Expedition Base Set Card Values: The Complete Guide
Expedition Base Set's priciest card is a Dragonite Holo Rare near $950, and six of its 32 Holo Rares actually cost more as reverse holos than in their standard holo print.
Dragonite's Holo Rare is the single most valuable standard-print card in Expedition Base Set. Its TCGplayer market price was $949.79 as of September 27, 2026, ahead of every other card in the 165-card set, Charizard included.
The set's top prices cluster in the 32-card Holo Rare tier, where standard-holo prices range from Poliwrath's $44.99 up to Dragonite's $949.79, a spread of more than 20x. Below that tier, standard prints of the Rare, Uncommon, Common, Trainer and Energy cards run far cheaper: about half of them sit under $10, with a few sharp exceptions.
This guide prices all 32 Holo Rares in both their standard holo and reverse holo prints, ranks the rest of the 165-card checklist by rarity tier, and names the six cards where the reverse holo print actually costs more than the "main" holo version.
Expedition Base Set released in Japan on December 1, 2001, and in English on September 15, 2002, as the thirteenth set in both regions (Bulbapedia, accessed September 27, 2026). The Japanese release carried 128 cards; the English release expanded that to 165.
It is worth separating from the 1999 Base Set by name alone. The record-setting $550,000 PSA 10 Charizard that Heritage Auctions sold on December 12 to 13, 2025 was a 1st Edition 1999 Base Set Charizard, not an Expedition card (Intelligent Collector, accessed September 27, 2026). Expedition never had a 1st Edition print run at all.
That absence is itself a documented first. Bulbapedia records Expedition as the first non-reprint English expansion to skip a 1st Edition print run, and Cardboard Alpha's own catalog confirms it: the set's first-edition print count sits at zero across all 165 cards.
Two other structural firsts landed here. Expedition split the old single "Pokemon Power" category into Poke-Power and Poke-Body, and it introduced Technical Machine cards, which let an attached Pokemon use a printed attack. Its left and bottom borders were also widened to carry Dot Code strips for the Nintendo e-Reader, letting players scan a card for Pokedex data, a minigame, a Melody Box tune, or a hidden attack.
32 Holo Rares (cards 1 to 32), Pokemon only.
38 Rare Pokemon (33 to 70) plus 2 Rare Energy cards (158 to 159, Darkness and Metal Energy).
22 Uncommon Pokemon (71 to 92) plus 16 Uncommon Trainers (137 to 152).
44 Common Pokemon (93 to 136), 5 Common Trainers (153 to 157), and 6 Common basic Energy (160 to 165).
Every card except the six basic Energy cards also comes in a reverse holo print, and Expedition's booster packs carried 5 Common, 2 Uncommon, 1 Reverse Holofoil, and 1 Rare-or-Rare-Holo card per pack (Bulbapedia, accessed September 27, 2026). That is what makes the holo-versus-reverse-holo comparison below possible for every Holo Rare.
The Holo Rare tier, priced
All figures below are TCGplayer market prices as of September 27, 2026, for raw, ungraded copies in both the standard Holo Rare print and the reverse holo print of the same card number.
No.
Card
Holo Rare price
Reverse holo price
1
Alakazam
$233.32
$122.74
2
Ampharos
$175.00
$75.00
3
Arbok
$125.00
$52.50
4
Blastoise
$94.22
$499.95
5
Butterfree
$180.00
$169.99
6
Charizard
$287.50
$436.08
7
Clefable
$153.97
$54.75
8
Cloyster
$91.71
$75.84
9
Dragonite
$949.79
$599.75
10
Dugtrio
$82.33
$46.24
11
Fearow
$98.14
$49.72
12
Feraligatr
$237.49
$204.99
13
Gengar
$716.67
$799.98
14
Golem
$53.19
$29.59
15
Kingler
$66.42
$50.32
16
Machamp
$133.59
$75.37
17
Magby
$88.40
$50.00
18
Meganium
$180.01
$79.95
19
Mew
$525.00
$216.30
20
Mewtwo
$409.05
$699.97
21
Ninetales
$92.00
$75.50
22
Pichu
$305.00
$251.19
23
Pidgeot
$158.31
$105.24
24
Poliwrath
$44.99
$59.00
25
Raichu
$174.99
$199.99
26
Rapidash
$133.14
$75.00
27
Skarmory
$65.57
$48.99
28
Typhlosion
$203.33
$149.99
29
Tyranitar
$311.00
$300.00
30
Venusaur
$209.54
$116.05
31
Vileplume
$81.30
$35.28
32
Weezing
$74.11
$45.80
Source: TCGplayer market-guide price data, read September 27, 2026.
Top 8 Holo Rares by standard-holo TCGplayer market price
Dragonite$949.79
Gengar$716.67
Mew$525
Mewtwo$409.05
Tyranitar$311
Pichu$305
Charizard$287.5
Feraligatr$237.49
TCGplayer market price, read September 27, 2026.
Dragonite's lead is not close. It sits $233 above Gengar, the second-priciest Holo Rare, and more than triple Charizard's $287.50. Charizard ranks only seventh in its own tier.
When reverse holo beats holo
For 26 of the 32 Holo Rares, the standard holo print costs more than its reverse holo counterpart. Six cards run the other way.
Blastoise: reverse holo $499.95 against a standard holo $94.22, more than 5x.
