Machoke 1st Edition Base Set: The Power-Save Belt
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Machoke is one of the franchise’s purest strongman designs — a wrestler’s frame, veined arms, and a championship-style power-save belt that governs its strength. It also reached collectors early: the card was in a prototype league deck issued before Base Set launched.
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 Machoke printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $49 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $77 | 10.2% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $96 | 20.9% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $183 | 40.9% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $1,190 | 16.9% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 11.2% |
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 Machoke
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 Machoke” 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.
Machoke is a Stage 1 Fighting with 80 HP, evolving from Machop, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Fighting-type Stage 1s from this run often show surface scuffing; check the face before the corners.
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
Machoke 34/102 is the Uncommon Fighting-type Stage 1 of the 1999 English Base Set, distinguished in its first printing by the black “Edition 1” stamp at the lower left of the artwork, struck on shadowless stock. It sits between Machop at 52 and the set’s holo Rare Machamp at 8 — a separate card entirely, and not to be conflated with this one.
Two lives preceded its general release. Prototype Pokémon Leagues received a Trainer Deck A before the Base Set launched, and Machoke was among the cards it contained, printed with a red border and “Trainer Deck A” on the reverse. The card then appeared in the Base Set proper, having debuted in the Japanese Expansion Pack.
The subject is the franchise’s purest strongman design: a bodybuilder-wrestler frame with reptilian accents and a championship-style power-save belt that governs its strength. The card’s Pokédex text follows the Red and Blue entry, lightly reworded, while the Japanese print used the Red and Green wording.
The species’ defining quirk — that it evolves only when traded — made it the pivot of one of the original games’ scripted NPC exchanges, where a girl in the Underground Path hands over a Machoke nicknamed RICKY for a Cubone and the Pokémon evolves the moment the trade completes. Machoke was later reprinted in Base Set 2 (49/130) and Legendary Collection (51/110); the same Sugimori illustration carried over in both.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 16.9% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 11.2% come back grade 6 or below, and the rest land in between — which is what set the price ladder above.
Machoke carries the best Gem Mint rate of this group at 16.9%, on a $49 raw.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Machoke (1999) | ~274 | ~1,623 | 16.9% |
| 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
Among the four standard references — Bulbapedia’s “Error cards”, PSA’s Pokémon Error Guide, the PokeéBeach error and misprint database, and Elite Fourum’s Masters Guide together with its English Base Set master misprint guide — none catalogues a design or text error for Machoke 34/102 in the 1st Edition printing. No typo, missing element or corrected design is recorded for this card in any of them.
The Machoke entry that does circulate is a dark gold border, and it is attached to Shadowless printings rather than the stamped first printing. Elite Fourum names Diglett, Machop and Machoke; Bulbapedia extends the fault to 1st Edition commons only. The sources do not fully agree, and neither confirms it for the Machoke 1st Edition uncommon. What does touch the 1st Edition run generally is the stamping itself: smeared or misaligned front stamps, and inverted stamp ink transferred to card backs — production artifacts rather than catalogued design errors.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Machoke is collected for the design, the prototype printing, and one of the games’ most famous trades:
- A championship power-save belt. The strongman design’s defining detail, and an unusually specific piece of designer invention.
- Printed before the set existed. Machoke was in a prototype Trainer Deck A, red-bordered and never sold at retail, before Base Set reached shops.
- The RICKY trade. The species evolves only by trading, which made it the centre of a scripted early-game exchange that evolved the Pokémon on the spot.
The line ends at the Machamp 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 Machoke is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Machoke is the strongman card: a wrestler’s frame with a power-save belt, prototype-printed before the set launched, and the species the original games built their most memorable trade around.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Machoke 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?
This is the friendliest grading card in the group on odds — 16.9% on a $49 raw is a strong ratio. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.