Charmander

Charmander sits at #46 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: "Obviously prefers hot places. If it gets caught in the rain, steam is said to spout from the tip of its tail." 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.

The fire starter. A small bipedal reptile with a tail-flame that signals its health. Famous for being the most-picked starter in the original generation. Base Set Charmander has outsized collector interest because of its connection to Charizard. PSA 10 examples are surprisingly difficult given the soft cardstock of the era.

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.

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.

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.