Pikachu

Numbered 60 of 64 in Jungle, released in June 1999, Pikachu is a Common, a Basic Lightning-type carrying 50 HP.

As a Basic Pokémon, Pikachu 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.

Pikachu carries this Pokédex flavor text: "When several of these Pokémon gather, their electricity can build and cause lightning storms."

The franchise mascot. An Electric-type rodent with red cheeks, a lightning-bolt tail, and a vocabulary limited to its own name in the anime. The most-printed Pokémon card in history. The Base Set print has a famous yellow-cheeks variant that commands a premium over the standard red-cheeks 1st Edition.

Based on recent eBay sales, raw copies trade from $3.24 to $31 depending on the print and a PSA 10 runs from $270 to $1,300. The 1st Edition print is the most valuable, with a PSA 10 near $1,300. The table on this page breaks the price down by print and grade, updated 2026-05-22.

Jungle shipped in 1st Edition and Unlimited, with no Shadowless print. The Edition 1 stamp under the artwork separates the scarcer 1st Edition Pikachu from the Unlimited copy. The set also has the famous No Symbol error from its first print run, which adds a premium when the lower-right set symbol is missing.

Pikachu is the most forgiving tier to grade in the set. Centering on the framed border is the usual cap, and the soft Wizards-era cardstock picks up edge whitening easily, but high print runs keep clean copies affordable.

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