Bill 1st Edition Base Set: The $2,000 Rumor Card
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Bill is the quiet giant of Base Set: a Common Trainer, illustrated by Ken Sugimori, that turned a beloved NPC into a playable staple and later into one of the game’s first big reclassification stories. Its hidden printing flaw, a white gap under Bill’s arm, went unnoticed for years, and a bogus viral price claim gave the card a second, stranger life online. A raw near-mint copy runs about $20, while a PSA 10 reaches $483.
This page covers the 1st Edition printing specifically — the stamped, shadowless-stock version from the original January 1999 run. If you are unsure which of the Base Set Bill printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $20 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $26 | 8.4% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $33 | 16.8% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $138 | 36.4% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $483 | 30.3% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 8.1% |
Prices and population shares: the Cards Worth Chasing ranking, PSA only, September 2026. Shares are of all PSA-graded copies of this card, so they sum to 100% with the grade-6-and-below row. Grading cost basis $59.99 (PSA Standard). Comps move — verify current sold prices before transacting.
Live Now on eBay: 1st Edition Bill
What the card is actually being offered for right now. Every listing below is filtered to the genuine 1st Edition card — no repacks, mystery slabs, card skins, or multi-card lots. These are asking prices, not sold comps, so treat them as the top of the market rather than what copies are changing hands for. Buying through these links supports the site at no extra cost to you.
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Which One Do You Have? The 3-Second Test
Most people who say “I have a 1st Edition Bill” don’t. Retail packs in 1999–2000 were overwhelmingly Unlimited printing — and that’s fine, it’s the same iconic card. The fast check, in order:
- Right edge of the art box: a dark drop shadow = Unlimited or 4th Print. No shadow = keep going.
- Left of the art box: a black “Edition 1” stamp = 1st Edition. No stamp + no shadow = Shadowless.
- Bottom copyright line: ©1999-2000 = 4th Print. The font weight is the tiebreaker — thin text means an early print.
Bill is an Trainer, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. On a raw 1st Edition copy, confirm the black ‘Edition 1’ stamp at the lower-left of the art, the shadowless border with no drop shadow, and the white gap beneath Bill’s left arm that marks the uncorrected artwork.
The four printings of Base Set each have their own price and history: 1st Edition · Shadowless · Unlimited · 4th Print.
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PSA 8 prices from PriceCharting sold-comp data, September 2026. Unlimited and 4th Print look nearly identical — the copyright year is the difference. Each printing is its own card with its own price and history; see every printing: 1st Edition · Shadowless · Unlimited · 4th Print.
About This Card and Set
Bill — Masaki in Japanese — is the Poké Maniac researcher who invented the Pokémon Storage System, the on-screen Bill’s PC every Kanto player met after untangling him from a teleporter accident at his Sea Cottage. In the anime he debuted trapped in a Kabuto costume; in the games he was fused with a Pokémon; in manga he befriends Clefairy and Dratini. Ken Sugimori’s Base Set illustration frames him cheerfully working at a computer, so the card’s identity is that character rather than any Pokémon. Issued as a Common Trainer, it was one of the earliest English cards collectors could pull at the January 1999 launch and proved so ubiquitous it appeared four times across the original theme decks.
Its reprint history is unusually instructive. Base Set 2 (118/130) and Legendary Collection (108/110) kept the original Trainer frame, but the 2010 HeartGold & SoulSilver 89/123 version reclassified Bill as a Supporter — a genuine type change, not just fresh art — while a Japanese-only P promo had already done the same in 2001. The card’s folk history is livelier still: a viral video claiming Bill was a $2,000 card sent new collectors scrambling before forum veterans debunked it outright. That blend of nostalgia, arcane reprint trivia, and a thoroughly busted myth keeps collectors writing about a Common they could once buy for pocket change.
How Rare Is This Card?
Start with the number that describes the whole card: roughly 1,279 graded copies exist in total, and ~387 of those are PSA 10s. That is a gem rate of about 30.3% — and the gem rate, not the raw population, is what a collector should actually be reading. High-grade supply is what the market pays for.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bill 1st Edition (1999) | ~387 | ~1,279 | ~30.3% |
| Charizard ex #199, S&V 151 (2023) | 29,679 | 102,490 | ~29% |
PriceCharting population data, September 2026. The modern row is a combined PSA + CGC count; the 1999 row is PSA, the way it is normally quoted.
Bill is one of the most heavily graded Trainers in the set, and roughly a third of submissions reach PSA 10.
That abundance is why the card trades on its story — the never-corrected art flaw and the viral price myth — rather than on scarcity.For scale, a comparable modern chase card converts to a gem grade at roughly 29%. Modern cards grade far better than vintage ones — not because they are better cards, but because a 1999 card was printed before grading was mainstream and then spent two decades in a binder.
Source: the PSA-only figures behind the Cards Worth Chasing ranking, September 2026. Two caveats stay attached to every population figure on this site. Graded counts are submission tallies, not unique cards — resubmissions inflate the total. And the census is a floor, not a final number.
Known Error Cards
The card-specific flaw on Bill is the missing background patch. On the 1st Edition printing — and on every other printing, shadowless through Legendary Collection — a white void sits beneath Bill’s left arm where the background art should continue. Bulbapedia lists it among Base Set uncorrected errors and explicitly notes it was never corrected, so it is present on first-edition copies too. PSA’s Pokémon Error Guide carries no Bill entry, PokeBeach’s error and misprint database does not catalogue one, and the English Base Set Master Misprint Guide (Elite Fourum thread 41753) does not list Bill either — so no 1st-Edition-exclusive Bill misprint is documented. Separately, Japanese prints received Supporter errata; that is a rules change, not a misprint.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Bill’s appeal is equal parts childhood memory, character lore, and a print flaw most owners never notice.
- The NPC connection. The art immortalises Bill, the researcher who invented the Pokémon Storage System and greeted players from his Sea Cottage.
- A never-corrected flaw. A white gap under Bill’s left arm runs through every printing, giving collectors a permanent talking point.
- A famous myth. A viral claim that the card was worth thousands is now part of its folklore, alongside its Trainer-to-Supporter reclassification.
Together they make a humble Common one of the most story-dense cards in the set.
The Artist: Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Bill is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Bill rewards collectors who value backstory over raw price.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Bill real or fake?
The 1999 Base Set cards are the most counterfeited in the hobby, and for a raw copy worth real money you cannot settle it from a photo. The checks that catch most fakes: the light test (a genuine card is essentially opaque — a faint dark core line between the layers; cheap fakes glow through), the stamp rule (a real 1st Edition stamp is crisp and sits under the ink, and counterfeiters add stamps to Unlimited cards — read it with the drop shadow and the 1995-99 copyright line, never alone), and the back (fakes perfect the front and neglect the Poké Ball, the blue tone and the repeated text). Above a few hundred dollars, a raw copy should get professional pre-authentication. The full fake-detection walkthrough covers all of it.
Should I grade this card?
Grading a Base Set Bill only makes sense in high grade, since raw near-mint copies cost about $20 while a PSA 10 reaches $483. Roughly 3,400 Bill copies have been graded and only about 1,081 earned a PSA 10 — a gem rate near one in three — so the population is not scarce, yet the top grade still commands the premium. For a $20 common, submit only a genuinely sharp, well-centered example.