Pokemon Base Set Booster Box 1st Edition English

Japanese Pokmon Heartgold And Soulsilver Sets

Original English Pokemon Base Set 1st edition booster box

When the Heartgold and Soulsilver Pokémon trading card lineup was released in Japan, it was done differently from in America. It also had an abnormally long waiting period in between the first and second sets.

Heartgold and Soulsilver Collection

Heartgold and Soulsilver Collection is the first Japanese set based on the Heartgold and Soulsilver games. It has 140 cards in total, including the following special cards: Alph Lithograph, Ursaring Prime, Crobat Prime, Typhlosion Prime, Meganium Prime, Blissey Prime, Donphan Prime, Ampharos Prime, Feraligatr Prime, Lugia LEGEND, and Ho-Oh LEGEND. Starting from this set, the Trainer cards in Japan have been renamed Goods cards. It has been renamed in America as HeartGold SoulSilver, or HS.

Heartgold and Soulsilver special decks

The Heartgold and Soulsilver special decks were released in between the releases of the first and second Heartgold and Soulsilver sets. Expert Deck: Leafeon vs. Metagross is a set of two 60-card decks with a CD for online play. In addition to being more powerful than most theme decks, the Leafeon and Metagross decks have special cards that weren’t released in any other Japanese sets. There are also Battle Starter decks, which were released with special cards only available to their specific deck. The decks are named Offense , Defense , Speed , and Skill .

Heartgold and Soulsilver Revived Legends

Lost Link Mini-Series

Red Flags On The Box Itself

Wizards of the Coast printed Pokemon products with a label listing the product code and a corresponding barcode. All known cases of Base Set that have sold over the years have been seen with the product code WOC06033, whether they were 1st edition or not.

Pauls case has a label with the code WOC060331E, which should stand for 1st Edition.

However, there are no known examples of a 1st edition Base Set case having 1E in its product code. From what we know, Wizards of the Coast started using 1E on their 1st edition cases starting with and Fossil.

If someone was attempting to create a fake label, they may not have been aware of this. After all, if you try to look up cases of any other 1st edition set, youll see the 1E in the product code. Cases are extremely rare, so this information is not easy to look up. Or it could have been the fakers attempt to emphasize the case is 1st edition to fetch a higher price.

Well couldnt there be some later print run of Base Set we dont know about where Wizards of the Coast started using 1E? These products were printed 23 years ago, so maybe our information is incorrect or incomplete.

The next evidence is the most damning. A products barcode is generated from the product code. You scan a barcode and then it translates the bars into the alphanumeric code. For example, this is the barcode for the 1st edition Fossil case from above, which I was easily able to replicate with a code to barcode tool:

What Is A Heavy Booster Pack

Basically, some smart Alec realised a long time ago that packs with a holographic card weigh more!

Generally speaking, the pull rates of a holo are 1:3 packs, therefore you can simply weigh the packs, extract the valuable items and flog the rest.

Not exactly fun or ethical right?!

But, thats the game I guess when a lot of money is at stake.

Its important to know this for two reasons:

When someone is selling a pack as unweighed be very cautious! The only time Id believe this is a live stream straight from a box break.

It means the value of booster packs can swing massively. A pack weighed light or heavy will differ in value considerably. This should hopefully explain the valuation ranges below!

Anyway, lets get into the different pack variants

1st Edition Base Set Booster Packs

Estimated current value £5k £10k
Easily identifiable by the 1st Edition logo on the foil

Shadowless Base Set Booster Packs

Estimated current value £1k £3k
Harder to identify. This helpful article explain the different Shadowless booster pack variants

Black Triangle Error Base Set Booster Packs

Estimated current value £1k £5k

Unlimited Base Set Booster Packs

Estimated current value £300 £600

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What Are Shadowless Pokemon Cards

The Shadowless cards are the very first print runs that Wizards of the Coast produced for the Pokemon Base Set. WOTC did not like the look of the original Pokemon Cards. So, they changed several things on the cards to make them look better. The most obvious was putting the shadow around the box which had the art of the Pokemon character. The HP font was also changed and the colors were made to pop.

All 1st Edition Character cards are Shadowless. There is a very small print run of Unlimited Shadowless cards that followed the 1st Edition cards. The bulk of Unlimited cards have shadows. Shadowless Unlimited cards are generally worth more than shadowed versions of unlimited cards due to their scarcity.

Here are the releases of Base Set Pokemon Cards, in order:

1st Edition All Shadowless

Prices are all based on Near Mint Condition. We highly recommend you get 1st Edition Holofoils cards from this set graded! .

The PSA 10 Column shows actual sold prices for 1st Edition cards on eBay. As Base Set cards are graded more and more, we have decided to show only PSA values for 7s and 10s.

Card #

A Simpler Approach To Base Set Variations

Now, although my guide above is technically correct, it may not be entirely helpful to you especially if youre just getting back into Pokemon and trying to learn the ropes!

