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1999 Base Set 1st Edition Charizard 4/102 with the black Edition 1 stamp below the art box

How Many 1st Edition Charizards Were Printed? Never Published, 6,157 Graded

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Nobody knows how many 1st Edition Charizards were printed, because Wizards of the Coast never published the number. The nearest thing to an official answer is a Wizards customer-service reply in February 2000 that 1st Edition cards “are printed for 3 days only”, which is a length of time, not a count. What can be counted is the graded record: 6,157 1st Edition Base Set Charizard slabs at PSA, CGC and TAG.

That is PSA’s 5,436 (its own CardFacts table, archived May 2026), CGC’s 663, including 13 on its Gray Stamp line, and TAG’s 58, both read October 6, 2026. It counts slabs, not cards, and leaves out every raw copy. For every Base Set print side by side, see how many Base Set Charizards exist.

1st Edition is the first English print of the 1999 Base Set, marked with a small black Edition 1 stamp below the left side of the art box. Every 1st Edition Charizard is also shadowless, with no drop shadow along the right edge of the art box. The unstamped Shadowless print and the much larger Unlimited print, which added the shadow, are different cards.

As of October 6, 2026: PSA 5,436 graded, 125 of them PSA 10 (May 2026). CGC 650 plus 13 Gray Stamp, with 3 Pristine 10s and 35 Gem Mint 10s. TAG 58, with three TAG 10s. Beckett and SGC could not be read. PSA’s count has grown about five-fold since May 2016 while its PSA 10s went from 95 to 125. Highest sale found: $1,000,952.84 for a PSA 10 on eBay in September 2026.

How many 1st Edition Charizards were printed? What Wizards said

Wizards was asked and declined. In its online help chat of January 27, 2000, a collector asked: “Does WOTC release print run statistics? If not, why not (You are a publicly held company now?)” The reply: “Though we are a publicly held company, we are not obligated to release that sort of information.”

What Wizards did say about 1st Edition was about scarcity in principle. Its 1999 rules page said “a limited quantity of each set of Pokémon cards is printed with the symbol” (the symbol is an image on the page) and that “The same cards may be reprinted in the future but never with the symbol”.

The only statement about how long 1st Edition was printed came in the February 17, 2000 chat: “What is the ratio of first edition cards to Unlimited cards? 1st edition are printed for 3 days only, the unlimited are still print, so whatever 3 into infinity is.” That is a customer-service answer, not a production record, and the question named no set, so it may describe 1st Edition printing in general. A duration also becomes a card count only if you know how many presses ran and how many sheets each produced a day, which Wizards never said.

Charizard was not singled out. Asked in the February 3, 2000 chat how many Charizards come out of a thousand cards printed, Wizards said: “Charizard is no more rare than any other rare in the base set.” Its FAQ added that Charizard “is only found in booster packs”, so no 1st Edition Charizard came out of a starter set or theme deck. CGC treats 1st Edition as a single print run: “While Shadowless Pokémon cards were featured in both Limited Edition Base Set print runs, 1st Edition cards were only featured in one.”

PSA’s own 2016 article put it plainly: “No one knows the exact number of 1st Edition cards”. The print evidence for every Base Set print is in how many Base Set Charizards were printed. Pokemon Pricing publishes labelled, step-by-step estimates for the Unlimited print and the 1999-2000 print; this article makes no estimate of the 1st Edition print.

How to identify a 1st Edition Charizard

On a Charizard numbered 4/102, check three things.

  • The stamp. PSA describes it as a small circular black stamp on the left, reading Edition 1, below the character box on the front. Sealed product carried it too: “The 1999 Pokémon 1st Edition booster boxes are clearly marked with the 1st Edition stamp.”
  • No drop shadow. Wizards’ card FAQ explained the missing shadow in 2000: “That was how the cards were originally designed. After a while Nintendo asked us to make some changes in the cards (including adding that shadow) which we did.”
  • The label. PSA labels the card 1999 Pokemon Game #4 Charizard-Holo 1st Edition. Auction houses often title the same slab Base Set Shadowless 1st Edition; that is this card, not the unstamped Shadowless print, which has its own counts in how many Shadowless Charizards were printed.

There is no 1st Edition of the Base Set 2 reprint, numbered 4/130. Wizards’ February 2000 chat settled it: “Will there be a 1st Edition of Base Set 2? No.”

Gray Stamp

CGC recognizes a lighter stamp as its own variety: “Some 1st edition Base Set cards have 1st Edition stamps that are much lighter than the normal black color. CGC will recognize these on a case-by-case basis.” Its report carries 13 Gray Stamp Charizards on a separate line, the best two at CGC 9. TAG’s 1st Edition report has a single Charizard line with no Gray Stamp split.

