Shadowless Charizard Earns a Coveted CGC Pristine 10 Grade

The CGC Trading Cards® graders keep seeing one awe-inspiring submission after another! Recently, a submitter sent in a Charizard, Pokémon (1999) Base Set Shadowless in excellent condition. This Charizard received a grade of CGC Pristine 10 with near-perfect sub-grades of 10 for Centering, Surface and Corners, and 9.5 for Edges, making it the highest-graded example in the CGC Trading Cards Population Report.

Charizard, Pokémon (1999) Base Set Shadowless graded CGC Pristine 10 with near-perfect subgrades Click images to enlarge.

This submission comes just months after a Charizard, Pokémon (1999) Base Set 1st Edition received a grade of CGC Pristine 10 with near-perfect sub-grades in January 2023. This Charizard also became the highest-graded example in the CGC Trading Cards Population Report in its respective category.

Charizard, Pokemon (1999) Base Set 1st Edition graded CGC Pristine 10 with near-perfect subgrades, and pedigreed to the Dubsy Collection Click images to enlarge.

When the Pokémon Trading Card Game made its debut in the US in 1999, Wizards of the Coast began production by releasing a limited print run of Base Set. This set was known as the 1st Edition print run, and each card in the set came with a special 1st Edition symbol near the bottom-left corner of the Pokémon’s art box.

The 1st Edition print run also featured “shadowless” cards — cards that lacked a drop shadow border around the Pokémon’s art box. Shadowless cards would continue to be featured in the second limited print run of Base Set before drop shadows were finally added in Unlimited Base Set.

While Shadowless Pokémon cards were featured in both Limited Edition Base Set print runs, 1st Edition cards were only featured in one. To correctly distinguish between the two, CGC Trading Cards categorizes the Limited Edition print runs as two separate categories in the CGC Trading Cards Population Report: Base Set – 1st Edition – English and Base Set – Shadowless – English.

Charizard is an extremely popular Pokémon, and since both Limited Edition sets had such short print runs, these Shadowless cards are very valuable to collectors. This Pristine 10 example was graded as part of CGC Trading Cards’ partnership with PWCC Marketplace and is currently being offered in PWCC's April Premier Auction, where bids have already surpassed $6,000. You can read more about the partnership between CGC Trading Cards and PWCC here.