Blastoise 1st Edition Base Set: Why Grading Pays Fourfold
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Blastoise is the #2 chase card of the 1999 Base Set — the second most valuable holo in the set behind Charizard, and a card whose price ladder rewards patience: raw copies trade around $1,183 while a PSA 10 gem has cleared $73,000.
Blastoise is the #2 chase card of the 1999 set and the second most valuable holo in it behind Charizard. Raw copies trade around $1,183, while a PSA 10 gem has cleared $70,729 — the gap between those two numbers is the whole story of this card.
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 Blastoise printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $1,285 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $3,636 | 13.3% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $4,554 | 16.3% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $8,438 | 18.4% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $70,729 | 2.6% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 49.4% |
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 Blastoise
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.
Loading current listings…
Which One Do You Have? The 3-Second Test
Most people who say “I have a 1st Edition Blastoise” 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 HP text means an early print.
Blastoise is a Stage 2 Water-type evolving from Wartortle. Worth knowing: some Unlimited-print Blastoise are missing the word “Stage” above the evolution line — a print error, and one that only affects the Unlimited card.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
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
Blastoise is card 2/102, and it is the set's Water mascot in the most literal way: the English booster packs themselves were printed with Blastoise artwork alongside Charizard and Venusaur. It belongs to the stamped run, the shortest printing window in the WotC era. The runs, the stamp and the plate change are told in the 1st Edition set guide, not retold here.
The illustration is Sugimori's, and it became one of the most reproduced images the franchise has ever put on a card. What makes this printing genuinely interesting sits at the top of the ladder rather than in the art: the 1st Edition Blastoise has a smaller PSA 10 population than either Charizard or Venusaur. The most famous card in the set is not the hardest one to find in a gem grade, and Blastoise is the clearest example of that gap.
The story collectors actually associate with Blastoise — the “No Stage” error — belongs to the printing next door, which is where the next section picks it up.
How Rare Is This Card?
Start with the two numbers that describe the whole card: roughly 4,424 graded copies exist in total, and about 126 of those are PSA 10s. That is a gem rate near 2.8% — and the gem rate, not the raw population, is the number a collector should actually read. High-grade supply is what the market pays for.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Blastoise (1999) | ~126 | ~4,424 | 2.8% |
| 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.
For scale, compare it with the modern equivalent: a 2023 chase Charizard carries roughly 29,679 gem-grade copies out of about 102,490 graded — a gem rate near 29%, on a card printed and slabbed within a year of release. The modern card has many times the gem supply, at several times this card's gem rate — not because it is a better card, but because a 1999 card was printed before grading was mainstream and then spent two decades in a binder. A vintage gem count is not comparable to a modern one.
Population source: PriceCharting, September 2026. The vintage figure is PSA; the modern figure is a combined PSA + CGC count, which is how each is normally quoted.
Two caveats stay attached to every population figure on this site. Graded counts are submission tallies, not unique cards — resubmissions inflate the total, so the number of genuinely distinct gem copies is lower. And the census is a floor, not a final number: it grows with every submission wave.
Known Error Cards
None are documented for the 1st Edition printing — and that distinction carries real weight here, because the Base Set's most famous error sits one printing away. The “No Stage” Blastoise is missing the words “Stage 2” above the name, and it appears on Unlimited copies only. A “1st Edition No Stage Blastoise” is a contradiction in terms.
The same Unlimited run carries the rest of the family: the “Illustrator” error (a partial “Illus.” credit), the “Red Dot”, and a heart-shaped red ink blob inside the retreat cost. All are Unlimited.
One correction worth making plainly: the five-figure prices widely attached to the No Stage error are not supported by the recorded sales we could find, which cluster far lower. The grail framing is community enthusiasm, not market fact.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
The case for this card, specifically:
- A pack-art mascot. Blastoise fronted the English booster packs themselves — the artwork a 1999 buyer saw on the shelf, not just a starter in the binder.
- #2 among the icons. The second-most-followed card in the hobby after Charizard, and priced like it.
- Liquid at every grade. It behaves like a blue chip: widely followed, continuously traded, and easy to sell when you want out.
- A \u201cIllus. error\u201d to hunt. Some Unlimited copies are missing part of the credit abbreviation — a documented, collectable variety on the printing next door.
The Base Set hub compares all four printings, and the Unlimited run is the affordable route to the same artwork.
The Artist: Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori (b. 1966), the franchise's founding illustrator, drew the Base Set Blastoise. His original watercolour rendering of the water-cannon pose is one of the most reproduced pieces of Pokémon art in existence — and one of the most frequently copied by counterfeiters.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Blastoise is the second-biggest card in the hobby and it trades like it. That liquidity is the feature and the entry price is the cost.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Blastoise real or fake?
The 1999 Base Set holos are the most counterfeited cards 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 — but a faint grey “ghost” stamp can be an authentic variant, so read it with the 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 with the CGC forensic case study.
Should I grade this card?
Yes — grade it. Blastoise's raw 1st Edition price is high enough that buyers discount ungraded copies heavily on authentication risk, and the raw-to-PSA 8 spread is roughly fourfold. A slab also settles the stamp question permanently, which matters more on this card than on most. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.