Pokédex 1st Edition Base Set: The Original Encyclopedia
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
The Pokédex is the one Base Set Trainer that recreated the single most important object in Pokémon fiction — the device that turned battling into a catalogue of discovery. Keiji Kinebuchi's 3D render put the handheld encyclopedia onto cardboard during the shortest and scarcest English print run Wizards ever made. A raw near-mint copy runs about $22, while a PSA 10 has reached $795.
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 Pokédex 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) | $29 | 7.7% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $32 | 20.8% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $175 | 44.0% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $795 | 18.6% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 9.0% |
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 Pokédex
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 Pokédex” 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.
Pokédex is an Trainer, illustrated by Keiji Kinebuchi. For a raw 1st Edition copy, verify the black "Edition 1" stamp sits left of the artwork and the copyright reads ©1999, and look closely at the stamp itself — gray, white, or smeared stamps are genuine 1st Edition variants on this uncommon, not damage to wave off.
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
The Pokédex reached the game almost at its beginning, debuting in Japan's Expansion Pack on October 20, 1996, then crossing to English as card 87 of the 1999 Base Set — an Uncommon Trainer in the set that launched Pokémania in the West. It is the original handheld encyclopedia, and in Keiji Kinebuchi's render its tiny screen quietly displays Dugtrio's Pokédex entry. The Japanese print was named Pokédex HANDY505, the first in a numbered line of models; the English card dropped the digits. Wizards' first English run carried the black "Edition 1" stamp and lasted only from the January 9 release to roughly early March 1999, a window estimated at fewer than 10,000 copies per card that sold out before the boom took hold.
What makes the Pokédex a piece of card archaeology is the man behind it. Keiji Kinebuchi built his art in 3D software when nearly everyone else was drawing by hand, gave the early sets their most recognizable Trainer images, and personally introduced Mitsuhiro Arita — the eventual Base Set Charizard artist — to the project; he died in 2002, largely unnoticed for years. The card itself has never really left circulation: reprinted in Base Set 2 and the Japanese Nivi City and Guren Town Gym theme decks, given new art by Noriko Hotta for Black & White, and brought back for 2016's Evolutions with the original Kinebuchi artwork on an updated template. For collectors, the 1st Edition is the version that carries the launch stamp and the shortest, scarcest print window.
How Rare Is This Card?
Start with the number that describes the whole card: roughly 1,169 graded copies exist in total, and ~217 of those are PSA 10s. That is a gem rate of about 18.6% — and the gem rate, not the raw population, is what a collector should actually be reading. High-grade supply is what the market pays for.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pokédex 1st Edition (1999) | ~217 | ~1,169 | ~18.6% |
| 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.
The Pokédex sits in a moderately graded population with roughly an eighteen percent gem rate.
It is collected for its place in the scarcest English print window and for the Kinebuchi Trainer canon rather than for the census itself.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 Pokédex's best-documented error is a double print — press doubling that repeats the artwork and text slightly offset — recorded on Unlimited uncommons only, where Elite Fourum's English Base Set Master Misprint Guide lists it alongside Growlithe, Haunter, Jynx, Porygon and Poké Flute. No Pokédex-specific entry appears in the PSA Pokémon Error Guide or PokeBeach's error database.
On the 1st Edition printing, the applicable errors are stamp faults shared by the set's commons and uncommons, which Bulbapedia's Error cards page documents: gray stamps (under-inked 1st Edition symbols), white stamps, back stamps (mirrored ink transfer onto the reverse), and smeared or misaligned front stamps caused by wet ink. Bulbapedia groups these explicitly under 1st edition commons and uncommons, so they belong to this printing rather than to Unlimited.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Collectors prize the 1st Edition Pokédex for its launch-window scarcity and its place in Kinebuchi's Trainer canon.
- Shortest print run. Wizards' 1st Edition Base Set window ran only from January 9 to roughly early March 1999 and sold out before Pokémania took hold.
- Kinebuchi credit. It is the work of the 3D artist who defined early Trainer art and brought Mitsuhiro Arita into the TCG.
- Stamp variants. Gray, white, and smeared 1st Edition stamps all surface on this uncommon, giving specialists something to hunt beyond the base card.
Buy the stamp and the copyright line, not just the grade, and a raw 1st Edition copy becomes a small piece of the game's opening chapter.
The Artist: Keiji Kinebuchi
Keiji Kinebuchi is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Pokédex is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
The Pokédex is a modest, affordable Base Set Trainer with more history behind it than its price suggests.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Pokédex 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?
Grading a raw 1st Edition Pokédex often costs more than the card itself, since a raw near-mint copy runs about $22. PSA has graded roughly 1,187 1st Edition examples and assigned PSA 10 to about 217 of them — an 18% gem rate — so only submit a genuinely sharp, well-centered copy. The upside is real: a PSA 10 has reached $795.