Magnemite 1st Edition Base Set: Magnet, Ink and Errors
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
1st Edition · Base Set 1999 · Magnemite #53/102
Magnemite is a horseshoe magnet given a face, drawn by the set’s only early 3D artist — and it shares a set with its own evolution for once, Magneton arriving as a holo at #9.
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 Magnemite 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) | $31 | 9.1% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $39 | 21.0% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $79 | 40.1% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $502 | 21.7% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 8.0% |
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 Magnemite
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 Magnemite” 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.
Magnemite is a Basic Lightning with 40 HP, illustrated by Keiji Kinebuchi. Check centring first, then the border, where wear shows on this printing.
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
Magnemite is card 53/102 of the English Base Set, a Common that trades for cents yet sits inside the set that opened the Western Pokémon TCG. Wizards of the Coast released Base Set on 9 January 1999, and the 1st Edition run shipped first. On this printing the black “Edition 1” symbol sits just left of the illustration window, and the card uses the shadowless template: no drop shadow behind the art box, and thinner HP and attack text than later waves.
Collectors chasing the Magnemite line get it complete here: Magneton appears in the same set as a Rare Holo at #9, so both stages sit inside the one 102-card checklist, and Keiji Kinebuchi illustrated each. The artwork returned later in Base Set 2 (#79/130), Legendary Collection (#80/110) and the 2016 XY Evolutions reprint, though only the 1999 1st Edition wears the stamp.
Kinebuchi was the TCG’s signature early 3D artist, rendering Magneton, Gastly, Haunter and this Magnemite as LightWave models, designing the Energy card layouts, and personally recruiting Mitsuhiro Arita onto the project; he died around 2002. The Pokémon itself is a magnet given a face, and the card predates the well-known type change: Generation II later made Magnemite and Magneton Electric and Steel, but Base Set’s version is pure Lightning.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 21.7% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 8.0% 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.
Magnemite’s graded population is mid-sized and its Gem Mint rate is 21.7%, a fair ratio against a raw cost near $22.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Magnemite (1999) | ~532 | ~2,452 | 21.7% |
| 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
Four cross-checked references agree that the documented Magnemite #53 fault is a printer hickey — a stray ink mark above Magnemite’s eye, catalogued as “Face Hickey Magnemite” on Elite Fourum’s English Base Set misprint guide. All place it on Unlimited copies only. Bulbapedia describes it as a blue ink hickey while Elite Fourum and the community error wiki call the same mark magenta or red — an unresolved disagreement. CGC grades it as “Additional Ink”; PSA does not recognize it.
The 1st Edition printing carries no recognized repeating error. Two lookalike leads belong elsewhere: the Magneton #9 white ink stain is likewise Unlimited-only and concerns card #9, and the Diglett #47 and Wartortle #42 faults attach to those cards. Note a genuine gap in the reference set — PokeBeach’s misprint database carries no Magnemite entry at all, so only three of the four sources document the card.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Magnemite is collected as one of the set’s few complete two-stage lines:
- A complete line in one set. Magnemite and Magneton both made Base Set, both drawn by Kinebuchi.
- A documented Unlimited fault. The face hickey is real and catalogued — and it is not on this printing.
- A type that changed. Base Set’s Magnemite is pure Lightning; the Electric/Steel typing came in Generation II.
Its evolved form is the Magneton review; the Base Set hub covers the run.
The Artist: Keiji Kinebuchi
Keiji Kinebuchi is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Magnemite is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Magnemite is an unremarkable common whose set actually holds its whole line — worth noting in a set that left so many unfinished.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Magnemite 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?
Magnemite is a $22 raw with a 21.7% gem rate — best graded for the set rather than the spread. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.