Base Set's value sits in its 16 Holo Rares: a near-mint Unlimited Charizard evaluates at $795.91, more than four times Blastoise, while 69 of the 86 non-holo cards come in under $5.
Most 1999 Base Set cards are worth a few dollars or less. The value sits in the set's 16 Holo Rares, led by Charizard at $795.91 for a near-mint Unlimited copy, ahead of Blastoise at $172.98 and Venusaur at $140.97, per Cardboard Alpha's evaluated prices for September 28, 2026. Of the 86 non-holo cards, 69 evaluated under $5.
This guide prices the whole set on its Unlimited print, then shows where Shadowless, 1st Edition and graded copies change the picture.
Apart from one labeled auction result, every price below is a raw, near-mint evaluated price: Cardboard Alpha's daily number per card, built from recent sales, live listings or a published price guide, and graded from official down to indicative by that evidence.
Unlimited holo, near mint: $795.91 on September 28, 2026, anchored to live listings. The set's most valuable Unlimited card.
Base Set at a glance
Base Set released in English on January 9, 1999, with 102 cards, per Bulbapedia. Cards are numbered by type, then rarity, then alphabetically.
Holo Rares (1 to 16): 16 Pokemon, the set's value core.
Rares (17 to 22 and 70 to 79): six non-holo Pokemon and ten Trainers.
Uncommons: 20 Pokemon (23 to 42), 11 Trainers (80 to 90) and Double Colorless Energy (96).
Commons: 27 Pokemon (43 to 69) and five Trainers (91 to 95).
Basic Energy (97 to 102): six cards with no rarity symbol.
The English set was printed four times, per Bulbapedia: 1st Edition, Shadowless, Unlimited, and a late Unlimited run with a 1999-2000 copyright line. Cardboard Alpha's catalog carries Unlimited, Shadowless and 1999-2000 rows for all 102 Base Set cards, and 1st Edition rows for 100; Alakazam and Blastoise lack one so far. Later reprints of these cards in other sets are a separate matter, and identifying Base Set reprints covers the printed marks that set them apart.
Every Holo Rare, priced
No.
Card
Unlimited NM price
Evidence
4
Charizard
$795.91
Listings
2
Blastoise
$172.98
Listings
15
Venusaur
$140.97
Sales
1
Alakazam
$132.45
Sales
10
Mewtwo
$90.50
Sale + listings
14
Raichu
$74.67
Sales
3
Chansey
$54.67
Listings
6
Gyarados
$44.50
Sales
5
Clefairy
$42.75
Listings
16
Zapdos
$39.81
Listings
11
Nidoking
$37.55
Listings
13
Poliwrath
$35.00
Listings
9
Magneton
$34.97
Listings
12
Ninetales
$32.99
Listings
7
Hitmonchan
$20.57
Sales
8
Machamp
No Unlimited print (1st Edition $22.58)
Listings
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw near mint, September 28, 2026, ranked high to low. "Sales" rests on reported sold prices, "Listings" on live asks anchored to the prior evaluation, "Sale + listings" on both.
Base Set's eight highest Unlimited holos
Charizard795.91USD
Blastoise172.98USD
Venusaur140.97USD
Alakazam132.45USD
Mewtwo90.5USD
Raichu74.67USD
Chansey54.67USD
Gyarados44.5USD
Cardboard Alpha evaluated price, raw near mint, Unlimited print, September 28, 2026.
Added together, the 15 priced Unlimited holos come to $1,750.29, and Charizard alone is 45 percent of that. The median holo, Gyarados, sits at $44.50.
Charizard and the starter trio
Charizard evaluates at 4.6 times Blastoise and 5.6 times Venusaur, so the three Pokemon on Base Set's booster-pack art do not trade as a trio. Blastoise and Venusaur sit only $32.01 apart.
An evaluated price is not a marketplace's displayed market price, and Charizard's was anchored to live listings that day. Our print-run breakdown of Base Set Charizard follows that one card in more depth.
Unlimited holo, near mint: $44.50 on September 28, 2026, backed by reported sales. The median of the 15 priced Unlimited holos.
