Dratini

Dratini is card 26 of 102 in Base Set, released in January 1999, an Uncommon. It is a Basic Colorless-type with 40 HP.

As a Basic Pokémon, Dratini needs no prior evolution to put into play, which made it a practical card in the era's decks.

Illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Sugimori is the lead character designer of Pokémon itself, so his card art carries the tight, on-model look that defined how the creatures appear in the games.

The card's flavor text gives Dratini a line of lore: "Long considered a mythical Pokémon until recently, when a small colony was found living underwater."

A Dragon-type sea-serpent Pokémon. Famous for being the rarest Pokémon in the Safari Zone in Gen 1. Base Set Common Dratini has sentimental demand thanks to game rarity.

Based on recent eBay sales, raw copies trade from $4.96 to $56 depending on the print and a PSA 10 runs from $165 to $2,750. The 1st Edition print is the most valuable, with a PSA 10 near $2,750. The table on this page breaks the price down by print and grade, updated 2026-05-08.

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 Dratini, the price gap between these prints can run 10x or more, so confirm the variant before any purchase.

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