Weedle 1st Edition Base Set: The Grub That Started It All
Reviewed by Caleb Stapel · Collector · Updated September 2026
Weedle #69/102 is one of the 102 cards that launched the English Pokémon TCG in January 1999 — a Common whose tiny stature hides a genuine story. The Pokémon was designed by Atsuko Nishida, first drafted as "Kokana," and its wasp-larva silhouette later inspired the naming of a real parasitic wasp, Stentorceps weedlei. A 1st Edition copy trades around $53 raw in near-mint, while a PSA 10 example runs about $670.
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 Weedle printings you own, the 3-second test below settles it before you read any further.
| Grade | Market Price | Share of graded copies |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded (raw) | $53 | — |
| PSA 7 (NM) | $62 | 7.4% |
| PSA 8 (NM-MT) | $109 | 19.2% |
| PSA 9 (Mint) | $150 | 40.8% |
| PSA 10 (Gem Mint) | $670 | 25.4% |
| Grade 6 or below | — | 7.2% |
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 Weedle
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 Weedle” 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.
Weedle is a Basic Grass with 40 HP, illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita. On a raw 1st Edition copy, confirm the black "Edition 1" stamp sits left of the artwork on the shadowless template (no drop shadow, extra "99" in the copyright), and check whether the stamp is a low-ink gray or carries a back imprint.
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
Weedle #69/102 is one of the 102 cards that launched the English Pokémon TCG in January 1999, a Common Grass Basic drawn by Mitsuhiro Arita. The creature itself was designed by Atsuko Nishida for Pokémon Red and Green in 1996, originally conceived under the name Kokana before settling into its wasp-larva shape. That design went on to earn a small scientific footnote: a newly described parasitic wasp, Stentorceps weedlei, was named for it because both share a spine atop the head. Weedle's name blends worm and needle, while the Japanese Beedle blends bee and needle — the two language readings of the same pun.
On screen, Weedle debuted in Challenge of the Samurai, the fourth episode of the original series, where Ash battles one in Viridian Forest and nearly catches it before Samurai interrupts — the miss that later fuels a Beedrill swarm. On cardboard, Arita's branch-resting artwork carried from the 1999 Base Set into Base Set 2 (#100/130), Legendary Collection (#99/110, with a fireworks reverse-holo), and 2016's Evolutions (#5), which reused the same art on a retro template evoking the original layout. Weedle also appears within the Base Set's own Trainer cards, making the Pokémon a quiet recurring presence across the set.
How Rare Is This Card?
Start with the number that describes the whole card: roughly 1,449 graded copies exist in total, and ~368 of those are PSA 10s. That is a gem rate of about 25.4% — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weedle 1st Edition (1999) | ~368 | ~1,449 | ~25.4% |
| 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.
Weedle's graded population is large, and its PSA 10 share sits near a quarter, so a gem is reachable rather than rare.
Demand is driven by set-completion — no 1st Edition run is finished without it — and by collectors hunting the gray-stamp and back-imprint variants.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
Weedle carries no card-specific printing error in Bulbapedia's Error cards page, PSA's Pokémon Error Guide, PokeBeach's misprint database, or Elite Fourum's English Base Set Master Misprint Guide. The famous Base Set blunders belong to other cards — and note that the Beedrill "D.efending" error is a different Pokémon entirely, so it should never be filed against this card.
What a 1st Edition Weedle can show are the set-wide stamp anomalies that touch 1st Edition commons and uncommons. Bulbapedia documents a 1st Edition stamp pressed onto the card back through wet ink transfer, plus gray or low-ink stamps; Elite Fourum's guide adds thin non-holo 1st Edition stamps and black or white back imprints. Gray-stamp Weedle copies are confirmed in the market. These 1st Edition stamp variants are entirely distinct from the Unlimited-only ink and design errors often discussed alongside them.
What Makes This Card Collectible?
Weedle is the cheap toll every 1st Edition Base Set completionist has to pay, and that set-drive keeps a modest but steady market under an otherwise overlooked common.
- Set-builder's toll. No 1st Edition Base Set is complete without the #69 Weedle, which sustains real demand despite its common rarity.
- Stamp lore. Gray, thin, and back-imprint 1st Edition stamps give error collectors a reason to hunt this specific common rather than any other.
- Anime debut. Weedle's first appearance in Challenge of the Samurai ties the card to the cartoon's earliest Viridian Forest arc.
It is the rare common whose interest comes from context — print variants, cartoon history, and the completion instinct — rather than from the art on its face.
The Artist: Mitsuhiro Arita
Mitsuhiro Arita is one of the illustrators who defined the look of the original English Pokémon TCG, and Weedle is one of their Base Set contributions. This section will carry their full numbers when the artist guide lands.
Caleb's Collector Verdict
Weedle is the accessible anchor of a 1st Edition Base Set run: a real slice of 1999 history that pays off for completists rather than speculators.
People Also Ask
Is my 1st Edition Weedle 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 makes sense only if you already hold a genuinely clean copy. Weedle 1st Edition raw sits near $53, and PSA has returned 370 gem-mint 10s out of roughly 1,500 graded copies — a PSA 10 share near 25 percent, so a 10 is not truly rare for a common. With submission fees running about $80, sending in an average raw copy is a gamble against the $670 PSA 10; grade only if the centering, corners, and surface look flawless, and leave ordinary copies raw.