Most Valuable Blastoise Pokemon Cards: A Price Guide
A 1998 presentation test print sold for $360,000, the highest Blastoise sale this guide could document. On TCGplayer, the priciest raw English copy this guide found is a 1st Edition Base Set at $1,300.00, and this guide ranks 21 English prints by raw price.
The highest Blastoise sale this guide could document is not a retail card at all. It is a 1998 Wizards of the Coast presentation test print, graded CGC 8.5, that sold for $360,000 at Heritage Auctions on January 14, 2021.
Among English cards printed for retail, the record belongs to a PSA 10, 1st Edition Base Set Blastoise. It sold for $138,880 through Goldin Auctions, pulled from a box break by Logan Paul, per Sports Illustrated Collectibles' coverage published February 21, 2026.
Ungraded copies cost far less. The most expensive raw English Blastoise this guide found on TCGplayer is a 1st Edition Base Set copy at $1,300.00, and the standard Unlimited Base Set print sat at $226.62, both per TCGplayer's September 26, 2026 market prices. The Unlimited figure is less than a tenth of one percent of the presentation print's sale.
Base Set Blastoise 2/102, standard Unlimited print. Raw TCGplayer market price $226.62 as of September 26, 2026. Not the $360,000 or $138,880 record cards described below: those are a one-off presentation print and a PSA 10 1st Edition slab.
Wizards of the Coast created this Blastoise test print in 1998, as it prepared to make English Pokemon cards, for media use: to demonstrate what an English Pokemon card would look like. CGC's own account of the sale says the company has certified four of these test prints in total.
Three of the four carry a Magic: The Gathering card back. Only one, the copy that sold for $360,000, has a blank back. One other similar example, made for international use, has unknown whereabouts, per CGC.
The card had belonged to a former Wizards of the Coast public relations employee before it reached auction. Heritage Auctions sold it on January 14, 2021, at a CGC 8.5 grade.
Nothing about that sale describes what a Blastoise collector can buy today. CGC has certified no second blank-backed copy, and the card was made for media use rather than for retail sale.
It is also not the only claimant to the top spot. Sports Illustrated Collectibles reported in February 2026 that the Blastoise character's all-time auction record belongs to a 1996 Japanese Base Set "No Rarity Symbol" copy, but gave no price or date for that sale, so this guide cannot confirm which of the two is higher.
The record for an English retail print
Set the presentation print aside and the English ceiling drops to a card with real population behind it, from the Pokemon TCG's first English set, 1999's Base Set. A PSA 10, 1st Edition copy sold for $138,880 through Goldin Auctions, pulled from a booster-box break that Logan Paul opened.
Sports Illustrated Collectibles, reporting February 21, 2026, calls that sale the most valuable Blastoise ever printed in English. The same break produced a PSA 10 1st Edition Charizard that sold for $954,800 and a PSA 10 1st Edition Venusaur at $75,640, and all three slabs carry a special "Logan Paul Break" label.
That label sets these slabs apart from every other PSA 10 1st Edition copy: SI Collectibles describes the three as one-of-ones in the hobby, so the $138,880 price reflects a single labeled slab, not a typical PSA 10 sale.
Raw vintage Blastoise, ranked by price
None of the numbers above describe an ordinary purchase. The eight WOTC-era holo prints below are ranked by raw TCGplayer market price as of September 26, 2026, and edition matters more than set.
Card
Set (year)
Print
TCGplayer market price
Blastoise 2/102
Base Set (1999)
Holo, 1st Edition
$1,300.00
Blastoise 2/102
Base Set (1999)
Holo, Shadowless Unlimited
$896.06
Dark Blastoise 3/82
Team Rocket (2000)
Holo, 1st Edition
$488.59
Blastoise 2/102
Base Set (1999)
Holo, Unlimited
$226.62
Dark Blastoise 3/82
Team Rocket (2000)
Holo, Unlimited
$218.88
Dark Blastoise 4/110
Legendary Collection (2002)
Holo
$213.49
Blastoise 2/130
Base Set 2 (2000)
Holo
$155.36
Blastoise 4/165
Expedition Base Set (2002)
Holo
$94.22
TCGplayer lists the 1st Edition and Shadowless Base Set copies under a separate Base Set (Shadowless) product from the standard Unlimited print. On that product, the 1st Edition copy's $1,300.00 is nearly 6x the standard Unlimited print, and the Shadowless Unlimited copy's $896.06 is about 4x.
Team Rocket shows the same edition gap on a smaller scale. Its 1st Edition Dark Blastoise at $488.59 is more than double the Unlimited copy at $218.88.
Below the 1st Edition and Shadowless lines, the standard Base Set print, Team Rocket's Unlimited Dark Blastoise, Legendary Collection's Dark Blastoise and Base Set 2 all sit within $72 of one another, from $155.36 to $226.62.
