Kadabra 1st Edition Base Set: The Magician’s Namesake
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
1st Edition · Base Set 1999 · Kadabra #32/102
Kadabra is the only Pokémon widely reported to have been withheld from the trading card game for around two decades, and the reason given is a dispute involving the illusionist Uri Geller and the species’ Japanese name. The 1st Edition printing records the species as it stood before any of that.
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 Kadabra printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $64 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $93 | 10.3% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $165 | 23.5% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $281 | 39.8% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $3,525 | 12.0% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 14.5% |
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 Kadabra
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 Kadabra” 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.
Kadabra is a Stage 1 Psychic with 60 HP, evolving from Abra, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Psychic-type cards from this run show edge wear more than surface damage; check the border before the face.
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
Kadabra — card 32/102 in the English Pokémon Base Set — is an Uncommon Psychic-type Stage 1 card illustrated by Ken Sugimori. The printing in scope is the 1st Edition: the earliest English run, identified by the small black “Edition 1” stamp printed in a circle to the left of the artwork, applied to shadowless card stock. Later Unlimited runs added a drop shadow to the art box that 1st Edition cards lack.
Within the set, the card is a mid-tier Uncommon rather than a scarce holofoil rare, and it belongs to the Abra line that threads through Base Set, with Alakazam in the rare slot. The species is the set’s spoon-bender: the Abra line’s Japanese names point at real magicians, and the English names run the old stage-magic syllables. Kadabra also appeared in the Game Boy Pokémon Trading Card Game titles, catalogued in the first game’s Colosseum set and the second game’s Legendary Power set.
The card’s wider significance lies in a dispute that had not yet happened when it was printed. Kadabra is the only Pokémon widely reported to have been withheld from the trading card game for some two decades, and the reason given is a legal dispute involving the illusionist Uri Geller and the species’ Japanese name, a rendering close to his own.
That dispute belongs to the 2000s — a filing in California in November 2000, dismissed in 2003 and never brought to trial, with no verdict or payment documented. A producer interview in 2008 confirmed the dispute had kept Kadabra off cards. Geller publicly gave permission in 2020, and the species returned in the trading card game in 2023. The 1st Edition printing records the species as it stood before any of it.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 12.0% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 14.5% 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.
Kadabra carries the third-strongest Gem Mint rate of this group at 12.0%, on a $64 raw with a PSA-10 price near $3,525.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Kadabra (1999) | ~217 | ~1,806 | 12.0% |
| 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
Across the four reference catalogues checked — Bulbapedia’s “Error cards” list, PSA’s Pokémon Error Guide, the PokeBeach error and misprint database, and the Elite Fourum WOTC corrected-error guide together with its English Base Set master misprint guide — no error is catalogued for Kadabra 32/102 in the 1st Edition printing.
What is documented at 1st Edition level is a set-wide category rather than a card-specific one. Bulbapedia records that 1st Edition Base Set commons and uncommons can be found with an inverted stamp transferred to the card’s back, and with smeared or misaligned front stamps caused by undried ink; the Elite Fourum guide describes thin, thick, grey and smeared 1st Edition stamps across the set. Those apply to the print run, not to Kadabra in particular. A single Base Set Kadabra bearing several ink hickeys and a registration error has been reported once on the forum; a one-off hickey is not a catalogued error.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Kadabra is collected because its story kept going after the card was printed:
- The line stage the game stopped printing. Kadabra is the only Pokémon widely reported to have been withheld for about two decades, while Abra and Alakazam kept appearing.
- A dispute that produced no verdict. Filed in 2000, dismissed in 2003, never tried, with no payment documented — and resolved by the complainant’s own public permission in 2020.
- A closed chapter that reopened. The species returned to the trading card game in 2023, which makes the 1st Edition the earliest record of the form.
The line runs up to Alakazam; the Base Set hub covers the whole run.
The Artist: Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Kadabra is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Kadabra is the card whose significance arrived after it: an ordinary middle stage that became a closed chapter, then reopened. The 1st Edition sits on the safe side of all of it, printed more than a year before the dispute began.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Kadabra 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?
Kadabra's odds are among the best of this group, so a clean copy is a fair candidate. The raw cost is low, which means the fee dominates the arithmetic and the upside is modest in absolute dollars. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.