Voltorb 1st Edition Base Set: The Untranslated Monster Ball
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
1st Edition · Base Set 1999 · Voltorb #67/102
Voltorb is the Poké Ball that bites back, and its earliest English copies carry a line the Unlimited print corrected: “Monster Ball”, the literal reading of the Japanese device, left untranslated.
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 Voltorb printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $21 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $46 | 7.9% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $68 | 20.7% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $107 | 43.8% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $474 | 20.0% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 7.6% |
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 Voltorb
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 Voltorb” 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.
Voltorb is a Basic Lightning with 40 HP, illustrated by Keiji Kinebuchi. Check centring first, then the flavour text, which is where this printing’s error 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
Voltorb is card 67/102 of the 1999 Pokémon Base Set — a Common Lightning-type Basic illustrated by Keiji Kinebuchi, released in English by Wizards of the Coast on 9 January 1999. The 1st Edition is the first English print run: every copy carries the black “Edition 1” medallion beneath the artwork and is printed on shadowless stock, with no drop shadow beside the art window and thinner HP text than the later Unlimited run.
The creature is a Poké Ball mimic. Voltorb was among the earliest species designed during Red and Green’s planning stage, when the games were still provisionally called Capsule Monsters, and was drawn up by Ken Sugimori. The design adapts the classic role-playing mimic — the treasure chest that turns out to be a monster — for a world where valuables travel inside capture balls, so that reaching for an item becomes a gamble. A popular but unverified fan theory ties its National Pokédex number, 100, to Japanese tsukumogami folklore, in which a tool gains a spirit on its hundredth birthday.
On screen, Voltorb became the anime’s running sight gag, detonating in episodes such as “So Near, Yet So Farfetch’d.” The card’s illustration shares the flat, studio-lit look of Kinebuchi’s early 3D work — he was the set’s only early CG artist and the man who recruited Mitsuhiro Arita onto the project. The artwork was reused in Base Set 2, Legendary Collection and the Pokémon TCG Classic decks, but none carry the Edition 1 stamp or shadowless stock, which is why the first print remains the copy collectors chase.
How Rare Is This Card?
Read this card by its grade split rather than by a headline population. 20.0% of PSA-graded copies reach PSA 10, 7.6% 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.
Voltorb’s graded population is mid-sized and its Gem Mint rate is 20.0%, a fair combination against a raw cost near $21.
| Card | PSA 10s | Total graded | Gem rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Edition Voltorb (1999) | ~503 | ~2,514 | 20.0% |
| 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 carries a documented translation error. In both the 1st Edition and Shadowless printings the flavour text reads “Easily mistaken for a Monster Ball, it has zapped many people.” “Monster Ball” is the literal Japanese name for the device, left untranslated; it was corrected for the Unlimited print, which reads “Poké Ball.” The error belongs to the 1st Edition and Shadowless runs together.
Because every 1st Edition and Shadowless copy shares the wording, it is not a scarce variant — there is no error-free 1st Edition Voltorb to hunt, and the genuinely unusual copy is the corrected Unlimited one. PSA’s error guide, PokeBeach’s database and the Elite Fourum Base Set misprint guide record no other error specific to this card.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Voltorb is collected for a design that predates the card by two years:
- A design older than the set. Voltorb was drawn during the Capsule Monsters planning stage, one of the earliest species designs.
- The mimic, adapted. It turns the role-playing treasure-chest mimic into a capture ball, so reaching for an item becomes a gamble.
- An untranslated first print. The 1st Edition and Shadowless runs read “Monster Ball”; only Unlimited was corrected.
Its counterpart is the Electrode 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 Voltorb is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Voltorb is the set’s best example of an error that is not rare — attached to every copy of the earliest printings.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Voltorb 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?
Voltorb is a low-cost raw with a fair gem rate; the error gives no grading premium, so value the grade on its own. See Should You Grade Pokémon Cards? for the fee maths, and check a raw copy with the CardGrader scanner before sending it in.