Thick stamp and thin stamp

Beckett splits the stamp further. BGS-graded lots list the set as Pokemon Base 1st Edition Thick Stamp, separate from the standard 1st Edition set. Auction copy describes a thick stamp as a thicker numeral 1 with thinner letters in Edition, and a thin stamp as the reverse.

A 2023 Fanatics Collect lot says Wizards needed more holofoils to meet its quota and that the stamp pressure was adjusted for a second printing. If true, 1st Edition holos would have had more than one stamping pass. A 2024 Fanatics Collect lot says plainly that “the story behind the thick stamps has never been officially confirmed”. Which stamp came first and which is rarer are collector beliefs, not records. No grader read here publishes a Thick Stamp Charizard count; the one figure found is lot copy for a BGS 9.5 Thick Stamp, listed as 1 of 5 with none higher, that sold for $150,000 at PWCC in August 2021.

The Machamp exception

The 2-Player Starter Set came with one holo, and in English it was always a 1st Edition Machamp. Asked whether a non-1st Edition Base Set Machamp existed, Wizards answered: “Nope, only 1st edition Base Set Machamp’s have ever been released in English.” In a March 23, 2000 chat, Wizards confirmed: “Yes it is still a 1st edition Base set Machamp that comes in the Base Set 2 starter set.” CGC adds that the Machamps in the 2-Player CD-ROM Starter Kit “actually had the cosmos holofoil pattern that was used on later sets”.

A later holofoil suggests 1st Edition Machamps were still being printed after the original 1999 run. That adds no Charizards, since Charizard was booster-only, but it shows the three-days answer is not a complete production record.

1st Edition Charizard population: 6,157 graded slabs

PSA’s live report now sits behind a sign-in, so its figure comes from its own CardFacts table as saved by the Internet Archive in May 2026; CGC and TAG were read live.

Grader 1st Edition Charizards graded Top grades As of
PSA 5,436 PSA 10: 125; PSA 9: 729 May 2026 (PSA CardFacts, archived)
CGC 650 Pristine 10: 3; Gem Mint 10: 35 October 6, 2026
CGC, Gray Stamp line 13 CGC 9: 2 October 6, 2026
TAG 58 TAG 10: 3; TAG 9: 6 October 6, 2026
BGS (Beckett) Not readable Pop report offline October 2026
SGC Not readable Lookup behind a reCAPTCHA October 2026
PSA + CGC + TAG 6,157

PSA’s total is derived: the POP Higher column on its Authentic row counts every copy with a numeric grade, half grades included (5,390), and the 46 Authentic copies make 5,436. Qualifier grades sit on a separate PSA line, so the true figure may run slightly higher.

Lot copy quoting PSA’s census fits the same curve: Goldin cited more than 5,220 graded with 124 PSA 10s in February 2026, and more than 5,300 in March 2026. Sports Illustrated’s December 2025 count of 4,993 sits below both, so treat it as stale. Every print and grader is in the Base Set Charizard population report.

PSA’s 1st Edition count, 2016 to 2026

PSA’s own figures, from its 2016 Set Registry article and archived CardFacts pages (2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026):

As of PSA graded PSA 10 PSA 9 PSA 10 share
May 2016 1,071 95 — 8.9%
Dec. 2020 2,868 121 652 4.2%
Oct. 2021 3,486 122 685 3.5%
Jan. 2023 3,959 123 709 3.1%
Feb. 2024 4,321 124 716 2.9%
Feb. 2025 4,752 125 728 2.6%
May 2026 5,436 125 729 2.3%

The May 2026 count is 5.1 times the May 2016 count and 1.9 times December 2020’s. PSA 10s went from 95 to 125 over the decade, and 121 of them were already there by December 2020; that 121 is the figure still repeated online. Since then PSA has added a net 2,568 1st Edition slabs and a net 4 PSA 10s, a gem rate of 0.16% on the additions. The share graded PSA 9 or better fell from 27.0% to 15.7% over the same years.

The PSA 10 share has fallen at every snapshot, from 8.9% in 2016 to 2.3% in 2026. Condition was always the obstacle: in PSA’s 2016 article, collector Scott Pratte said “many 1st Edition cards have condition issues straight out of the packs”, citing scratched holos and chipped back borders.

