Growlithe 1st Edition Base Set: The Guardian Lion-Dog
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
1st Edition · Base Set 1999 · Growlithe #28/102
Growlithe is the first half of the Fire Stone pair, and its design is older than the game: it draws on the shisa and komainu, the lion-dog statues that flank gates across Japan and Okinawa. That resemblance became official in August 2024, when it was named the support Pokémon of Okinawa Prefecture.
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 Growlithe printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $57 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $84 | 12.9% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $95 | 24.1% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $375 | 39.4% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $3,109 | 10.9% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 12.7% |
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 Growlithe
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.
Loading current listings…
Which One Do You Have? The 3-Second Test
Most people who say “I have a 1st Edition Growlithe” 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.
Growlithe is a Basic Fire with 60 HP, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Check centring first, then the yellow border, which is where wear shows on Fire-type Basics from this run.
The four printings of Base Set each have their own price and history: 1st Edition · Shadowless · Unlimited · 4th Print.
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
Growlithe is card 28/102 of the 1999 English Base Set, and the printing in scope is the 1st Edition — the stamped, shadowless-stock first print, carrying the black “Edition 1” circle stamp to the left of the artwork, with no drop shadow behind the illustration window. It sits six places below its own evolution, Arcanine, at 23/102.
As a species entry the card is the franchise’s Puppy Pokémon, the first half of the celebrated Fire Stone pair. It debuted in the Japanese Expansion Pack as Gardie before Wizards localised the set; the English name fuses “growl” and “lithe,” while the Japanese name is generally read as “guard” plus the word for dog.
That guardian idea is the design’s root. Growlithe draws on the shisa and komainu — the lion-dog statues that flank gates and rooftops across Japan and Okinawa — and the games and animation repeatedly cast it as a police and guard animal. The lineage was made official in August 2024, when The Pokémon Company named Growlithe the support Pokémon of Okinawa Prefecture, its eleventh regional ambassador, citing the shisa resemblance directly.
The illustration is credited to Ken Sugimori, and the same artwork carried forward when the card was reprinted in Base Set 2 (42/130) and Legendary Collection (45/110), so a first printing is identified by its stock and stamp rather than by its picture.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 10.9% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 12.7% come back grade 6 or below, and the rest land in between — which is what set the price ladder above. The odds column is the number that matters, because high-grade supply is what the market actually pays for.
Growlithe’s graded population is mid-sized and its Gem Mint rate is 10.9%, which is a workable combination against a raw cost under $60.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Growlithe (1999) | ~178 | ~1,636 | 10.9% |
| 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, 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 catalogued Growlithe error is the “Magic Back” card, and it does not belong to the English 1st Edition print. Bulbapedia and CGC both record it on the German Base Set 1st Edition Growlithe — one of ten German Base Set cards found with a Magic: The Gathering card back after the same Wizards of the Coast plant ran both games, removed from production before corner rounding.
For the English 1st Edition printing specifically, no error is documented in any of the four reference sources checked. Bulbapedia’s Error cards page files the Magic Back under the German print; PSA’s Pokémon Error Guide lists no Growlithe entry in its 1999 Base Set or Base Set Shadowless sections; the PokeBeach error database carries no Growlithe error; and Elite Fourum’s English Base Set master misprint guide has no Growlithe entry. The sources agree.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Growlithe is collected for a design that reaches back past the game into Japanese architecture:
- A guardian statue brought to life. The shisa and komainu lion-dogs that flank Japanese shrines are the design’s root.
- Okinawa’s official Pokémon. Named the prefecture’s support Pokémon in August 2024, with the shisa resemblance cited directly.
- A complete pair inside one set. Growlithe and Arcanine were both printed in Base Set, so the line can be finished from a single set.
The other half of the pair is the Arcanine review; the Base Set hub covers the run.
The Artist: Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Growlithe is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Growlithe is the card whose design was formally recognised long after it was drawn: a lion-dog statue from Japanese shrine architecture, later named the official Pokémon of the prefecture those statues come from.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Growlithe 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?
Growlithe grades well for the money — a gem rate near 11% on a $57 raw is one of the better ratios. Grade it for the collection; the absolute dollars are small. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.