Charmeleon

Numbered 24 of 102 in Base Set, released in January 1999, Charmeleon is an Uncommon, a Stage 1 Fire-type carrying 80 HP.

It evolves from Charmander, so Charmeleon is a later-stage card that set-builders usually slot into a full evolution run rather than buy alone.

Illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita. Arita painted the Base Set Charizard and much of the early holo run, and his work has a painterly weight that set the visual tone of the Wizards era.

Printed on the card, the Charmeleon Pokédex entry reads: "When it swings its burning tail, it raises the temperature to unbearably high levels."

The middle Charmander stage. Bigger, more aggressive, and notoriously hard to befriend in the games. The forgotten middle of the most famous evolution line. Charmeleon usually trades in the shadow of its evolved form. Collectors completing a Charmander to Charizard 1st Edition run pay up; standalone demand is thin.

Based on recent eBay sales, raw copies trade from $2.83 to $100 depending on the print and a PSA 10 runs from $223 to $300. The 1st Edition print is the most valuable, with a PSA 10 near $300. The table on this page breaks the price down by print and grade, updated 2026-06-04.

Base Set produced three print waves that collectors track separately: 1st Edition (the launch print, with an Edition 1 stamp under the artwork), Shadowless (no stamp and no drop shadow on the right of the frame), and Unlimited (the long-running print with the drop shadow restored). On Charmeleon, the price gap between these prints can run 10x or more, so confirm the variant before any purchase.

Charmeleon grades forgivingly, but the same centering and edge standards apply. Pack-fresh raw copies are easy to find, which makes a clean PSA 10 submission a low-cost way to learn how the cardstock behaves under grading.

Raw copies of Charmeleon are inexpensive enough that grading rarely pays unless you have a clearly pack-fresh example. For set completion, a clean sleeved Charmeleon is the practical move.