So lets break the Base Set cards down into three variations for the sake of this article, and your understanding of the cards

1st Edition As you probably know, the rarest and most valuable
Shadowless Still pretty rare and valuable, just not as much as 1st Edition!
Unlimited highest volume of cards printed, therefore less rare and valuable than the other two

1st Edition and Unlimited are pretty self-explanatory, but people often get a bit confused regarding Shadowless Pokemon cards

If you want to do a bit of extra reading Ive written a handy guide to Shadowless Pokemon cards here.

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Pokmon First Edition Base Set Sells For A Mind

A Pokémon First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box released by Wizards of the Coast in 1999 set a new record by selling for $408,000 at auction.

A Pokémon First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box set a collectible card game world record last week by selling for $408,000 at auction.

The box reportedly sold during the second session of Heritage Auctions four-day Comics & Comic Art Auction, which runs through Sunday, Jan. 17. The afternoon session included 16 Pokémon lots overall, which accounted for more than $1.3 million in sales.

Recent history has shown that the demand for First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Boxes is soaring, said Jesus Garcia, Trading Cards Expert in the Heritage Auctions Comics Department. Based on the competitive bidding when Heritage Auctions sold a similar set in November, we expected the interest in this set to be even higher, and our collectors did not disappoint.

The First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box was in its original shrink wrap and broke the previous world record for an auction sale, set when Heritage Auctions sold a similar booster box in November 2020 for $360,000. The set was created in 1999 by Wizards of the Coast and featured 102 cards, including the highly sought after Charizard.

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Pokemon Base Set Theme Decks

Now we cant talk about Base Set without talking through the theme decks!

Back in the day they were called Preconstructed Theme Decks and specially designed for players of the TCG in mind.

As the name suggests, each deck had a theme and players could use the decks with a specific strategy in mind for gameplay.

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Base Set Booster Box Variations

1st Edition Base Set Booster Box

Estimated current value £300k £350k

The boxes are easy to spot as they have a 1st Edition Stamp on them and the text 1ST EDITION LIMITED PRINTING.

Important 1st Edition boxes do not have the Wizards of the Coast logo printed on the cellophane wrapping. Stay well clear if you spot a box being sold with this its fake.

Shadowless Base Set Booster Box

Estimated current value £50k £100k

Still very valuable and ultra rare, Shadowless booster boxes are harder to identify as there is no shadowless labeling or anything of that nature.

Instead characteristics of the box , and very carefully being able to identify the packs within is the way of identifying whether a box is shadowless or not.

FYI Green winged Charizard boxes dont necessarily mean its shadowless there are other factors too.

This guide goes into great detail on identifying a shadowless Base Set booster box.

Unlimited Base Set Booster Box

Estimated current value £15k £20k

Although this is the most commonly found Base Set booster box variant, its still no chump change!

As more and more boxes are opened on YouTube etc, Id expect the value to continue to creep up long term as supply dwindles.

Which Pokemon Booster Box To Invest In

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Thats the big one. Many players want to know which is the best Pokemon booster box to buy for profit or to invest in. The idea is simple. You want to buy a Pokemon booster box now, hoping its price will go up, and youll be able to sell it for more money than you paid for it.

Many YouTubers will claim that you should go for this or that booster box, to make guaranteed profits, but the truth isnt as simple. Sure, some boxes have a bigger chance of gaining value in the future, but thats not a guarantee.

Lets say that a certain booster box contains three high value cards that are staples in the format. While the price of the box could go up, these cards could very well get a reprint in the next set, or in a special product, and the price of the box would plummet.

So is it impossible to profit from a Pokemon booster box? Certainly not, as we have seen booster boxes raise to very high prices often enough. We just want to warn you not to invest blindly. Actually, there are some rules you should follow.

What to Pay Attention to When Investing?

Only invest money that you can afford to lose.

Dont treat your Pokemon Booster Boxes, as your retirement plan. These should at most only be a small part of your portfolio.

Keep your Booster Boxes safe from harm, such as water damage, etc.

Okay, Ill be Careful. Which One to Invest in?

As we said, its impossible to tell. However, the most booster boxes that usually go up in price, have some or multiple of the following things:

List Of Pokmon Trading Card Game Sets

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This is a list of Pokémon Trading Card Game sets which is a collectible card game first released in Japan in 1996. As of April 2022, there are 98 card sets released in America and 91 in Japan, including special sets. As of September 2017, Collectively, there are 6,959 cards in the Japanese sets and 9,110 cards in the English sets. The large difference stems from non-holofoil duplicates of rare cards included in English sets that are not printed in Japanese sets. As of March 2017, 23.6 billion cards had been shipped worldwide.

The sets are generally broken into two lists: one for the first line of Wizards of the Coast cards and the second after Nintendo‘s acquisition of the card game after Wizards.

How To Identify Base Set Pokemon Cards

Every set of Pokemon cards has whats called an expansion symbol. This is some kind of small visual identifier to help you assign a card to a particular set.

However! As Base Set was the first ever set, it doesnt have an expansion symbol.