Expedition's Blastoise 4/165, the newest card in the table, is the outlier at $94.22. That figure moved sharply just before this read: Cardboard Alpha's ledger carried the same card at $251.55 on September 25, 2026, and the lowest TCGplayer listing on September 26 was $250.00, so it is a volatile number rather than a settled level.
Modern Blastoise chase cards, ranked
In the modern table, the two highest raw prices belong to a 2013 Secret Rare and a 2019 Alternate Full Art, separated by less than $3. The table ranks every English Blastoise single from 2004 on whose main TCGplayer line topped $100, ten prints, plus three lower-priced Mega and 151 prints for comparison, all by raw Near Mint market price read September 26, 2026.
Card
Set (year)
Rarity
Raw NM market price
Blastoise 137/135
Plasma Storm (2013)
Secret Rare
$500.00
Blastoise & Piplup GX 215/236
Cosmic Eclipse (2019)
Alternate Full Art
$497.17
Blastoise ex 104/112
FireRed & LeafGreen (2004)
Ultra Rare
$425.00
Blastoise EX XY122
XY Black Star Promos
Promo
$302.08
Blastoise δ 2/100
Crystal Guardians (2006)
Holo Rare
$260.70
Blastoise EX 142/146
XY (2014)
Full Art Ultra Rare
$160.64
Blastoise & Piplup GX 253/236
Cosmic Eclipse (2019)
Rainbow Rare
$159.27
Blastoise GX 218/214
Unbroken Bonds (2019)
Secret Rare
$131.90
Blastoise ex 200/165
151 (2023)
Special Illustration Rare
$130.09
Blastoise 2/132
Secret Wonders (2007)
Holo Rare
$107.31
M Blastoise EX 102/108
Evolutions (2016)
Ultra Rare
$70.29
M Blastoise EX 18/83
Generations (2016)
Ultra Rare
$30.88
Blastoise ex 184/165
151 (2023)
Ultra Rare
$18.87
Top modern Blastoise prints, raw NM, September 26 2026
Plasma Storm 137, Secret Rare500USD
Cosmic Eclipse 215, Alt Full Art497.17USD
FireRed & LeafGreen ex 104425USD
Blastoise EX XY122 promo302.08USD
Crystal Guardians δ 2260.7USD
XY EX 142, Full Art160.64USD
Cosmic Eclipse 253, Rainbow Rare159.27USD
Unbroken Bonds GX 218131.9USD
TCGplayer market prices from TCGplayer's September 26, 2026 daily price file. The full thirteen-row table is above.
Blastoise 137/135, Secret Rare, Plasma Storm. TCGplayer market price $500.00 as of September 26, 2026, the highest raw price in this guide's modern chase table.
The ladder does not move in a straight line by year. Plasma Storm's 2013 Secret Rare outprices every card released after it in this table, and 2004's FireRed & LeafGreen ex still sits third, ahead of every Sun & Moon and Scarlet & Violet print except the Cosmic Eclipse Alternate Full Art.
Blastoise & Piplup GX 215/236, Alternate Full Art, Cosmic Eclipse. TCGplayer market price $497.17 as of September 26, 2026, second in this guide's modern chase table.
Art treatment separates prints of the same card. Cosmic Eclipse's Alternate Full Art Blastoise & Piplup GX at $497.17 is more than 3x the same card's Rainbow Rare at $159.27.
151's own two Blastoise prints show the same rarity-tier pattern the site's 151 set guide documents for Charizard: the Special Illustration Rare at $130.09 outprices the plainer Ultra Rare at $18.87 by nearly 7x, despite both cards releasing the same day. Unbroken Bonds' Blastoise GX 218/214 Secret Rare sits just above it at $131.90.
Track any of these prints against the rest of the covered universe on the screener, or browse the full Pokemon set catalog for how Blastoise's sets sit against their neighbors.
Variant price lines and what's left out
The tables above use each card's main TCGplayer price line. Several of the same cards carry a second line on TCGplayer at a different price, per the same September 26 price file:
Legendary Collection reverse holo: the Dark Blastoise 4/110 Reverse Holofoil line showed a $975.00 market price, while its lowest listing that day was $2,699.00, a sign of a thin market rather than a settled level.
Expedition reverse holo: the Blastoise 4/165 Reverse Holofoil line sat at $499.95, well above the $94.22 holo line in the vintage table.
FireRed & LeafGreen Holofoil line: the Blastoise ex 104/112 product carries a Holofoil line at $650.45 beside the $425.00 line this guide ranks.
Some cards are left out of the ranking by design:
Oversized cards: the Dark Blastoise S2/S4 jumbo box topper showed a $399.99 market price but is not a standard-size card.
Japanese prints: this guide ranks English cards only, which is why the 1996 Japanese "No Rarity Symbol" copy SI Collectibles names carries no figure here.