Hitmonchan is the cheapest Unlimited holo at $20.57. Nine of the 15 priced Unlimited holos rest on listings rather than sales, so treat the mid-tier gaps as approximate.
Non-holo chase cards
Only four of the 86 non-holo cards evaluate at $10 or more in their Unlimited print.
Dragonair (18): $18.60, the most valuable non-holo card in the set.
Standard Unlimited print, near mint: $12.25 on September 28, 2026, backed by reported sales. Stamped and red-cheek versions are separate rows.
The starter evolution lines stay cheap: Ivysaur leads the Uncommon Pokemon at $5.60, Squirtle and Wartortle sit near $5, and Bulbasaur, Charmander and Charmeleon fall between $3.16 and $3.58. Among Trainer Rares, Item Finder leads at $9.25.
Trainers and Energy: the bulk floor
The 33 Trainer and Energy cards add up to $92.68 in their Unlimited print, and 15 of them evaluate under $1.
Tier (card numbers)
Cards
Low
High
Median
Rare Pokemon (17 to 22)
6
$5.53
$18.60
$9.67
Rare Trainer (70 to 79)
10
$3.11
$9.25
$6.50
Uncommon Pokemon (23 to 42)
20
$0.88
$5.60
$3.02
Uncommon Trainer (80 to 90)
11
$0.35
$3.46
$1.68
Double Colorless Energy (96)
1
$6.25
$6.25
$6.25
Common Pokemon (43 to 69)
27
$0.56
$12.25
$1.12
Common Trainer (91 to 95)
5
$0.36
$0.48
$0.37
Basic Energy (97 to 102)
6
$0.40
$0.72
$0.46
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw near mint, Unlimited print, September 28, 2026. Even-count medians are rounded to the cent.
Super Potion is the lowest-priced Unlimited card in the set at $0.35. Of the 25 non-holo cards under $1, 24 are priced from a published price guide rather than tracked sales or listings, the thinnest evidence in this guide.
Unlimited, near mint: $6.25 on September 28, 2026, one same-day sale blended with live listings. Roughly 9 to 16 times a basic Energy card.
Put together, a near-mint Unlimited set, with Machamp's 1st Edition holo in place of its missing Unlimited print, adds up to $2,043.83. The 16 holos are 87 percent of that.
How the print run changes value
Bulbapedia separates the four English print runs this way:
1st Edition: the 1st Edition stamp, thinner HP and attack text, and no drop shadow beside the art window.
Shadowless: identical to 1st Edition but without the stamp.
Unlimited: adds the drop shadow and thicker HP and attack text.
Unlimited 1999-2000: the Unlimited layout with an updated copyright line.
Shadowless versus Unlimited
Two holos had official-grade evaluated prices for both prints on September 28, 2026.
Card
Shadowless NM
Unlimited NM
Shadowless multiple
Alakazam
$490.98
$132.45
3.7x
Mewtwo
$353.68
$90.50
3.9x
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw near mint, September 28, 2026. Both Alakazam prints rest on sales; Mewtwo's Shadowless is listing-anchored and its Unlimited blends one sale with listings.
Shadowless holo $353.68 and Unlimited holo $90.50, both near mint, on September 28, 2026.
The other 13 priced Shadowless holo rows were indicative-grade, carried forward from a price-guide read two days earlier, so this guide does not print them. Our Shadowless versus Unlimited explainer covers how that premium behaves raw and graded.
1st Edition and the Machamp exception
1st Edition holo prices are held back too. On this date 12 of the 13 priced 1st Edition holo rows were indicative-grade, and on 8 of the 12 holos priced in both print runs the 1st Edition and Shadowless figures matched to the cent, so the two cannot be read as separate prices. The 1st Edition price gap across WOTC sets has its own guide.
Machamp is the exception. Bulbapedia records that its 1st Edition holo came in the 2-Player Starter Set and that an Unlimited Base Set print of the holo was never officially released.
1st Edition holo, near mint: $22.58 on September 28, 2026, anchored to live listings. No Unlimited Base Set print of this holo was officially released.
