stamp” and “thin stamp” variants, but that will be further elaborated upon in the future.
The most expensive of these First Edition cards is — as mentioned above — the holographic Charizard.
Fan favourite. Beautiful art. Prestigious and elusive and about 20 years old. The First Edition Base Set holographic Charizard is one of the most expensive cards of all time, owing in no small part to its extreme marketability (as a FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON), acting as a mainstay in the Pokémon anime, as well as being a playable returning character in Super Smash Bros. among countless other appearances. This beautiful card sits around $4000 ungraded, without a guarantee on its condition. Graded at a PSA Gem Mint 10, this card has been seen to sell as high as $400,000, but will typically sell at around $270,000. PSA is the most lenient of the prominent grading services, with CGC Pristines and Perfects, and BGS Pristines and Black Labels far outclassing PSA Gem Mints, but that is a topic for a different day. This means that we have yet to see the price of a truly perfect First Edition Charizard.
Cards in this set are officially called “First Edition Shadowless” cards, as these cards lack a shadow underneath the image of the Pokémon. However, much like Magic: The Gathering’s Limited Edition Alpha and Limited Edition Beta — whose names were shortened to simply Alpha and Beta — First Edition Shadowless was more commonly known as “First Edition” to the community.
The second printing of Pokémon’s Base Set was printed not long after, as the First Edition packs were soon scarce and grew quickly in price. This set is known as “Shadowless.” Much like First Edition, Shadowless cards lack a shadow underneath the image of the Pokémon, but stands apart from First Edition due to its lack of the patented stamp, seen on every First Edition card, in the bottom left corner of its image.
Shadowless cards are still no joke price-wise, at around $750 a pack; unweighed of course. Being weighed as a “heavy” pack will bring the price up to around $2000. Appearance-wise, Shadowless packs are virtually identical to First Edition ones, with the same art on each pack (one of either Venusaur, Charizard or Blastoise), same “trading card game” logo at the bottom of the pack, as well as identical font on the “11 Tradable Game Cards.” The primary visual difference will be the lack of the First Edition stamp in the bottom right corner of the pack.
The most expensive card in this set is once again, the holographic Charizard.
It should come to no surprise that the holographic Charizard is still the most expensive card in this set. The card set in all three versions of base set are identical; same cards, same order, and near identical appearance. It should be noted that: like its name implies, the art on Shadowless cards are lighter in appearance compared to both First Edition and Unlimited. The contrast between the Pokémon and its background is a bit lower in this set, and some seem to believe that the rest of the card is more saturated, as in, more orange than the others, but I believe this is a simple lighting issue.
Yes, I know, the image shows a PSA 4 Shadowless Charizard, but that’s because this is the best image (aesthetically) I could find. A raw, ungraded copy of this card could easily set you back around $400; a lot cheaper than the First Edition, with the only differences being a darker holo, less saturation, and that little stamp on the left of the card. A PSA Gem Mint 10, on the other hand, can easily set you back $50,000; the prices on these older cards have really been ramping up in the past couple years, making the majority of them completely inaccessible to the general public.
The final print version of the original Base Set is the Unlimited series, the most widespread and common version of the set. Unlimited differentiates itself from the other two prints by including a shadow underneath the image of the Pokémon, setting a tone for the rest of the series.
A pack of Unlimited Base Set IS still a Base Set pack, meaning that an unweighed pack will still cost you around $400, with a heavy being upwards of $750. Unlimited packs stand out among the other three, being the most obviously different. The “trading card game” logo is situated underneath the Pokémon logo — near the top of the pack — instead of near the bottom, atop the “11 additional game cards.” It should also be noted, that instead of the “11 Tradable Game Cards” we see in the First Edition and Shadowless prints, the word “tradable” is replaced by “additional,” as well as the phrase being in all capitals. Staying true to its name, Unlimited was printed the most out of the three, with mulitple prints runs and variations having slight differences, which will be further explored in a different article.