Every PSA grade, December 2020 against May 2026

PSA grade Dec. 2020 May 2026 Change Growth
10 121 125 +4 1.0×
9 652 729 +77 1.1×
8 521 711 +190 1.4×
7 353 597 +244 1.7×
6 434 832 +398 1.9×
5 313 743 +430 2.4×
4 174 575 +401 3.3×
3 104 414 +310 4.0×
2 50 228 +178 4.6×
1.5 10 49 +39 4.9×
1 44 202 +158 4.6×
Authentic 19 46 +27 2.4×
Half grades 2.5 to 8.5 (derived) 73 185 +112 2.5×
Total 2,868 5,436 +2,568 1.9×

Of the net 2,568 copies added, 1,914 (74.5%) landed at PSA 6 or below, counting PSA 1.5. PSA 4s more than tripled, PSA 3s quadrupled and PSA 2s and 1s grew about 4.6 times, while PSA 9s rose by 77 and PSA 10s by 4. PSA’s tables show whole grades only, so the half-grade row is the total minus every listed row; in May 2026, for example, 97 copies sat at PSA 8.5.

CGC, TAG, BGS and SGC

CGC

CGC’s report lists 650 standard 1st Edition Charizards and 13 Gray Stamps. Its scale tops out at Perfect 10, then Pristine 10, Gem Mint 10 and Mint+ 9.5. No 1st Edition Charizard has a Perfect 10; 3 are Pristine 10, 35 Gem Mint 10, 14 are 9.5 and 51 are 9. Thirty of the 650 are AA (Authentic Altered) slabs, counted inside the total.

The count is 2.2 times CGC’s mid-November 2022 figure of 297. In early May 2024 CGC reported 467, with 24 Gem Mint 10s and two graded higher. Its first Pristine 10 1st Edition Charizard was graded in January 2023.

TAG

TAG’s 1st Edition report has 58 Charizards: three TAG 10s, six TAG 9s, two at 8.5 and five at 8, with none at TAG’s 10P (Pristine).

BGS (Beckett)

Beckett’s website, pop report included, was offline when read on October 6, 2026, after what Beckett calls “suspicious technical activity”. The last first-hand Beckett figure found dates from June 7, 2021, when Beckett Media said the BGS 10 Pristine 1st Edition Charizard Logan Paul wore into the ring “is a Pop 3 on the BGS Pop Report.” That is a 2021 count of BGS 10 Pristine, not Black Label, and none of the Black Label counts circulating online could be traced to Beckett.

SGC

SGC’s lookup sits behind a reCAPTCHA, so no SGC count is included; SGC’s pop page itself warns that across 28 years of data “inconsistencies may be present”.

Record 1st Edition Charizard sales

The highest public results found. They are past sales, not valuations.

Price Grade Where When Note
$1,000,952.84 PSA 10 eBay Sept. 9, 2026 Reported by Sports Illustrated; highest sale found
$954,800 PSA 10, Logan Paul Break label Goldin Feb. 2026 Highest auction-house result found for the English card
$550,000 PSA 10 Heritage Dec. 2025 Heritage said it beat the pandemic-era public-auction record
$420,000 PSA 10 PWCC March 20, 2022 Reported at the time as an all-time record for a Base Set Charizard
$369,000 SGC gold label Goldin Dec. 2020 An SGC card, often misreported as a PSA 10
$150,000 BGS 9.5, Thick Stamp PWCC Aug. 22, 2021 Lot copy: 1 of 5 at BGS, none higher

The $1,000,952.84 sale was reported by Sports Illustrated on September 14, 2026; no auction-house lot page was found for it. The $954,800 copy is the PSA 10 from Logan Paul’s own box break, slabbed with a Logan Paul Break label; Sports Illustrated wrote that it went for “a whopping $954,800, far surpassing the previous record for any Charizard card that’s ever been to market.” Heritage said its $550,000 copy was among 125 PSA 10s; the $420,000 PWCC lot was reported at the time as an all-time record for a Base Set Charizard.

The $369,000 card is often listed as a PSA 10, but Goldin’s own post described “this @sgcgrading gold label charizard sold for $369,000”. The PSA 10 sold that weekend went for over $350,000 in a PWCC auction on eBay.

Below the records, Fanatics Collect’s own sales history lists five PSA 10 sales between January and May 2026, from $456,000 to $528,000, and Goldin sold one for $518,500 in March 2026. The $1,700,000 Charizard in the same month’s headlines is the Japanese Base Set card with no rarity symbol, a different card. Price history by grade, from verified sold listings across eBay, TCGPlayer, Goldin, and Fanatics Collect, is on the 1st Edition Charizard price page.

