Vaporeon

Vaporeon sits at #28 in Jungle, the second of the Wizards of the Coast print runs. Illustration by Kagemaru Himeno. Himeno is one of the most-recognized vintage TCG illustrators. Her work shows up more in Neo-era and later sets, but earlier appearances carry a small premium with art-focused collectors. In the games, Vaporeon evolves from Eevee, which makes it a late-stage card in the line.

The flavor text on the card reads: "Lives close to water. Its long tail is ridged with a fin that is often mistaken for a mermaid's." 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 Water Eeveelution. Aquatic, mermaid-like silhouette. Jungle holo Vaporeon is one of the three Eeveelution chase cards in the set. Strong collector demand.

Jungle shipped in two print waves: 1st Edition (stamped) and Unlimited. There is also a famous "No Symbol" error on some early Unlimited prints where the set symbol was accidentally left off the artwork. No Symbol variants trade for a meaningful premium over the standard Unlimited print and are a quiet specialty within Jungle collecting.

For graded buyers, non-holo Rares are less punishing on surface but no easier on centering. PSA 10 populations for Wizards-era Rares are smaller than the Rare Holo populations in some cases because the cards were less protected and more frequently played. Edge whitening from sleeves is the typical grade-cap on raw copies.

For raw purchases of this card, verify centering by eye, edge whitening on all four sides, and surface scratches under angled light. Non-holo Rares from the Wizards era are cheap enough that PSA 10 submissions usually do not break the math if you have a clean candidate.