You might have also noticed the different crimping style on this pack (which we will briefly explain here). It is very much unlike the older two, with long horizontal lines instead of short vertical ones. This is called a “long pack,” with the larger tag used by store owners to punch holes, and to sell as single packs. It should also be noted that the images I used for the First Edition and Shadowless packs also differed in crimping style. First Edition had only one crimping style, being longer verticle crimps, called “long seal.” Shadowless on the other hand, had two, having both long and short seals being printed, albeit at different times. The Shadowless pack shown previously is one of the “short seal” variants, printed an amount of time after the “long seal,” making it a bit more common than the former.
Base Set Unlimited also possessed a number of strange errors, chief among them being the “Black Triangle” error packs.
Black Triangle error packs are an extremely rare variant of Unlimited Base Set packs. They were printed for just three hours, when a printing error caused the Unlimited packs to be printed with the First Edition stamp. In an act of preservation, it seemed, most of the stamps were covered by a black triangle (though some made it out, and are even more rare), thus being the source of its name.
A Black Triangle error pack is infinitely more valuable sealed, and should only ever be opened for the experience, or for clout. The contents of this pack are exactly the same as a regular Unlimited pack, as the First Edition stamp was only mistakenly printed upon the pack, not the cards. Selling this extraordinarily rare pack will net you upwards of $1300 — about the same price as two heavy Unlimited packs. As more and more idiots open these packs for whatever strange reason they have, the already small population of these packs only dwindle. The price will only go up as the years go on.
Once again, the most valuable in the Unlimited Base Set is the holographic Charizard.
This is the most common version of the holographic, original Base Set Charizard, making it the cheapest as well. Ungraded, this card is usually sells for around $200 dollars — about half the price of a Shadowless Charizard and less than a tenth of the price of a First Edition variant. At a PSA Gem Mint 10, this card is worth around $10,000. The price discrepancy between PSA 10s and raw cards in vintage sets is due to the fact that Pokémon cards — as well as Pokémon in general — is targeted towards a younger demographic, meaning that the owners of said vintage cards were likely children and teenagers, who likely did not understand or were not aware of the value of the cards at that time. This, along with the fact that these cards will never be printed again, lead to a limited population of these cards, with an even smaller amount in good enough condition for collectors.
We will briefly cover the remainder of the top 5 cards in Base Set.
As the second most-picked starter, Blastoise ranks second in overall value in the Base Set. Its appearance as Gary’s ace in the anime definitely contributes to its popularity factor, serving as a “rival” for the ever so popular Charizard.
Price-wise, Blastoise flops as its role of Charizard’s rival, with a First Edition Blastoise going for only $475 raw and $32,000 at a PSA 10. These prices, while still exorbitant, are only valued at around 10% of a Charizard of the same type. This pattern does not seem to waver with the other Blastoise variants, with Shadowless Blastoise going for around $125 raw and $6,250 at a PSA 10, and Unlimited Blastoise going for around $50 raw and $3,000 at a PSA 10.
Ah yes. Venusaur. The best of the three starters in terms of viability in Pokémon Red and Blue (along with their remakes), but also unfortunately the least popular. Green is completely overshadowed by Red and Blue — in both popularity among children and even game representation, with Venusaur being the only one among the starters to not appear on the cover of the 1999 english game release.
However, as a starter, Venusaur will still fetch quite a price —though less than 10% as valuable as Charizard — with a First Edition card sitting at around $425 raw and $25,000 at a PSA 10. By solely viewing the First Edition prices, you’d expect Venusaur and Blastoise to be quite even in price, with only $50 difference raw and $7,000 at a PSA 10, but the rivalry ends immediately after. A Shadowless Venusaur will only go for around $80 raw and $3,500 at a PSA 10—just barely more than half of Shadowless Blastoise, and an Unlimited Venusaur will go for around $45 raw and $1,500 at PSA 10 — exactly half a Blastoise.
Mewtwo is an excellent example of how a card’s popularity (and therefore value) can be influenced by media. Despite not being one of the starter Pokémon, Mewtwo was featured in the very first Pokémon movie and became a recurring character in games and shows since; a notable example being its continued prescence in the massive Super Smash Brothers games.
A First Edition print of this card sells more than the previous two raw — at around $500 — but is significantly less valuable at a PSA Gem Mint 10; hovering at around $13,000. A Shadowless Mewtwo will go for around $50 raw and $2,500 at a PSA 10, and an Unlimited Mewtwo will go for around $10 raw and $700 at a PSA 10.
