Nidorino 1st Edition Base Set: The First Frame
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Nidorino has a stronger claim than any card in this block to being the franchise’s first face: it appears in the opening animation of the original Game Boy titles, in a battle against Gengar that plays before the title screen. It also recurs during the professor’s address, and it was the first creature seen in the animated series.
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 Nidorino printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $26 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $39 | 9.4% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $60 | 20.6% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $120 | 43.6% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $659 | 17.2% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 9.2% |
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 Nidorino
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 Nidorino” 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.
Nidorino is a Stage 1 Grass with 60 HP, evolving from Nidoran ♂, illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita. Check the yellow border for wear; the surface is usually sound.
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
Card 37/102 of the English Base Set is an Uncommon, non-holofoil Nidorino illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita. The set splits its evolutionary family three ways, and those cards are conflated constantly: Nidoking at 11/102 is a holo Rare drawn by Ken Sugimori, and Nidoran at 55/102 is a Common, also Sugimori. Only card 37 carries the Arita credit.
The printing in scope is the 1st Edition run, released on 9 January 1999 and identifiable by the black “Edition 1” stamp at the lower left of the artwork. 1st Edition cards were struck on shadowless stock: thinner HP and attack text, and no drop shadow beside the art window. Stamp and template together define this printing; they are not the same thing, and a stamp alone does not make a card a 1st Edition.
Nidorino’s standing rests largely outside the card game. The creature appears in the opening animation of the original Game Boy titles, where a battle plays out before the title screen — in Red and Green and in the international Red and Blue, though the Japanese Blue substituted a different creature. Nidorino recurs during Professor Oak’s address as well, and the species became the first Pokémon visibly seen in the anime, in the televised battle Ash watches in the series’ debut episode.
Nidorino was reprinted in Base Set 2 (54/130) and Legendary Collection (56/110) on the same artwork, then in 2016’s Evolutions (44/108) with new art. The line’s two-gender design — one species across two index slots, a generation before gender existed as a mechanic — remains among its more peculiar early decisions.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 17.2% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 9.2% come back grade 6 or below, and the rest land in between — which is what set the price ladder above.
A 17.2% Gem Mint rate on a $26 raw — one of the best odds-to-price ratios in this group.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Nidorino (1999) | ~395 | ~2,298 | 17.2% |
| 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
No error is catalogued for Nidorino 37/102 in the 1st Edition printing, and the four standard references agree. Bulbapedia’s “Error cards” page carries no Base Set Nidorino entry. The PSA Pokémon Error Guide’s 1999 Base Set and Base Set Shadowless sections name Beedrill, Blastoise, Diglett, Wartortle, Ninetales and Pikachu — not Nidorino. PokéBeach’s error and misprint database records no fault on card 37, and the Elite Fourum English Base Set Master Misprint Guide, compiled to a threshold of three or more known copies, lists none either.
The nearest documented relative is Nidoking at 11/102, whose unlimited-print green holo dot is a cyan printer hickey. Separately, 1st Edition Base Set commons and uncommons — Nidorino among them — can show stamp-application quirks: grey, thin or smeared stamps, and faint stamp transfer on the reverse. Those are a run-wide stamp phenomenon rather than a Nidorino error, and lone inking hickeys are not catalogued errors. A “9 printed over the 4” Nidorino misprint circulates but belongs to a 2010 set, not to Base Set.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Nidorino is collected for a place in the franchise’s very first moments:
- The opening animation. Nidorino appears in the battle that plays before the title screen of the original games, and again during the professor’s address.
- The first creature in the anime. It was the first Pokémon visibly seen in the animated series’ debut episode.
- A three-way family split across the set. Nidoran, Nidorino and Nidoking all appear in Base Set, across three rarities and two illustrators.
The line ends at the Nidoking review; 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 Nidorino is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Nidorino is the card with the earliest claim in the whole block: the creature the franchise’s very first screen runs alongside, in a family Base Set splits three ways.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Nidorino 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?
One of the best ratios here: 17.2% on $26. A clean copy is a straightforward submission. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.