Base Set

What Base Set is

Base Set is the first expansion of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, released in English by Wizards of the Coast on January 9, 1999 under the set code BS with 102 cards and no secret rares. It is the English version of the Japanese Expansion Pack of October 20, 1996, which launched the game in Japan as a Starter Pack deck sold alongside booster packs, and its Pokémon come from Pokémon Red, Blue and Green.

The checklist opens with 16 holofoil rares, Alakazam 1 through Zapdos 16, with Charizard 4, Blastoise 2 and Venusaur 15 among them, followed by 16 non holofoil rares, 32 uncommons and 38 commons, then the Trainers and the basic Energy cards that close the set at 102. Grass is the most represented type at 13 cards. Three illustrators drew almost everything: Ken Sugimori 44 cards, Keiji Kinebuchi 38 and Mitsuhiro Arita 19, including Charizard.

The English set is ordered by card type, then rarity, then alphabetically, which is why the holofoils run A to Z at the front, whereas the Japanese set was ordered by type, rarity and National Pokédex number.

What makes Base Set different

• Three print runs Base Set exists as 1st Edition, marked with the Edition 1 stamp, Shadowless, the early Unlimited print without the drop shadow beside the artwork window, and Unlimited with the shadow, including a later print with a 1999-2000 copyright. The live prices list each as a separate variant.
• Charizard Mitsuhiro Arita's Charizard 4 is the most famous card in the hobby, and its 1st Edition PSA 10 is the benchmark price for the whole game. Shadowless and Unlimited Charizards follow it on the chase list.
• Red Cheeks Pikachu The first prints of Pikachu 58 colored its cheeks red instead of yellow, and the Red Cheeks 1st Edition Pikachu is a chase card in its own right. E3 stamped Red Cheek and Yellow Cheek Pikachus and a PokéTour 1999 stamped Pikachu from Australia exist as well.
• Errors worth knowing Blastoise 2 was printed without the word Stage, Shadowless Ninetales 12 is missing its attack damage, Beedrill 17 carries a D.efending typo, Wartortle 42 shows Wartortle in its own Evolution box, Diglett 47 has its Energy cost symbols rotated 90 degrees and some Pikachu 58 prints are missing the 1st and the d.
• Before the Base Set A Demo Game pack of 24 Shadowless cards and the Brock's and Misty's Trainer Decks reached retailers and early events in 1998, before the set went on sale, and were never sold to the public.

How Base Set arrived

Japan launched the game with the Expansion Pack on October 20, 1996, promoted by a Pikachu and a Jigglypuff peeled from CoroCoro magazine 5 days earlier so readers felt they had already started their collection. The English Base Set followed on January 9, 1999, more than two years later, and Jungle arrived on June 16, 1999 as the second English set.

Base Set launched with four 60 card Theme Decks, Blackout with Fighting and Water Pokémon, Brushfire with Fire and Grass, Overgrowth with Water and Grass and Zap! with Lightning and Psychic, each holding one holofoil, damage counters, a Chansey coin and a rulebook, plus a 2-Player Starter Set that split into two half decks for learning the game, with Machamp as a 61st card. Base Set 2 reprinted most of the set on February 24, 2000 with its own decks.

The set's cards have been revisited ever since: Blastoise 2, Charizard 4, Venusaur 15 and Imposter Professor Oak 73 returned in the Celebrations Classic Collection, Charizard 4 again in the 30th Celebration Classic Collection, metal Charizard and Pikachu in the Celebrations Ultra-Premium Collection and Jumbo Bulbasaur 44, Charmander 46, Squirtle 63 and Pikachu 58 in First Partner products.

Base Set products and what came in them

Base Set sold in booster packs and 36 pack booster boxes across its print runs, in blister packs and in the Theme Decks and Starter Set. The sealed table above lists 1st Edition, Shadowless and Unlimited packs and boxes separately, along with error packs, the Costco 10 pack blister, the Demo Game pack and the Starter Gift Box.

Collecting and grading Base Set

Every Base Set card exists in several print runs, and the live prices above list 1st Edition, Shadowless and Unlimited copies as separate variants, so match the label before comparing. 1st Edition Charizard 4 leads everything, and 1st Edition Chansey 3, Blastoise 2, Mewtwo 10, Venusaur 15, Gyarados 6, Ninetales 12, Raichu 14, Alakazam 1 and Hitmonchan 7 fill out the top of the list, with Shadowless Charizard and Blastoise and the Unlimited Charizard between them. The 1st Edition Red Cheeks Pikachu 58 is the one common that trades like a holofoil.

Grading is the whole market. Wizards era holofoils scratch and chip, 1st Edition and Shadowless copies are decades old, and the gap between PSA 9 and PSA 10 on the 16 holofoils is the largest in the hobby. Check centering, the holofoil surface and the back edges, and expect PSA 9 to be the realistic ceiling for most raw copies.

Sealed Base Set is a vintage asset class of its own. Unlimited booster boxes are expensive, 1st Edition boxes far more so, and single packs trade by print run and even by error type; the sealed table above tracks what each trades for today.