Chansey is a very interesting card in the Base Set, as it is not only uniquely expensive despite not being a very popular Pokémon; it also has the biggest price discrepancy between a raw card and a PSA Gem Mint 10. This is because in the earlier generations, the holo print lines on lighter cards (typically normal or electric types) is especially prominent due to the lack of contrast between the light holo and a dark background. It doesn’t help that Chansey’s print lines are seemingly more common than others, and that her holographic foil is very easy to scratch, making her one of the hardest cards to grade highly.
A First Edition print of this card will sell for only around $200 raw, lower than that of Ninetales, Alakazam, Hitmonchan, Gyarados, Nidoking, Poliwrath, and even the rare common card, “red-cheeks Pikachu.” However, a PSA 10 of this card is second only to Charizard in price, sitting at around $37,000. A Shadowless Chansey will go for around $25 raw, but an INSANE $25,000 at a PSA 10, and an Unlimited Chansey will go for around $12 raw and $2,500 at a PSA 10.
In June of the same year, Pokémon released their second TCG expansion; Pokémon Jungle.
As with the entirety of the early generations, Jungle was split into two major print versions; First Edition and Unlimited, with First Edition being seen as a prestige, while Unlimited was made to be more widespread — for those who were not willing or able to pay the extra amount for a “rarer” version of the same card.
An unweighed First Edition Jungle pack will sell for around $250, while a heavy of that same pack will sell for around $575; and an unweighed Unlimited Jungle pack will sell for around $125, while a weighed heavy pack will sell for around $225. This — while is still twice the price — is signifcantly lower in contrast to the price difference of Base Set, with the price of its heavy pack being roughly three times that of the unweighed. The main cause of such low prices for such vintage packs is the strangely high amount of these cards; riding off their success with Base Set, the Pokémon company took advantage of their surge of popularity and printed these cards into oblivion. The lower the prestige and the rarity of an item is, the less desirable it becomes and therefore the lower the price gets.
The arts on Jungle packs depict one of three Pokémon; Scyther, Flareon, or Wigglytuff. Flareon, as an Eeveelution, is the fan favourite of the three, with its packs fetching a slightly higher price. Jungle packs introduce a dynamic background to constrast the otherwise plain Base Set pack arts, with a luscious and green jungle, complete with trees, leaves, ferns, and grass.
As the first “expansion” for the Pokémon TCG, Jungle possesses a logo, displayed right above the “11 additional game cards.” The format for these packs follow the trend the Base Set Unlimited packs had set; with the red boxed “trading card game” logo situated in the top half of the pack, right underneath the Pokémon logo; the text “11 additional game cards” in thick font at the bottom of the card rather than the “11 Tradable Game Cards” shown previously in the First Edition and Shadowless packs.
The most expensive card in this set is, surprisingly, one of Jungle’s many error cards; the “Ivy Pikachu.”
It is needless to say that Pikachu is an extraordinarily popular Pokémon, being one of, if not THE most marketable items on the planet. It should come as no surprise that an equally rare version of everybody’s favourite electric mouse would be so darn expensive.
The art on this Pikachu originates from an old Pokémon League promo, which still stands well enough on its own, at about $30 raw and $150 at a PSA 10. Nothing impressive, but good enough for a nice meal. At this time, Jungle was their very first expansion, and newbies are prone to making a healthy amount of errors. This Pikachu art was accidentally printed on a number of the First Edition Jungle Pikachu’s, with the black star promo stamp and all, resulting in what is known as the “Ivy Pikachu.”
A raw Ivy Pikachu rivals even prominent First Edition Base Set holos, with a particular specimen recently selling for around $650. While this absurd price was likely inflated due to a rich and trigger happy buyer, the average price of this card still sits around the $300–400 range. This card is so uncommon that there has been next to zero PSA 10s recently sold, with the only graded Ivy Pikachu’s being three PSA 8s; two for around $600, and the last for around $1,000. The true price of this card is largely a mystery, and all we can do is hope we will see a PSA 10 sale soon.
From its iconic use as a impassable obstacle in the original games to its appearance in the show as one of Ash’s powerhouse Pokémon. Snorlax has had no shortage of representation, thanks in no small part to its lovable and marketable design and personality.
