Hitmonchan 1st Edition Base Set: Play Wear Keeps It Cheap
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Hitmonchan is the least-graded holo of the stamped run — a card with real scarcity at the top simply because so few were submitted. Raw copies trade around $294, while a PSA 10 gem has cleared $15,250 — 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 Hitmonchan printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $288 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $700 | 16.3% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $1,082 | 20.2% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $2,203 | 18.3% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $15,250 | 2.7% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 42.5% |
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 Hitmonchan
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.
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Which One Do You Have? The 3-Second Test
Most people who say “I have a 1st Edition Hitmonchan” 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.
Hitmonchan is a Basic Fighting-type with 70 HP. Its 1999 card was a competitive staple for its low energy cost, which means it saw heavy play — and the population today reflects twenty-seven years of that.
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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
Hitmonchan is card 7/102, drawn by Sugimori, and it has an unusually long second life for a Base Set holo. The same illustration was deliberately reissued years later as a secret rare in the Platinum set (129/127) — a rare “same art, later era” callback that Wizards and then TPCi almost never did. There is also a reverse-holo Best of Game promo, stamped for a 2003 tournament series, and a jumbo version.
That reissue record is the card's distinguishing feature in a set where most holos were reprinted only within the Base Set family. The print story for this printing is the set's, and it is told in the 1st Edition set guide.
How Rare Is This Card?
Start with the two numbers that describe the whole card: roughly 2,542 graded copies exist in total, and about 72 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 Hitmonchan (1999) | ~72 | ~2,542 | 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. The errors collectors name on this card are Unlimited: the “Holo Bleed”, where so much of the white ink layer is missing that the holofoil swallows the HP and the Fighting energy symbol in the top-right corner, and a “Red Stain” variant with extra magenta ink.
Hitmonchan is also the cleanest example of an argument that runs across this whole set: the two grading companies disagree about ink errors. CGC will label anomalies such as misaligned print, ink smear and holo bleed that PSA declines to recognise, on the reasoning that PSA sticks to documented and intentional varieties. The same card can therefore carry an error label from one company and not the other — which changes what it sells for.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
The case for this card, specifically:
- The most-reissued Base Set holo. Its Sugimori artwork was brought back years later as a Platinum secret rare — a near-unique second life for a Base Set illustration.
- Wear is the story. Because it was played hard, genuinely clean raw copies are rare, which makes crisp examples collectable in their own right.
- A card the graders argue about. CGC labels its ink errors; PSA largely will not — so the same copy can be worth differently depending on which slab it is in.
- A later misprint on record. Its 2003 Best of Game reprint was printed with the wrong HP — a documented oddity from the licence's final years.
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) drew the Base Set Hitmonchan. The 1999 illustration is close to his original species design, with the determined boxer pose that made the card instantly recognisable during the original competitive era.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Hitmonchan's collecting case is unusual: its case rests on artwork and reissue history rather than on a low population.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Hitmonchan 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?
Grade it if the surface is genuinely clean — and inspect closely first. Hitmonchan was a competitive staple, so raw copies frequently carry hidden holo scratching that caps the grade. A sharp copy is a genuine outlier, and PSA 9 is where this card's value sits. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.