Jynx 1st Edition Base Set: The Recolored Debut
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Jynx holds the most frequently misread story in Base Set. The English card, 1st Edition included, is printed with the recoloured purple face — which means the change was made for the January 1999 international launch, roughly a year before the controversy usually credited with causing it.
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 Jynx printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $44 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $55 | 8.3% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $59 | 20.9% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $197 | 45.1% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $1,293 | 15.9% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 9.8% |
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 Jynx
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 Jynx” 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.
Jynx is a Basic Psychic with 70 HP, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Psychic-type uncommons from this run show surface wear more than edge damage; check the face first.
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
Jynx, card 31/102 in the English Base Set of 1999, is an Uncommon, non-holo Psychic-type Basic illustrated by Ken Sugimori — the species’ first appearance in the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The printing in scope is the 1st Edition: the stamped first run, struck on the shadowless sheet template, with the black “Edition 1” roundel set at the lower left of the artwork.
What distinguishes this card from nearly any other in the block is its face. The English Base Set Jynx is printed in dark purple, not black — and that holds for the 1st Edition, the shadowless run and the unlimited run alike.
The recolouring was not a late correction applied to this printing. Jynx debuted in the Japanese Expansion Pack in October 1996 with a black face; when Wizards of the Coast prepared the English game for its January 1999 release, the artwork was reworked so the face read dark purple. The change therefore predates by roughly a year the January 2000 article in which the American critic Carole Boston Weatherford objected to the character’s television appearance, and it is present in the earliest English copies. The 1st Edition Jynx does not record an earlier, uncensored state; it records the recoloured one from the outset.
The design is usually traced to the yama-uba, the mountain crone of Japanese folklore, and sometimes to the snow-woman yuki-onna. The rival claim that Jynx was modelled on 1990s ganguro fashion is widely repeated but contested, since the games entered development years before that trend peaked, and it is best treated as unverified. Base Set Jynx was reprinted in Base Set 2 (45/130, Uncommon) and Legendary Collection (26/110, Rare).
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 15.9% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 9.8% come back grade 6 or below, and the rest land in between — which is what set the price ladder above.
Jynx carries a 15.9% Gem Mint rate on a $44 raw — among the better grading odds of this group.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Jynx (1999) | ~252 | ~1,586 | 15.9% |
| 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
No error is catalogued for the 1st Edition printing of Jynx, and none for the card in any printing, across the four standard references. PSA’s Pokémon Error Guide lists the 1999 Base Set errors as Beedrill, Blastoise, Diglett and Wartortle, plus Ninetales and Pikachu for the shadowless run; Jynx does not appear. Bulbapedia’s “Error cards” entry records no Jynx error in Base Set. PokeBeach’s misprint database contains no Jynx entry, and the Elite Fourum Masters Guide passes over the card entirely.
The one near-mention is a press-doubling sheet fault in the Elite Fourum English Base Set Master Misprint Guide, pairing a Jynx with a Porygon and assigned to the Unlimited uncommon run — not to the 1st Edition. Occasional single-copy ink hickeys surface, but a one-off hickey is not a catalogued error.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Jynx is collected because its card records a change the hobby usually gets backwards:
- The recolour is on this printing, not after it. The English 1st Edition was printed in dark purple from the outset — the change predates the controversy credited with causing it.
- The black face is the Japanese card. The Expansion Pack print of 1996 carries the black face, and is a different card from this one.
- An official rarity step-up. Base Set 2 kept it Uncommon; the Legendary Collection reprint promoted it to Rare.
The Base Set hub covers the run, and the 1st Edition hub explains the printing.
The Artist: Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Jynx is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Jynx is the card that corrects its own folklore: the recolor was made for the English launch, not in reaction to the controversy that followed it, and the 1st Edition records the changed artwork from the very first printing.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Jynx 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, the stamp rule (read together with the drop shadow and the 1995-99 copyright line, never alone), and the back. 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?
The odds here are good — 15.9% on a $44 raw — so a clean copy is a reasonable submission. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.