Imagine my surprise when I learned that this card was outclassed by a mere error card! This card is definetly still quite high in value, following Chansey’s trend of a low value raw card — hovering around $75 for a First Edition copy — and a monstrously high PSA 10 — recently purchased for $8,500. As with Chansey, Snorlax’s lighter background does no favors for our round boy, with print-lines and microscratches being saddeningly abudant. Unlimited Snorlax appear to follow this as well, with a raw valued at around $30 and a PSA 10 — while one hasn’t sold in quite a while — last sold for $2,000.
According to Google’ Pokémon of the Year poll, Vaporeon ranks first among the three Kanto Eeveelutions, and just seventh out of the nine overall (including Eevee itself). Despite this, Vaporeon is still well-loved and an Eeveelution, and will therefore be subject to the infamous Eeveelution tax. Vaporeon’s unique “mermaid-dog” design is… eye-catching to say the least. Even if it’s not your thing, its peculiarity and willingness to fully commit to being the token water-type of the Eeveelutions is memorable and even admirable (to an extent).
The artist for this card seems to have fully embraced the fish part of Vaporeon’s design, somehow making it even more fish-like than usual. This seems to only have added to its charm, being valued more highly than Snorlax for the raw card — though the latter’s aforementioned light background is definitely a factor — at around $100 for a First Edition copy. PSA 10 Vaporeons certainly do not slack either, managing to keep up with a whopping one recently selling for $7,300. Unlimited Vaporeon tend to sell at around $45, but do sell at an impressive $2,000 when graded at a PSA 10. Much like Unlimited Snorlax however, one has not sold in a while so that price is likely inaccurate.
Ranking second among Eeveelutions and eighth overall in Google’s Pokémon popularity poll, the already spike-covered Jolteon arrives even spikier than usual in this dazzling Jungle art.
Even with this beautiful background and dynamic pose, Jolteon maintains his spot in line — behind Vaporeon but above Flareon — and with a rare dark background on an electric-type card, print lines and microscratches significantly harder to come across, especially compared to Snorlax and Chansey. This aids the raw price of the card, valued significantly higher than the former, at around $110. This also means that a good condition Snorlax will always beat out a Jolteon of equal condition, as PSA 10s of this card will go for just around $2,225, low only in contrast to the former two. A raw Unlimited Jolteon sells for around $50, and a PSA 10 recently sold for $1,350.
Last among the Eeveelutions and rounding out Jungle’s top 5, Flareon at last makes its entrance. I was starting to get a bit worried for everyone’s (second) favourite fire fox, as many no-symbol error cards (which will be further elaborated in the future) came close in contesting for this spot — chief among them being Scyther and Snorlax. Thankfully, Flareon was able to defend its position and complete our trifecta of Kanto Eeveelutions.
Beautiful art can only get this relatively unpopular Pokémon so far, but a raw First Edition Flareon sells higher than both Vaporeon and Jolteon, at an impressive $130. A recently sold PSA 10 Flareon sold for a satisfactory $2,000; quite a drop from Vaporeon and noticebly less valued than Jolteon, but satisfactory nonetheless. Flareon does keep its pattern of selling high raw, with Unlimited copies hovering around $50, and once again falls short of its siblings at only $800 for a PSA 10.
The final set released in 1999 — in October of that year — is Pokémon Fossil.
As per usual, Pokémon’s third set — and second expansion — comes in two print versions; First Edition and Unlimited. First Edition is rarer and more expensive, and Unlimited is more common and affordable. Moving on.
An unweighed, First Edition Fossil pack will set you pack around $275, while a heavy pack will sell for around $350. The slight, even unnoticeable difference in price despite the difference in weight is extraordinarily confusing at first but will be much clearer given context, as all hits in the set are oddly low in value. Unlimited packs sell with similarly small price dichotomies, with unweighed packs sitting at around $180, and heavy packs hovering at around $220. With the advent of the legendary birds and the anticipated appearance of Dragonite, this set thereotically should’ve been quite hyped. However, much like the aforementioned Jungle expansion, Fossil also suffers from overprinting; increasing the quantity therefore decreasing prestige, rarity, and value.
