Pokémon
Pokémon Card Errors and Variants, Priced
In Pokémon, the same card from the same set can be worth wildly different amounts depending on which print run it came from — and the clues are small: a stamp, a shadow, a missing symbol, the colour of Pikachu’s cheeks. Here is what to look for on the early cards collectors pay the most attention to, and what each version sold for.
Prices are PriceCharting sold-price figures in US dollars, ungraded unless we say otherwise, read on September 28, 2026. Print details come from Bulbapedia.
Base Set: four English prints of one card
The English Base Set (released January 9, 1999) was printed in four runs you can tell apart without any tools:
- 1st Edition — a 1st Edition stamp, thinner HP and attack text, and no drop shadow around the picture box.
- Shadowless — the same as 1st Edition, without the stamp.
- Unlimited — the drop shadow appears and the text gets thicker.
- Unlimited ©1999–2000 — identical to Unlimited except for the copyright line.
Here is what that does to the price of Charizard:
- 1st Edition — $9,541.19; $334,789.57 in a PSA 10, with 125 graded that high.
- Shadowless — $1,010.00.
- Unlimited — $359.75; $12,275.00 in a PSA 10, with 486 graded that high.
- Unlimited ©1999–2000 — $497.67.
Same artwork, same card number — and the first print sells for more than twenty-five times the Unlimited one ungraded. The later ©1999–2000 print also sells for more than the ordinary Unlimited, so it is worth reading the copyright line rather than lumping every shadowed card together.
Check yours: look at the edges of the picture box. A drop shadow around it means Unlimited. No shadow means Shadowless or 1st Edition — then look for the stamp. Bulbapedia also notes that 1st Edition holo stamps come in a thin and a thick version, told apart by the width of the “1”.
Red Cheeks Pikachu
The Base Set Pikachu comes with yellow cheeks or red cheeks. In the 1st Edition and Shadowless runs the split is estimated at about half and half; the Unlimited run only has yellow cheeks. That is why the red version is the one collectors chase:
- 1st Edition, red cheeks — $401.42; $24,940.49 in a PSA 10.
- 1st Edition, yellow cheeks — $190.00; $5,601.00 in a PSA 10.
One more thing the census shows: PSA has graded 260 red-cheek 1st Editions a 10, against 549 yellow-cheek ones — so even with a rough half-and-half print split, top-grade red copies are the scarcer of the two.
Japanese “No Rarity”: the first print
The original Japanese Base Set, released October 20, 1996, exists with and without a rarity symbol. The copies without it are believed to be the earliest print — they carry mistakes that were fixed later, such as Venusaur numbered #68 instead of #3. Collectors call them “No Rarity”.
- Charizard, no rarity symbol — $8,700.00.
- Charizard, with the symbol — $322.50.
Treat that first number carefully. It is built on 16 recorded sales, and a year earlier the same price chart read $1,000.00. A thinly traded card can move a long way on a handful of sales.
Jungle: holos with no set symbol
In the English Jungle set (June 16, 1999), every holo rare in the Unlimited print run was also printed by accident without the set symbol. So every Jungle holo has a “no symbol” twin. Snorlax shows how that plays out:
- Snorlax, no symbol — $118.30 ungraded, $652.50 in a graded 9.
- Snorlax, normal — $73.09 ungraded, $690.34 in a graded 9.
Raw, the error sells for more. In a graded 9 it sells for slightly less. An error adds a premium only for as long as buyers want it — it is not a guarantee at every grade.
Check yours: put your Jungle holo next to a picture of the normal card. If the set symbol the normal card carries is missing from yours, it is the no-symbol version.
Other corrected Base Set errors
Bulbapedia lists more Base Set mistakes that were fixed during printing, including a Blastoise printed without the word “Stage”, a Shadowless Ninetales missing its attack damage, a Beedrill with the typo “D.efending”, and a 1st Edition Pikachu whose stamp is missing the “1st” and the “d”. Most of these trade too rarely for a reliable price, so if you find one, look up recent sales of that exact version before you name a figure.
For how rarity symbols and holo patterns work across the eras, see how Pokémon card rarities work. For checking any card for fakes and alterations, see card errors and variations: how to spot them.
What this looks like on Waffles
Every Pokémon pack we sell is four real singles we physically hold, and the value we show for each card carries the date it was last set — so you can check any card you pull against a price guide yourself. See what is in the Pokémon packs right now and the published odds.