Machop 1st Edition Base Set: Atlas of the Commons
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
1st Edition · Base Set 1999 · Machop #52/102
Machop is the first stage of the one Fighting line Base Set completed — Machop, Machoke and Machamp all made the set, a rarity among its many unfinished families.
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 Machop printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $22 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $44 | 8.0% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $70 | 19.7% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $98 | 38.4% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $508 | 26.2% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 7.7% |
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 Machop
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 Machop” 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 text means an early print.
Machop is a Basic Fighting with 50 HP, illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita. Check centring first, then the corners, where wear shows on a played Fighting Basic.
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
Machop is card 52/102 in the Pokémon Base Set, a Common Fighting-type released in English on 9 January 1999 by Wizards of the Coast. This page covers the 1st Edition printing: the first English run, produced from January into early March 1999, marked by the black “Edition 1” stamp at the lower-left of the artwork and printed on shadowless stock — no drop shadow around the illustration window, thinner HP and attack text.
The whole Machop line is present in Base Set: Machop at #52, Machoke at #34 as an Uncommon, and Machamp as the set’s #8 holo — so unlike the many lines Base Set deliberately left unfinished, this family is complete. In the games the family’s final step is a trade evolution, a design detail carried over from Red and Green.
Documented design notes are modest. Bulbapedia describes Machop as based on a bodybuilder with reptilian features — flat face, tail, three head ridges. Community writing reads the line against professional wrestling and Dragon Ball Z, and one essay argues Arita’s illustration echoes Atlas holding up the sky. A separate claim that the muscular look came from a Super Mario Bros. 3 sprite sheet circulates among fans, but no Game Freak statement supporting it was found; treat it as an unverified comparison. The card was later reprinted in Base Set 2 (#78/130) and in a Diamond & Pearl-era print.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 26.2% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 7.7% 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.
Machop’s graded population is mid-sized and its Gem Mint rate is 26.2%, one of the better ratios in the batch, on a raw cost near $22.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Machop (1999) | ~673 | ~2,570 | 26.2% |
| 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
Cross-checking Bulbapedia’s error list, the PSA Pokémon Error Guide, the PokeBeach error and misprint database and the Elite Fourum misprint guides, the 1st Edition Machop carries no catalogued card-specific error. PSA’s error guide lists only one Base Set 1st Edition card error at all, the Pikachu ghost stamp.
The Machop entry that does exist — the “Yellow Belly” extra gold ink smudge — belongs to Unlimited prints; CGC files it as “Additional Ink,” while the Elite Fourum master guide lists it as Unlimited. What the 1st Edition commons do share is a set-wide stamping category: grey or low-ink stamps, faint impressions transferred to the card back, front stamp smears, and off-aligned stamps. These are stamping variations, not a Machop design fault.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Machop is collected as the start of a line Base Set actually finished:
- A complete family. Machop, Machoke and Machamp all made Base Set, unlike the set’s many held-back lines.
- An Atlas pose. Arita’s illustration is read as the Titan holding up the sky, though the reading is community interpretation.
- A documented Unlimited fault. The “Yellow Belly” ink smudge is real — and it is not on this printing.
The line continues with Machoke and Machamp; the Base Set hub covers the run.
The Artist: Mitsuhiro Arita
Mitsuhiro Arita is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Machop is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Machop is a cheap common that anchors one of the few complete evolutionary families in Base Set.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Machop 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?
Machop is a $22 raw with a 26.2% gem rate — one of the better ratios here. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.