Fossil continues the tradition of having three pack art variants; one depicting each Lapras, Zapdos, and Aerodactyl. The Pokémon featured in each pack art are each equally well-liked, maintaining a relatively even price-scheme across the board. Fossil packs use an adventurous and unique background; with a thick, paper-like material enveloping the pack, and the Pokémon busting a hole through it to show show their faces. The realistic background and cartoon-like charicature uses a fun amount of contrast, and the shadow underneath the 2D picture adds an intriguing amount of unorthodox-ness.
These packs also follow similar formats to earlier packs; red-boxed “trading card game” logo at the top half of the pack and “11 additional game cards” in thick font at the bottom. First Edition Fossil packs break the First Edition trend of having its stamp on the left side of the pack, instead having it on the right. Like its predecessor Jungle, Fossil includes its own logo stamp located at the top right corner of the pack; a red dinosaur footprint and the words “fossil” in red, as well as an outline surrounding both… also in red.
The most expensive card in this set is the holographic Dragonite.
As the sole dragon-type Pokémon in generation 1, Dragonite was automatically a huge hit; with its adorable cartoonish design juxtaposed by its monstrous strength and stats. Not to mention Lance, an end game boss of both generation 1 and 2 games, has like, three of them on his team.
A First Edition Dragonite could easily sell for $150 raw, boasting a rare dark background on a lighter card, minimizing the prominence of print lines and microscratches. Although PSA 10 sales for this card are relatively uncommon in modern times, this card appears to sell for around $6,500 in that perfect condition — a bit lower than Snorlax, but light background PSA 10s are typically a bit inflated in price. Raw Unlimited Dragonite sell for a respectable $50, bumped up to a surprising $3,200 at a PSA 10, though one hasn’t sold since June 27th of last year.
Here comes a weird one; one of Fossil’s few errors, the “Slash Error” Krabby, from Unlimited. The error in question is in the Fossil stamp, at the bottom right corner of the art, where a gap has somehow appeared within the fossilized hand/claw:
I say weird, as this seems to be a very rare and professionally insignificant error; listings for this card are very few and far in-between, and unlike most errors, it is not mentioned in the label of the graded card.
Raw specimen of this card sell for weirdly fluctuating prices, with two selling within 3 days of one another: one for a respectable $60, and one selling for an insane $350. In fact, most previous listings of this card seem to hover around the $300 range, so the $60 example seems to be an outlier.
This would normally propel “Slash Error” Krabby to the first place position, but unfortunately, very few graded copies of this card exist, making us unable to accurately assess the price of this card. The only sold graded copy of this card I can find is a PSA 8, for around $400. With no public, recently sold listings of this card, its placement on this list is mostly as an honourable mention.
As the only representative among Kanto’s legendary bird trio, Articuno perches comfortably at the third (or second, if you don’t count Krabby) place spot. This adorably cartoonish Arita art (Mitsushiro Arita, he’ll be featured in a different article) lets it stand apart from the other two: Moltres, who is standing weirdly vertically upwards on its hind legs; and Zapdos, who appears to be the first reused rare card in Pokémon’s early history, appearing in both Base and Fossil sets in very similar poses.
Articuno (luckily) suffers from the ol’ light-background-is-hard-to-grade syndrome, selling at inflated prices when graded highly. A raw First Edition Articuno sells for a casual $60 raw, but is valued at around $3,500 at a PSA 10. Unlimited Articuno follow a similar pattern; a measly $20 raw and a jump to $1,100 at a PSA 10, though the last time it sold was June 27th of last year (again…?).
Hold on, lemme check… Did I even put Gengar on this list? I was sure I did… Oh whatever, I’m sure they’ll come up soon.
A surprise entry, Lapras is here! A very much beloved Pokémon, Lapras has made its appearance in many pieces of media, appearing in the anime as one of Ash’s team members and being the free, government-designated surf user in the original Red and Blue games.
Lapras is a rare case that breaks the dark-background-is-easy-to-grade stereotype, being surprisingly difficult to grade highly. Raw, First Edition Lapras are pretty standard on prices, sitting at around $60, but PSA 10s, however, leap up to $3,000; the only remaining Fossil card that can contest Articuno for the third (or second) place. Unlimited Lapras go for like, $8 raw, which is shocking, but completely by its impressive $1,800 value at a PSA 10, second only to Dragonite.