Charizard: reverse holo $436.08 against a standard holo $287.50.
Gengar: reverse holo $799.98 against a standard holo $716.67, the highest reverse holo price in the set and the second-highest standard holo.
Mewtwo: reverse holo $699.97 against a standard holo $409.05.
Poliwrath: reverse holo $59.00 against a standard holo $44.99, the smallest gap of the six.
Raichu: reverse holo $199.99 against a standard holo $174.99.
Neither TCGplayer's market data nor Bulbapedia's set history publishes a reason for the reversal. It holds for these six cards and does not hold for the other 26 Holo Rares in Expedition.
Rarity tier does not track price
Print rarity is a poor guide to what a card is actually worth in this set.
The clearest example sits one tier below the Holo Rares. The non-holo Rare printing of Gengar, card 48, carried a TCGplayer market price of $181.68 as of September 27, 2026, higher than the standard holo price of 21 of the set's 32 Holo Rares.
TCGplayer market price $69.38 as of September 27, 2026, the highest standard-print price in the Common tier, above the standard print of every Uncommon in the set.
Bulbasaur, card 95, is nominally a Common. Its standard print still outpriced the standard print of every one of the set's 38 Uncommon cards on the same read. The table below covers standard (non-reverse-holo) prints only.
Tier
Cards
Low
High
Median
Rare (Pokemon)
38
$5.30
$181.68
$24.65
Rare (Energy)
2
$7.61
$10.03
$8.82
Uncommon (Pokemon)
22
$3.66
$41.50
$10.25
Uncommon (Trainer)
16
$0.69
$16.60
$2.06
Common (Pokemon)
44
$1.42
$69.38
$8.14
Common (Trainer)
5
$0.49
$1.74
$0.62
Common (Energy)
6
$1.21
$3.63
$1.85
Source: TCGplayer market-guide price data for standard prints, read September 27, 2026.
Two non-holo Charizard prints sit inside that Rare row too: card 39 at $167.65 outprices the standard holo print of 17 of the 32 Holo Rares, and card 40 at $149.19 outprices 15 of them. Among Uncommon Trainers, the priciest standard print is Pokemon Nurse at $16.60, well ahead of the better-known Master Ball at $2.51.
What this guide leaves out
Graded copies are absent from every figure above. PSA's population report pages could not be read from any available source as of September 27, 2026, so no PSA 9, PSA 10, or population-count figure appears anywhere in this guide.
Sealed product, booster packs, boxes, or any other factory-sealed Expedition item, is also absent. No verified TCGplayer or official Pokemon TCG source for current sealed pricing could be confirmed for this pass.
Every number here is a raw, ungraded market price for a single card. Grading economics, and any sealed-product math, run on separate supply and separate data that this guide does not yet cover. Cardboard Alpha's screener covers live fair value, liquidity, and supply columns across the wider covered universe, and Expedition sits inside the broader WOTC era alongside Base Set, Jungle, Fossil, and the Neo series.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most valuable Expedition Base Set card?
Dragonite's Holo Rare printing, card 9, carried a TCGplayer market price of $949.79 as of September 27, 2026. That is the highest price of any card in the set in its standard holo print, ahead of Gengar at $716.67 and Charizard at $287.50.
Is Expedition Base Set a 1st Edition set?
No. Expedition never had a 1st Edition print run. Bulbapedia records it as the first non-reprint English expansion to skip one entirely, and Cardboard Alpha's own catalog confirms a first-edition print count of zero across all 165 cards.
Why does reverse holo Charizard cost more than the standard holo Charizard?
As of September 27, 2026, Charizard's reverse holo print carried a TCGplayer market price of $436.08 against $287.50 for the standard Holo Rare print. Neither TCGplayer nor Bulbapedia publishes a reason for the gap. The same reversal holds for five other Holo Rares in the set (Blastoise, Gengar, Mewtwo, Poliwrath and Raichu) and not for the other 26.
How many cards are in Expedition Base Set?
The English release contains 165 cards, expanded from the 128-card Japanese release. It launched in Japan on December 1, 2001 and in English on September 15, 2002, per Bulbapedia's set page.
Is Expedition Base Set the same as the 1999 Pokemon Base Set?
No, they are different sets three years apart. Base Set dates to 1999, while Expedition Base Set followed in 2002 as the first main expansion of the e-Card era. The record $550,000 PSA 10 Charizard that Heritage Auctions sold in December 2025 was a 1999 Base Set card, not an Expedition card.
Sources
Pokemon Expedition Base Set product line (TCGplayer market-guide price data), TCGplayer Official / primary source · accessed September 27, 2026
Dragonite (9) - Expedition - Pokemon - TCGplayer.com, TCGplayer Official / primary source · accessed September 27, 2026
Charizard (6) - Expedition - Pokemon - TCGplayer.com, TCGplayer Official / primary source · accessed September 27, 2026
Jackie Chung covers the Pokémon TCG secondary market for Cardboard Alpha, with a focus on grading economics and set value guides. She spends most of her research time in population reports and grade-spread data, tracing how submission volume, print runs, and grading-company standards shape the premium between a raw card and its graded counterparts across different eras. Her set guides are built the same way: grounded in published pricing and pop data first, with market narrative kept separate from the numbers behind it.
Jackie Chung's articles describe market history and mechanics using published population and pricing data. They are informational and are not personalized investment advice.
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