Charizard · Base Set, what to know.
Charizard is card 4 of 102 in the original Base Set, released in English by Wizards of the Coast on January 9, 1999. It was one of sixteen Rare Holo cards in the print run, and the only one of the three starter evolutions printed in a fire pose that wrapped around the holofoil window. That detail is part of why it took over: the Charizard hits the foil at the exact moment a kid pulled the pack open.
Three print waves matter for collectors. The 1st Edition print, identified by the stamp in the lower-left of the artwork, ran for roughly two months before Wizards moved to the Unlimited print. Between them sits the Shadowless Charizard. No drop shadow on the right edge of the artwork, no edition stamp. Produced for a short window and easy to miss if you do not know to look. 1st Edition PSA 10 sales clear well over $400,000 at the time of writing. Shadowless PSA 10 trails it in the high five figures, and Unlimited PSA 10 typically lands in the mid five figures.
Most graded copies live in PSA 8 and PSA 9. The print quality was inconsistent enough that PSA 10 examples are genuinely rare, especially in 1st Edition where centering and edges punish almost every pack-fresh card. Raw NM copies still trade actively and are the most common entry point for collectors building toward a graded grail.
Three prints, three markets.
Edition-1 stamp on the bottom-left of the artwork. The grail variant.
No drop shadow on the right side of the artwork, no edition stamp. Produced for a short window in early 1999.
Drop shadow visible. The standard print that ran for years.