Ah, there he is at last. Imagine my surprise when one of the most beloved characters in the franchise dropped to fifth (or fourth) place in its debut set! Its unique design and lovable, mischievous personality make it a huge fan favourite; even landing itself at 10th place on Google’s Pokémon popularity poll.
Gengar’s lowered price could likely be due to the same problem as the other two, only in inverse. Unlike the other two, Gengar has a background that is both dark and easy to grade, making PSA 10s of this card less of a prestige. Said PSA 10s usually sell for $1,800 — though one somehow sold for $8,000, but let’s assume that was Monopoly money —barely more than half the value of the previous entry. Excluding Krabby and Dragonite for obvious reasons, Gengar has the highest raw resale value in Fossil, at $70 for a First Edition copy, and $30 for an Unlimited copy. Unlimited copies would move up to $1,075 when graded at a PSA 10, but— while it is the smallest ratio of difference between First Edition and Unlimited PSA 10s — it last sold on a very, very, VERY familiar day. June 27th, 2021. Did they have some mass Unlimited PSA 10 Fossil sale on that day or something?
In February of the new millennium, Base Set 2 was released.
Here’s an odd one: this here is Base Set 2, technically Pokémon’s fourth expansion. I say this because it doesn’t introduce any new cards or mechanics, or anything really. Unlike its names implication, this set is a “Best-of-the-Best” remix set featuring the first three sets, not just Base Set. It is also uniquely the only Generation 1 & 2 set that is available in only one print type; no First Edition or Unlimited, just Base Set 2.
Unweighed Base Set 2 packs seem to sell for around $150, making this a surprisingly affordable set for one of its prestige and vintage-ness. This affordability carries over to its heavy packs, weighing in at only $220 a pop — hardly more than a 25% difference in price. Unlike Jungle and Fossil, this miniscule price disrepancy does not seem to stem from overprinting leading to an inflated population, but rather a lackluster card set. This can hardly be helped, as unlike a certain set we’ll cover in the future — *ahem Legendary Collection *ahem — nothing in this set is more worthwhile or unique in comparison to its non-remixed counterparts. However, this does mean that with less demand, each of these cards are all incredibly low in population, ironically creating more demand.
As if it wasn’t lawless enough, Base Set 2 also breaks the three-pack-art tradition, introducing four unique, seperate arts, with unique backgrounds to boot. Each bright, colourful background includes a myriad of small details, with all of them sharing a common energy pattern and style. The colours do not seem to mean anything either, as none of the colours appear to have any correlation with the Pokémon depicted on it; Gyarados had yellow, Pidgeot has purple, Mewtwo has red, and Raichu has blue.
The logo format on the pack is still maintained however, with the only notable difference between the “2” stamp — present on all Base Set 2 cards as well as the top right corner of the pack.
As there are no new cards in this set, let’s speed through a top five and not bother with explanations!
Base Set 2 Charizard takes the number one spot, with PSA 10s easily selling for $10,000+, even in the time of the great Charizard regression. A raw Charizard will sell for around $175, with one even selling recently for $350.
Base Set 2 Blastoise once again takes its place as Charizard’s rival and right-hand man, following at second place. A recent PSA 10 sale of this card was valued at $1,200, and sell raw for around $50.
Base Set 2 Venusaur completes the starter trifecta, finishing at third place. PSA 10s of this card were recently sold for on average $1,050, and usually go for around $50 raw (though one somehow sold for $200).
Chansey maintains its prestigious position, with PSA 10s of its Base Set 2 variant selling for $1,700 and raw copies going for around $20 each.
Alakazam at last triumphs over Mewtwo, just barely scraping by with a very small margin. PSA 10s of this card typically sell for around $700 — though one recently sold for $1,500 — and raws of this card are usually worth $23.
That concludes the Pokémon TCG’s four debut sets. I would have loved to add more but I’ve been told this is much too long already. If you enjoyed this passionate rant/article/review, considering following to stick around for more! In our next article, we will cover the last three sets of the First Generation; Team Rocket, Gym Heroes, and Gym Challenge, where we will delve into the new concept of “owned” Pokémon.
