Base Set Variants & errors — every card, ranked by upside
All 11 cards of Base Set Variants & errors, priced raw and at every grade and ranked by what a raw copy could be worth in a PSA 10 once you pay to grade it. 5 carry a rank; the others are listed with whatever is missing stated on the row.
Prices: PriceCharting sold-comp data, October 12, 2026 — refreshed monthly. The cost basis includes $59.99 to grade (PSA Standard, the cheapest tier you can buy). Populations are PSA-graded copies only — CGC is excluded so every share has one denominator.
See every era run ranked in one list →
The Ranking
Jump to a card all 11 listed
Pikachu — E3 Red Cheeks Base Set
Raw copies cost $587.50 and a PSA 10 has sold for $8,300.00 — +$7,653 over the cost of buying one raw and grading it. A PSA 7 already clears the fee (+$995), so the downside is limited to what the raw copy cost. 57.6% of graded copies reach a PSA 7 or better and 17.7% come back a 10. PSA has recorded 356 copies of this printing.
Pikachu — PokeTour 1999 Base Set
Raw copies cost $198.89 and a PSA 10 has sold for $7,175.14 — +$6,916 over the cost of buying one raw and grading it. A PSA 7 loses money (−$107); the 9 is where it turns (+$342). PriceCharting records no PSA census for this printing, so there are no odds to quote — the figure above comes from its sold-comp data alone.
Clefairy — Red Heart Error Base Set
Raw copies cost $376.21 and a PSA 10 has sold for $3,427.68 — +$2,991 over the cost of buying one raw and grading it. Every grade below a 10 loses money at today's prices (−$386 at a 7, −$363 at an 8, −$71 at a 9), so the whole case rests on the gem. PriceCharting records no PSA census for this printing, so there are no odds to quote — the figure above comes from its sold-comp data alone.
Pikachu — E3 Base Set
Raw copies cost $38.76 and a PSA 10 has sold for $2,011.72 — +$1,913 over the cost of buying one raw and grading it. The 9 clears the fee (+$54) but the 8 does not. 63.8% of graded copies reach a PSA 7 or better and 7.9% come back a 10. PSA has recorded 2,467 copies of this printing.
Diglett — Fight Symbol Error Base Set
Raw copies cost $14.95 and a PSA 10 has sold for $234.99 — +$160 over the cost of buying one raw and grading it. Every grade below a 10 loses money at today's prices (−$52 at a 7, −$46 at an 8, −$43 at a 9), so the whole case rests on the gem. 79.1% of graded copies reach a PSA 7 or better and 30.1% come back a 10. PSA has recorded 511 copies of this printing.
Blastoise — Stage Error Base Set
61.3% of graded copies reach a PSA 7 or better and 1.0% come back a 10. PSA has recorded 626 copies of this printing.
Charizard — Black Dot Error Base Set
PriceCharting records no PSA census for this printing, so there are no odds to quote — the figure above comes from its sold-comp data alone.
Clefairy — Black Dot Error Base Set
PriceCharting records no PSA census for this printing, so there are no odds to quote — the figure above comes from its sold-comp data alone.
Ninetales — Black Flame Base Set
57.5% of graded copies reach a PSA 7 or better and 1.0% come back a 10. PSA has recorded 193 copies of this printing.
Ninetales — No Damage Base Set
PriceCharting records no PSA census for this printing, so there are no odds to quote — the figure above comes from its sold-comp data alone.
Raichu — Prerelease Base Set
PriceCharting records no PSA census for this printing, so there are no odds to quote — the figure above comes from its sold-comp data alone.
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How to read this list — and why I built it this way
The ranking is by potential value — a card’s PSA 10 price minus what it costs to buy it raw and grade it. That is the size of the best-case prize, and it is deliberately simple. Set a price range and the list re-reads for your budget, so you are comparing the cards you could actually buy against each other instead of against the biggest card in the era.
Then read the odds. Every card shows its real chance of each grade, drawn from its own population rather than a rule of thumb, beside the profit at that grade. They will not sum to 100%: the rest of a card’s graded population sits at grade 6 or below, and that line is shown too, because a card that often lands there is a different proposition from one that does not. Read the two together — a large prize with poor odds is a lottery ticket, a smaller prize with good odds is a decision. Judging population and price side by side, on the cards your budget actually reaches, is how you work out what is worth chasing and what you want to collect.
Why potential value, and not a single blended return figure. A blended number hides both the size of the prize and the risk in it, so every card shows the odds of each grade right beside the profit at that grade, and you weigh the prize against the likelihood yourself. The population basis is PSA only for the same reason: one denominator, measured the same way on every card. CGC and BGS figures are real, but mixing three grading companies into one share makes the odds mean less. Shipping and insurance are excluded from the cost basis on purpose — they vary by where you live and how many cards you send, and consistency matters more here than completeness.
There is one catch, and it is the whole game: condition. To use this list well you have to be able to look at a raw card and estimate, roughly, what it would grade — and understand why graders penalize what they penalize. A card bought at a PSA 9 price in PSA 6 condition is a loss no matter how good its rank looks here. If that skill is new to you, the grading ROI guide covers the cost math and the pre-screen check; a dedicated condition guide is coming.
This is my perspective as a collector, not a promise of returns. Every figure on the page is a decision input, not a forecast.
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