Why 6,157 slabs is not 6,157 cards

  • Cracked slabs stay counted. PSA’s help page says collectors crack cards out to have them signed, resubmit them or sell them raw, and “unless we get that label back, there’s no way for us to know that the population needs to be updated.”
  • Crossovers count twice. A card cracked from a CGC slab and regraded by PSA can sit in both reports.
  • The graders say so. CGC’s disclaimer says its reports “are not an indicator of value or rarity.” Goldin says census figures in its lots are “accurate at the time a lot is posted for auction and is subject to change.”
  • Raw copies are missing. Nobody knows what share of the 1st Edition print has ever been graded.

1st Edition numbers you will see online, and why they don’t hold up

Fewer than ten thousand of each card

The earliest citable appearance is PSA’s 2016 article, in the same sentence that says no one knows the number: it adds an estimate of fewer than ten thousand of each card, without naming who made it. Lot copy has repeated it since: a 2024 Fanatics Collect lot says the first print is believed to have been limited to ten thousand copies of each card, “though that number has never been confirmed.” No Wizards document, printer or named insider stands behind it.

Ten Unlimited cards for every 1st Edition card

A 2023 Fanatics Collect lot says the card was “Said to have been made with only a ten-to-one print run of unlimited to 1st Edition copies”, without saying who said it. The only first-hand comment on the ratio is the three-days answer, which the Wizards host closed with “so whatever 3 into infinity is”.

Three thousand copies exist

News coverage of the March 2022 PWCC sale, citing a PWCC statement, reported that there were three thousand copies of the card. PWCC’s own lot copy said something narrower: that over three thousand copies had been submitted to PSA, with 121 earning a PSA 10. Submissions are not copies in existence, and PSA’s own count stood at 5,436 by May 2026.

Tens of thousands of 1st Edition Charizards

Ranges such as ten thousand to fifty thousand 1st Edition Charizards, and forum figures of twenty-five to forty million 1st Edition cards, have appeared on blogs, price-guide pages and collector forums. Each starts from a box or sheet count that Wizards never released, and the Charizard ranges add a guess at the share of copies ever graded. Neither input has been published by Wizards, Nintendo or any printer.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many 1st Edition Charizards were printed?

Nobody outside Wizards of the Coast knows, because Wizards never published the number. A Wizards customer-service host said in February 2000 that 1st Edition cards were printed for three days only, which is a length of time, not a count. The often-repeated figure of under ten thousand of each card traces back to an unattributed estimate in a 2016 PSA article.

How many 1st Edition Charizards exist?

Nobody has counted them. The graded record shows 6,157 1st Edition Charizard slabs: 5,436 at PSA (its own table, archived May 2026), 663 at CGC and 58 at TAG (both read October 6, 2026). That counts slabs, not unique cards, and it leaves out every raw copy and every BGS and SGC slab.

How many PSA 10 1st Edition Charizards are there?

PSA’s own table showed 125 in May 2026, out of 5,436 graded. The count was 95 in May 2016 and 121 in December 2020, so the widely repeated figure of 121 is out of date.

How can you tell if a Charizard is 1st Edition?

Look for the small black circular Edition 1 stamp below the left side of the art box on a card numbered 4/102. A 1st Edition Charizard also has no drop shadow along the right edge of the art box. A card with no stamp and no shadow is the separate Shadowless print, and Base Set 2, numbered 4/130, never had a 1st Edition.

Is a 1st Edition Shadowless Charizard different from a 1st Edition Charizard?

No. Every 1st Edition Base Set card is shadowless, so auction houses often title the card Base Set Shadowless 1st Edition. PSA labels the same card 1999 Pokemon Game Charizard-Holo 1st Edition. The unstamped Shadowless Charizard is a different print with its own population counts.

What is the most expensive 1st Edition Charizard ever sold?

The highest sale found is $1,000,952.84 for a PSA 10 on eBay in September 2026, as reported by Sports Illustrated. The highest auction-house result found for the English card is $954,800 at Goldin in February 2026, for the PSA 10 from Logan Paul’s box break.

What is a thick stamp 1st Edition Charizard?

A 1st Edition card whose stamp has a thicker numeral 1 and thinner lettering in the word Edition. Beckett grades thick stamp copies as a separate set. Auction copy says the difference came from adjusted stamp pressure on a second printing, but that story has never been officially confirmed, and nobody has shown which stamp came first or which is rarer.

Sources

Population figures are snapshots of each grading company’s public report on the date shown and change every week as new cards are graded. Print-run figures for the 1999 English Base Set were never published by Wizards of the Coast; anything described here as an estimate is labelled as one. This article is collector information, not investment advice. Pokémon and Charizard are trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures Inc. and GAME FREAK inc.; Pokemon Pricing is not affiliated with them or with any grading company.

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