Raticate 1st Edition Base Set: The S.S. Anne Theory
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Raticate is behind the hobby’s most persistent piece of folklore: the rival’s Raticate vanishes from his team after the S.S. Anne and is absent at Lavender Town, which fans have read as a death the games never state. The card itself also reached collectors early, through a prototype league deck.
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 Raticate printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $20 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $27 | 8.7% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $40 | 21.5% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $88 | 42.8% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $586 | 17.5% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 9.5% |
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 Raticate
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 Raticate” 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.
Raticate is a Stage 1 Colorless with 60 HP, evolving from Rattata, illustrated by Ken Sugimori. At this price, be selective; hold out for a well-centred copy.
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
Raticate is card 40/102 in the 1999 English Base Set, one of the set’s Uncommon cards — above the Common tier that holds its pre-evolution Rattata at 61, and below the Rares. The printing in scope is the 1st Edition: the first English run, struck on shadowless card stock and marked by the black “Edition 1” stamp left of the artwork.
Three things distinguish card 40 within the set. It was one of the Base Set Uncommons carried into the prototype Trainer Deck A, the red-bordered decks given to Pokémon League organisers before the public release, which gives the card a pre-retail provenance. It was reprinted twice, in Base Set 2 as 58/130 and Legendary Collection as 61/110, while its Japanese counterpart came from the Expansion Pack.
Raticate is also among the most-encountered creatures in the original games, which is why this card carries unusual folklore. The best-known tale concerns the rival’s Raticate, which disappears from his team after the battle aboard the S.S. Anne and is absent when he reappears in the Pokémon Tower at Lavender Town. Fans read that absence as a death; the games never say so, and his own dialogue offers a different reason for being there.
Ken Sugimori, who drew much of the earliest Pokémon art, is the credited illustrator. The design leans on the species’ most aggressive feature, its constantly growing incisors, and on rat stock, with webbed hind feet borrowed from semi-aquatic rodents such as the muskrat.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 17.5% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 9.5% come back grade 6 or below, and the rest land in between — which is what set the price ladder above.
Raticate carries a 17.5% Gem Mint rate on a $20 raw — one of the cheapest raw credits of this group, with excellent odds.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Raticate (1999) | ~384 | ~2,196 | 17.5% |
| 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 catalogued error is documented for Raticate 40/102 in any printing, and that includes the 1st Edition. Four independent references agree. Bulbapedia’s “Error cards” page lists no Raticate entry under Base Set; PSA’s Pokémon Error Guide omits the card; the PokéBeach misprint database passes over it; and the Elite Fourum English Base Set Master Misprint Guide, restricted to repeating misprints with three or more known copies, contains no Raticate.
The Raticate error that does circulate, a yellow roller-stain variety, belongs to Dark Raticate from the later Team Rocket set, not to Base Set 40. Separately, the “Red Dots” ink error sometimes attached to the set’s rodents belongs to Rattata at 61, not to Raticate. One generic caveat applies: Bulbapedia and Elite Fourum both record 1st Edition commons and uncommons with a ghosted, smeared or back-transferred stamp — a quirk of the stamping process rather than a card-specific flaw, and none is catalogued for Raticate.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Raticate is collected for a piece of folklore and a prototype print, in that order:
- The S.S. Anne theory. The rival’s Raticate vanishes from his team after the ship, and fans have read it as a death ever since.
- Printed before the set existed. Raticate was in the red-bordered Trainer Deck A, given to League organisers before Base Set reached shops.
- The line inside one set. Rattata sits at 61 and Raticate at 40, with two later English reprints on the same artwork.
Chansey, the card Super Fang was built to answer, is covered in the Chansey review; the Base Set hub covers the set.
The Artist: Ken Sugimori
Ken Sugimori is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Raticate is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Raticate is the card with the darkest folklore in the set attached to it, and a prototype-league print behind it — though the story the hobby tells is fan invention, not something the games ever wrote.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Raticate 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?
Excellent odds on the cheapest raw here — 17.5% on $20. The fee dominates, but the conversion rate is strong. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.