Squirtle

Numbered 170 of 207 in Scarlet & Violet 151, released in September 2023, Squirtle is an Illustration Rare, a Basic Water-type carrying 60 HP.

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

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.

Squirtle carries this Pokédex flavor text: "When it feels threatened, it draws its limbs inside its shell and sprays water from its mouth."

The water starter. A bipedal blue turtle with a brown shell. Tactically the most defensive of the three starters in the games. Steady raw market driven by completionists. The Base Set Squirtle in PSA 10 has appreciated quietly without the headlines of its evolved forms.

Squirtle is a holo rare, one of the cards that holds Scarlet & Violet 151's value. The rarity tier decides most of it, since the same card prints at several tiers with very different prices. In top-grade 1st Edition, Scarlet & Violet 151 holos range from the mid hundreds for the lesser cards up to the set's marquee chase; raw and Unlimited copies trade for a fraction of that. The live market price above shows the current figure by grade.

Confirm the print and finish on Squirtle before pricing it, since variant and rarity set the market more than the card name alone.

Grading Squirtle comes down to the holo surface and the borders. The era's foil scratches easily, so even a pack-fresh Squirtle can drop from a 10 to a 9 on a single hairline. Inspect the window at an angle and the corners against the frame.

When you go to buy Squirtle, settle three things in order: the print variant, the condition, and a comp for that exact combination. A blended average across variants will mislead you on Squirtle, so price the specific copy in front of you.