This is how you can identify Base Set Pokemon cards!

Here is a really useful list of all the sets and their symbols.
Here is a handy visual guide to all the Base Set cards if you want to cross-reference your cards.

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How Much Are Pokemon Base Set Cards Worth

Before we go further into the many intricacies of Base Set Pokemon Cards, lets discuss values!

If youre one of the many people who rediscovered their old collection this past year, youre probably interested in how much its worth!

A lot has changed in the world of Pokemon since the late 90s, in fact, since then there have been over 120 sets released! And that number keeps climbing every few months.

So how on earth do we determine the value of your Base Set Pokemon cards?!

Well, theres a few factors I want you to consider:

Condition is everything! The price swings between cards in played condition versus mint can be huge!
Youre not alone So many people rediscovered their old Pokemon cards recently. Unless you have some real stand out pieces, youre competing with everyone else.
Determining the value for one card is fairly straightforward for binders full of cards, its not so simple!

I regularly get valuation requests with dozens of pictures, hundreds of cards, in various conditions and from various sets!

As you can imagine, it is not easy slapping a valuation on it!

So, my best advice for people looking to quickly covert it into cash put it on eBay and let the market decide.

Apologies if youre looking for something a bit more detailed, but no collection is the same!

Were not comparing apples with apples here, so take great pictures, show off your best cards and let collectors come to you and bid .

Another approach is to hold long term

That is my best advice.

Is It Worth Buying Base Set Theme Decks

This is a topic I like talking about!

Although Theme Decks are pre-constructed, meaning you know what cards are inside, I love to buy sealed Base Set Theme decks.

Why?

I buy sealed, open and grade the best cards.

Sure it doesnt have the lottery-style fun of opening a random base set booster , but its certainly a more sensible way to spend my Pokemon budget!

My personal favourites are Zap! as it contains a holo Mewtwo and four Pikachus and Brushfire as it contains a holo Ninetales, x1 arcanine, x2 Charmeleons and x4 Charmanders!

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Is It Better To Buy Pokemon Boosters Or A Booster Box

Most Pokemon Booster Boxes contain 36 Booster Packs. Naturally, a single pack is cheaper. However, usually youll spend less per booster, if you get a whole box.

Another benefit of buying a Booster Box is that it should arrive sealed. In that case, theres a lesser chance that its been tempered with. Single boosters can more easily be resealed with the best rares missing.

So all in all, its generally better to get a whole box, than buying separate booster packs.

Top 5 Pokemon Booster Boxes

Collecting cards from the Pokemon Trading Card Game is once again seeing a boost in popularity.

That boost in popularity is seeing the purchase rate of Booster Packs and Booster Boxes go through the roof. In fact, Pokemon cards are selling so quickly that the Pokemon Company is planning on a massive reprint release.

There are some Booster Boxes that are incredibly valuable. These are the ones that collectors buy en masse and open for the world to see. There are bound to be some amazing pulls from the best Pokemon Booster Boxes.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinion of the writer.

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A Box Of Pokemon Cards Could Now Set You Back Tens Of Thousands Of Dollars

If you were a kid in the 1990s then you were definitely a part of the Pokemon card hype. Unlike other fads of the 90s/early 2000s though , Pokemon cards are actually worth a lot of money. If youve got the right ones.

Auctioneers Huggins and Scott are currently selling an unopened box of the original cards for a jaw-dropping $35,000.

The auction description states: On the heels of our record setting August 2018 auction of the 1999 Pokémon 1st Edition Limited Printing Base Set unopened booster box which sold for $66,920, Huggins & Scott Auctions has positioned itself as the go to auction house for transcendent material relating to the the anime franchise

This tightly sealed and virtually untouched container has been in the possession of our consignor since release decades ago. A box break will yield 11-card packs. Additionally, each pack will deliver: common, uncommon, Energy and Rare or Foil card. Based on production, the odds of pulling a foil card are nearly 1:3 packs. With 396 chances for Gem Mint 10 holos and other high-grade treasures, the skys the limit for this cornerstone!

If you want to place a bid, theres still time, and judging from some recent eBay completed sales, you might be making a solid investment.

On eBay, someone recently paid an eye-watering $40,000 for 11 unopened and heavy 1st edition shadowless base set booster packs.

Unopened single packs of the original cards are currently selling for around $100 if youre lucky.

Pokmon Box Set Sells For $408k

1999 Pokemon English Base Set Shadowless 1st Edition Booster Box Sealed

Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions

DALLAS Demand for rare, high-end Pokémon collectibles continues to soar as evidenced by the sale of a Pokémon First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box for a world record-setting $408,000 at Heritage Auctions.

The box sold during the second session of Heritages four-day Comics & Comic Art Auction, which ran through Sunday, January 16.

The afternoon session included 16 Pokémon lots that accounted for more than $1.3 million in sales. The record-setting booster box was one of three that produced six-figure results.

Jesus Garcia, Heritage Auctions