Base Set 2

What Base Set 2 is

Base Set 2 is the fourth main expansion of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, released on February 24, 2000. It has 130 cards, all of them reprints of cards from Base Set and Jungle, and it has no Japanese equivalent: it was assembled by Wizards of the Coast for the English market as a combined release of the game's first two expansions, with Generation I Pokémon throughout.

The set holds 20 holofoil rares, 20 non holofoil rares, 42 uncommons, 42 commons and the 6 basic Energy cards at 125 to 130. Base Set 2 was the first English expansion to use the Cosmos Holofoil, the starry foil pattern that replaced the original Base Set holofoil, so its Charizard 4, Blastoise 2 and Venusaur 18 are the first Cosmos Holofoil prints of the three Kanto starters.

Not everything made the cut. Eight Base Set cards were left out, Machamp, Porygon, Koffing, Ponyta, Clefairy Doll, Devolution Spray, Pokémon Flute and Revive among them, and Jungle's 16 cards that appeared in both holofoil and non holofoil form were trimmed to a single version or dropped. The Electrode and Pikachu in Base Set 2 are the Base Set versions rather than the Jungle ones, and several other Jungle cards were not included.

What makes Base Set 2 different

• Hitmonchan over Charizard Hitmonchan 8, a holofoil that costs little raw, is the most valuable Base Set 2 card in PSA 10, ahead of Charizard 4 and Blastoise 2, and Chansey 3 and Pidgeot 14 also outrank Mewtwo 10 and Venusaur 18 in top grade.
• The first Cosmos Holofoils Base Set 2 was the first English expansion printed with the Cosmos Holofoil pattern, which makes its 20 holofoil rares visually distinct from the Base Set and Jungle originals they reprint.
• No 1st Edition Base Set 2 was printed only as an unlimited run, so there is no 1st Edition stamp to chase, and the holofoil rares carry the set's value on their own.
• The W stamp Wartortle Wartortle 63 was reprinted with a W stamp as a Top Deck Magazine promo, and the stamped copy ranks among the top fifteen cards of the set in PSA 10, far above the regular uncommon.
• Eight Base Set cards left out Machamp, Porygon, Koffing, Ponyta, Clefairy Doll, Devolution Spray, Pokémon Flute and Revive from Base Set were not reprinted, so a Base Set 2 collection is not a complete Base Set collection.

How Base Set 2 arrived

Base Set 2 released on February 24, 2000, twenty weeks after Fossil on October 10, 1999 and nine weeks before Team Rocket on April 24, 2000. Wizards of the Coast treated it as a re release of the original Base Set, and its products mirrored the ones released for the first expansion in January 1999: four Theme Decks and a 2-Player CD-ROM Starter Set, this time built around Fighting and Water instead of Fighting and Fire.

The four Theme Decks were Grass Chopper (Fighting and Grass), Hot Water (Fire and Water), Lightning Bug (Lightning and Grass) and Psych Out (Psychic and Water), each with one holofoil card, a Pikachu coin, a rulebook, damage counters and a card list.

Because every card was a reprint, Base Set 2 holofoils have long been the affordable way to own the Base Set and Jungle artwork in a different foil.

Base Set 2 products

Base Set 2 was sold in booster packs, booster boxes, four Theme Decks and the 2-Player CD-ROM Starter Set. The sealed table above tracks boxes, packs and the Theme Decks.

Collecting and grading Base Set 2

Hitmonchan 8 leads the set in PSA 10, with Charizard 4, Blastoise 2, Chansey 3, Pidgeot 14 and Mewtwo 10 behind it, then Alakazam 1, Raichu 16, Magneton 9, Venusaur 18, the W stamp Wartortle 63, Ninetales 13, Clefable 5, Poliwrath 15 and Zapdos 20. The live chase list above ranks every tracked card by PSA 10 value.

Cosmos Holofoils scratch easily, so PSA 10 copies of the holofoil rares are scarce relative to how many were opened, and the gap between PSA 9 and PSA 10 is very wide across the whole holofoil run. Hitmonchan 8 is the clearest example: it costs little raw and far more in PSA 10 than any other card in the set.

Sealed Base Set 2 remains obtainable, and the sealed table above tracks what boxes, packs and Theme Decks trade for today.