Bulbasaur · Base Set, what to know.
About the Bulbasaur card
Bulbasaur sits at #44 in Base Set, the first of the Wizards of the Coast print runs. Illustration by Mitsuhiro Arita. Arita was the original Pokémon TCG illustrator and the artist behind the Base Set Charizard. His vintage-era art has a painterly quality that distinguishes it from the cleaner reference-style work of the Sugimori cards.
The flavor text on the card reads: "A strange seed was planted on its back at birth. Thus, a plant sprouted and now grows with this Pokémon." Pokédex entries from this era are short and often quirky, written by the original Japanese localization team for a specific stat-block layout that no longer exists in modern cards.
About Bulbasaur in the Pokémon world
The grass starter from Red and Blue. A small quadruped with a plant bulb growing on its back that flowers as it evolves. The first Pokémon in the National Pokédex. Bulbasaur prints sit one tier below the holo starters in collector demand, but the Base Set Bulbasaur sees real movement among set completionists chasing a full 1st Edition run.
Print variants and how to spot them
Base Set produced three print waves that collectors track separately: 1st Edition (the launch print, with an Edition-1 stamp under the artwork), Shadowless (a transitional print with no stamp and no drop shadow on the right side of the artwork), and Unlimited (the long-running print with the drop shadow restored). The price spread between these prints on the same card name is often 10x or more, which is why variant identification matters before any purchase.
Grading and condition
Commons grade most forgivingly of any tier in the set. Centering is the typical grade cap; the soft Wizards-era cardstock picks up edge whitening easily but the high print runs mean clean copies remain affordable. A first-time grading submission on a Common is the cheapest way to learn what each grading service is actually looking at.
If you are buying this card
Raw copies of this card are inexpensive enough that the grading math rarely justifies submission unless you have a clearly pack-fresh example. For set completionists, picking up a clean raw copy and sleeving it is the practical move.
