Nidoran 1st Edition Base Set: The Stray Space Nobody Fixed
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
1st Edition · Base Set 1999 · Nidoran♂ #55/102
Nidoran♂ carries a misprint no other card in the set can claim: a stray space between its name and the gender symbol — and it is on every copy, on every printing, uncorrected to this day.
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 Nidoran♂ printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $16 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $33 | 6.8% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $52 | 18.2% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $100 | 40.2% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $520 | 27.8% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 7.0% |
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 Nidoran♂
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 Nidoran♂” 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.
Nidoran♂ is a Basic Grass with 40 HP, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Check centring first, then the name block — that is where this card’s fault lives.
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
Nidoran♂ is card 55/102 in the 1999 English Base Set — a Grass-type Basic Common with 40 HP, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Its 1st Edition printing is the stamped one: a black “Edition 1” mark sits left of the artwork, on the shadowless template with thinner text, no drop shadow behind the art window, and the longer ©1995, 96, 98, 99 copyright line. Wizards of the Coast ran that first print from the 9 January 1999 launch into roughly early March.
The pair’s origin is the real oddity. Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀ arrived in Pokémon Red and Green as two separate species with separate Pokédex numbers, at a time when gender did not yet exist as a game mechanic. Gender arrived in Generation II; the two were never merged into one species, and they remain separate today. The male line is a rare case where a card’s own name has to carry a gender symbol to be complete.
Within Base Set the male Nido line is complete, which is worth stating precisely because the three cards are constantly conflated: Nidoran♂ (55/102, Common, Sugimori), Nidorino (#37/102, Uncommon, drawn by Mitsuhiro Arita) and Nidoking (#11/102, Rare Holo, back to Sugimori). The female line is missing entirely — Nidoran♀ does not appear until Jungle. Later printings kept the name in circulation: Base Set 2 (#83/130), Legendary Collection (#83/110) and the 2016 XY Evolutions reprint (#43/108).
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 27.8% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 7.0% 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.
Nidoran♂ has the highest Gem Mint rate in this batch at 27.8%, on the cheapest raw here at about $16.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Nidoran (1999) | ~683 | ~2,458 | 27.8% |
| 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
The card’s one documented misprint is the stray space in its printed name. The correct rendering is “Nidoran♂”; English copies instead read “Nidoran ♂,” with a gap before the gender glyph. Bulbapedia files this under Base Set uncorrected errors, and the scope really is every printing — 1st Edition, Shadowless, Unlimited and the 1999–2000 print all carry it, so a stamped copy is not the clean version.
Graders do not treat it as a variety: PSA’s Pokémon Error Guide lists no Nidoran entry, and CGC does not catalogue it either. The cause is typographic rather than ink — the English name string simply includes a space before the symbol — which is why the fault is present on essentially every non-Japanese printing of the card. Because every copy carries it, it commands no premium; Elite Fourum collectors class it as common and unremarkable.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Nidoran♂ is collected for an error that is genuinely universal:
- An uncorrected name error. The stray space before the gender symbol is on every printing, including this one.
- A species that was never merged. Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀ are officially two species, split before gender existed as a mechanic.
- The best gem odds here. A 27.8% Gem Mint rate at the lowest raw cost in the batch.
The line continues with Nidorino and Nidoking; 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 Nidoran♂ is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Nidoran♂ is the set’s best example of an error that is interesting rather than rare — attached to every single copy.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Nidoran♂ 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?
Nidoran♂ is the cheapest card here with the best gem odds — friendly maths, small dollars. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.