Stamped event promos: championship and prerelease stamped copies are not ranked, including the HeartGold & SoulSilver-era Blastoise 13/95 prerelease promo at $156.33.
Reverse holo lines on non-holo cards: Expedition's Blastoise 36/165 and 37/165 reverse holo lines sat at $163.99 and $150.00, and Crystal Guardians' Blastoise 14/100 reverse holo at $130.00, while their standard prints are cheap non-holo rares.
POP Series 3 Blastoise 1/17: TCGplayer carries it on two lines, $100.00 and a Holofoil line at $217.50 whose lowest listing was $775.00, so it has no settled main price and is not ranked.
This guide also has no PSA or CGC population data for any Blastoise printing. Every automated attempt to read psacard.com's population report and auction-price pages returned an HTTP 403 bot challenge, the same gap the site's own 151 set guide disclosed for that set's cards.
Neither the $360,000 presentation-print sale nor the $138,880 standard-print sale is sourced to the selling platform's own transaction record; both come from CGC's and Sports Illustrated Collectibles' own published accounts of those sales.
Every dollar figure above is a single dated read, not a trend line. Raw prices in particular move week to week, as the Expedition figure shows, so read the ladder's shape rather than any one number in it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most valuable Blastoise card ever sold?
The highest Blastoise sale this guide could document is a 1998 Wizards of the Coast Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram Blastoise, graded CGC 8.5, which sold for $360,000 at Heritage Auctions on January 14, 2021, per CGC's own account of the sale. It was a test print made for media use, not a card sold at retail. Sports Illustrated Collectibles reported in February 2026 that the character's all-time auction record belongs to a 1996 Japanese Base Set No Rarity Symbol copy, but gave no price, so this guide cannot confirm which of the two sales is higher.
What is the most valuable English Blastoise card printed for retail?
A PSA 10, 1st Edition Base Set Blastoise sold for $138,880 through Goldin Auctions, from a box break Logan Paul pulled it out of, according to Sports Illustrated Collectibles' coverage published February 21, 2026. SI called it the most valuable Blastoise ever printed in English.
What is the most expensive raw Blastoise on TCGplayer?
A 1st Edition Base Set Blastoise, which TCGplayer lists under its Base Set (Shadowless) product, carried a market price of $1,300.00 in TCGplayer's September 26, 2026 price file. That is the highest raw price of the 21 English prints this guide ranks. The Shadowless Unlimited copy sat at $896.06 on the same file.
How much does a raw, ungraded Base Set Blastoise cost?
It depends heavily on the edition. TCGplayer priced the standard Unlimited print at $226.62 as of September 26, 2026, against $896.06 for a Shadowless Unlimited copy and $1,300.00 for a 1st Edition copy on the same day.
Which modern Blastoise card is worth the most raw?
In this guide's modern chase table, Plasma Storm's Blastoise 137/135, a 2013 Secret Rare, carried a TCGplayer market price of $500.00 as of September 26, 2026. Cosmic Eclipse's Blastoise & Piplup GX 215/236 Alternate Full Art sat less than $3 behind it at $497.17.
TCGplayer market prices: Base Set-era Blastoise raw prints, TCGplayer (via Cardboard Alpha's live price ledger) Official / primary source · accessed September 27, 2026
TCGplayer market prices: Blastoise ex/EX and Secret Rare chase prints, TCGplayer (via Cardboard Alpha's live price ledger) Official / primary source · accessed September 27, 2026
Blastoise - Base Set (Shadowless) - Pokemon, TCGplayer (daily market price file) Official / primary source · accessed September 27, 2026
Blastoise & Piplup GX (Alternate Full Art) - SM Cosmic Eclipse - Pokemon, TCGplayer (daily market price file) Official / primary source · accessed September 27, 2026
Ryan Shugars is an avid Pokémon card collector who builds the market-data tooling behind Cardboard Alpha. He collects across multiple eras, tracks population reports and price movement as a matter of habit, and started building Cardboard Alpha to get a straight answer to questions the existing price guides couldn't: what's actually trading, what's just an asking price, and what a grade is really worth on a given card right now. He writes from that same collector's vantage point, close to the data, skeptical of hype, and always checking a claim against the ledger before it goes in an article.
Ryan Shugars is a collector and the builder of Cardboard Alpha's data systems, not a licensed financial advisor. Articles he writes or edits describe market history and mechanics; they are informational and are not personalized investment advice.
Grading
Holo vs Reverse Holo vs Non-Holo: Value and Condition
Holo, reverse holo and non-holo cards differ in where the foil sits, how they come out of a pack and how graders treat foil flaws. This guide compares Cardboard Alpha's evaluated raw Near Mint prices for the same cards in each finish on October 10, 2026, across 115 English sets, and reads TCGplayer, CGC, Beckett and PSA on surface condition.
