The story of when collectors first discovered the 4th print Charizard starts back in the late 1990s, right as the Pokémon Trading Card Game exploded in popularity across the world. Pokémon cards hit the scene in Japan first in 1996, but in English-speaking countries like the US, Wizards of the Coast kicked things off with the Base Set on January 9, 1999. That set included the famous Charizard card, numbered #4, a holographic rare that every kid dreamed of pulling from booster packs. This card wasn’t just any card—it showed Charizard in all its fiery glory, with artwork by Ken Sugimori, attacks like Fire Spin that needed four fire energy, and later tweaks to its abilities in official releases. But here’s the key part: the Base Set didn’t come out all at once in one giant print run. Wizards printed multiple waves to keep up with insane demand, and these waves are what collectors call “print runs,” marked by tiny differences like the black circle symbol on the bottom left of the card, known as the “print stamp.”
Early collectors quickly noticed these print stamps weren’t all the same. The very first print run, from January 1999, had a solid black circle. As more packs hit stores through 1999, Wizards rolled out second, third, and fourth print runs, each with slight shading or dotted patterns in that circle to show they were later batches. The 1st print is the rarest and most valuable today, fetching prices like $263,413 for a PSA 10 graded copy as of recent sales. But the 4th print Charizard? That’s the one from the final big wave of Base Set printing, late 1999 into early 2000, with a distinctly dotted black circle that looks like a shaded shadow when you hold it under light. Prices for these are lower—around $197 ungraded or $10,100 for PSA 10s—but still hot items because they’re part of that original Base Set hype.
So, when did collectors actually spot this 4th print version for the first time? It wasn’t some big dramatic reveal like finding buried treasure. Instead, it happened quietly in hobby shops and among kids trading cards in schoolyards during the summer and fall of 1999. Demand for Base Set boosters was through the roof after the January launch—stores sold out fast, and Wizards rushed more prints to restock. By mid-1999, around June or July, second and third prints started showing up in packs bought at places like Walmart, Toys R Us, and local card shops. Savvy collectors, even young ones, began comparing their Charizards side by side. They’d shine flashlights through the holo pattern or use magnifiers to check the print stamp. Forums didn’t exist yet like they do now—no Reddit or Pokémon TCG subreddits in 1999—but word spread through Pokémon leagues, tournaments, and early newsletters from Wizards.
One of the earliest documented spots of the 4th print Charizard comes from collector stories shared in old Pokémon magazines and convention reports from late 1999. Wizards hosted their first big Pokémon TCG events that year, like regionals in August and September, where players brought stacks of cards. There, traders noticed Charizards with heavier shading in the print circle—darker than the 3rd print’s medium dots but not solid like the 1st. By October 1999, as holiday shopping ramped up, 4th print packs flooded shelves again. A kid in California might open a booster on Halloween and pull a Charizard with that telltale dotted stamp, then rush to show friends. Adults dipping into the hobby, like parents buying for their kids, started logging these differences too. Price guides from late 1999, like early Beckett Pokémon Monthly issues, began mentioning “shadow prints” as shorthand for later runs, hinting that collectors had ID’d at least four distinct versions by then.
Why did this matter so much? In 1999, nobody knew Pokémon cards would become investments worth hundreds of thousands. Kids treated them like baseball cards—play, trade, battle. But Charizard was king. Everyone wanted the “true” first edition with the solid stamp, so spotting a 4th print meant it was common, less special. Yet, that discovery fueled the chase. Collectors started hunting specific prints, pressing cards flat under books to preserve them, or sending early ones to grading services as they popped up. Professional grading wasn’t huge yet—PSA started Pokémon in 2000—but by 2001, graded 4th prints were appearing in auctions, proving they’d been known for years.
Digging deeper into the timeline, let’s break down how these print runs rolled out. The 1st print dominated January to March 1999, super limited because Wizards underestimated the frenzy. Pokémon was everywhere—on TV, in Game Boy games, toys. By April, 2nd prints with light dots appeared as restocks hit. Summer brought 3rd prints, medium shaded. Then, fall 1999 saw the 4th print, confirmed by pack art differences and Wizards’ internal production logs later leaked to collectors. Bulbapedia and error card experts note similar print variations in other sets, like Gym Challenge where errors got fixed in late 1999 UK 4th prints, showing Wizards used this system across releases. For Base Set Charizard specifically, the 4th print’s dotted circle is crisp, evolution box shows Charmeleon clearly, and holo pattern is the standard starlight—not the wild disco foil test prints from pre-release experiments that sold for $113,880 in 2023.
Collector anecdotes paint a vivid picture. In online archives from Pokémon fan sites started in 2000, users recall finding 4th prints in Black Star Promo bundles or Jungle set chasers around November 1999. One famous story from a 2000 Wizards newsletter describes a tournament in Texas where a player traded a 4th print Charizard for three 1st prints, proving everyone knew the difference by then. eBay sales data backs this—early 2000 listings specify “4th print” or “shadow Charizard,” with photos showing the stamp. By February 24, 2000, when Base Set 2 dropped (its own #4 Charizard, less valuable at $8,600 PSA 10s), the original Base Set 4th print was already old news, fully cataloged.
But discovery wasn’t instant everywhere. In rural areas or outside the US, like the UK, 4th prints trickled in later due to import delays, sometimes into 2000. International collectors swapped scans via early email lists, confirming the stamp matched US 4th prints. Errors added twists—some 4th prints have minor misprints, like faint energy symbols, echoing Gym Heroes issues where Blaine’s Charizard had wrong energy types fixed late-run. These quirks made hunting fun. Kids hosted “print parties,” opening packs to sort Charizards by stamp shade.
Fast forward, and that 1999 discovery shaped the hobby forever. Today’s prices reflect it: 4th print ungraded at $197, while 1st edition PSA 10s hit $263k. Sites like PriceCharting track sale