Its only priced near-mint row is that 1st Edition holo, at an official-grade $22.58, below every Unlimited holo except Hitmonchan. The catalog's 1999-2000 print rows carry no evaluated price for any card on this date.
Raw versus graded
PSA's Population Report put Base Set's overall PSA 10 rate at 10.0 percent, 112,429 of 1,125,406 cards graded, as of September 1, 2026. Unlimited Charizard's own rate was 0.5 percent (488 of 102,533), against 2.3 percent (123 of 5,375) for its 1st Edition print.
This guide does not quote graded prices for individual Base Set holos. On September 28, 2026, every graded figure Cardboard Alpha held for the set was carried forward from earlier in September rather than refreshed that day.
A graded copy is also a different item from a raw near-mint one, and a graded price alone does not show whether grading a given copy pays off once fees are counted. Our PSA break-even math works through that question.
For Charizard's top grade, Heritage Auctions sold a 1st Edition Base Set Charizard graded PSA Gem Mint 10 for $550,000 with buyer's premium at its December 12 to 13, 2025 auction, per Heritage's Intelligent Collector.
What this guide leaves out
Set-wide Shadowless and 1st Edition prices: indicative-grade on this date.
The 1999-2000 print: cataloged, with no evaluated price on file.
Graded prices: no PSA or CGC price for any single card, only the auction record above.
Sealed product and non-English cards: not covered.
What is the most valuable card in Pokemon Base Set?
Charizard, card 4/102. Its Unlimited holo carried a near-mint Cardboard Alpha evaluated price of $795.91 on September 28, 2026, more than four times Blastoise at $172.98. Print run and grading push the card far higher: a 1st Edition Charizard graded PSA Gem Mint 10 sold for $550,000 with buyer's premium at Heritage Auctions in December 2025.
How much are Base Set common and uncommon cards worth?
Usually a few dollars or less in their Unlimited print. On September 28, 2026, 69 of Base Set's 86 non-holo cards evaluated under $5 near mint and 25 under $1, per Cardboard Alpha's evaluated prices. The only ones at $10 or more were Dragonair ($18.60), Pikachu ($12.25), Dugtrio ($11.18) and Pidgeotto ($10.03).
How can I tell which print run my Base Set card is?
Per Bulbapedia, a 1st Edition card carries the 1st Edition stamp and has no drop shadow beside the art window, and a Shadowless card looks the same without the stamp. Unlimited cards add the drop shadow and thicker HP and attack text. The last Unlimited run also carries a 1999-2000 copyright line instead of 1999.
Why does Base Set Machamp have no Unlimited price?
Bulbapedia records that an Unlimited Base Set print of the Machamp holo was never officially released; its 1st Edition holo came in the 2-Player Starter Set. Cardboard Alpha's only priced near-mint Machamp row is that 1st Edition holo, at $22.58 near mint on September 28, 2026.
How often does Base Set grade a PSA 10?
Per PSA's Population Report as of September 1, 2026, 10.0 percent of Base Set cards graded reached PSA 10 (112,429 of 1,125,406). Unlimited Charizard's rate was far lower, 0.5 percent (488 of 102,533), against 2.3 percent (123 of 5,375) for its 1st Edition print.
Rochelle Lee writes price guides and set coverage for Cardboard Alpha. Rochelle works in sales as an account executive serving escrow and mortgage teams, a field where a price means little without comparable sales behind it, and brings that comps-first instinct to cards: what individual cards are worth, how whole sets and eras have held their value, and how a card's sold history differs from what sellers are currently asking. Each guide is built from published pricing and population data first, cites every source inline, and is fact-checked against those sources before it is published.
Rochelle Lee's articles describe card and set values using published pricing and population data. They are informational and are not personalized investment advice.
Price Guides
Expedition Base Set Card Values: The Complete Guide
Expedition Base Set's top prices sit in a 32-card Holo Rare tier topped by a $949.79 Dragonite, ahead of Charizard. This guide prices every Holo Rare in both finishes from TCGplayer data read September 27, 2026, ranks the rest of the 165-card set by rarity tier, and names the six cards where reverse holo outprices holo.
