Base Set Booster Box

Base Set Booster Box guide

What's inside the Base Set Booster Box

Each Base Set Booster Box is a factory-sealed display of 36 sealed booster packs, every one of them from Base Set.

1st Edition and Unlimited booster boxes are both listed here, and 1st Edition sells for far more, so check the listing title before comparing prices.

About Base Set

The set that launched the Pokémon Trading Card Game in English. It was printed as 1st Edition, then Shadowless, then Unlimited, and sealed boxes of each print are priced very differently. Released on 9 January 1999, it belongs to the Wizards of the Coast era, when Pokémon cards first took off and print runs were far smaller than today. 27 years on, most of its sealed stock has long been opened, and unopened product mostly changes hands between collectors.

Base Set has 102 cards in its main numbering.

What collectors open Base Set for

The Base Set cards collectors most want to pull are Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur and Mewtwo. With 36 packs, a box gives you the most chances at them of any sealed product, though no box is guaranteed to hold any one card.

Our catalogue lists the set's rarest tiers as 32 Rares. See every Base Set card price for what each is worth.

Base Set Booster Box price today

Right now the cheapest Base Set Booster Box on eBay costs €188.09 including delivery to Germany, and the typical asking price across 17 listings is €1,253 (ebay.de from €616.19, ebay.co.uk from €224.16, ebay.com from €188.09).

These are live asking prices, not completed sales, so a good offer is usually close to the cheapest listing rather than the typical one.

Price per pack

At the typical price, each of the 36 packs in a Base Set Booster Box works out at €34.79, compared with €933.72 in a Base Set Booster Pack. That makes it the cheapest way to buy Base Set packs sealed right now.

Base Set Booster Box as an investment

Sealed Base Set is now a collector's item: very few unopened booster boxes survive, and each one opened makes the rest rarer. Condition and authenticity matter more than anything else at this age. Booster boxes are the sealed product most collectors hold long term, as they are easy to store and to value. Much of its sealed value rests on demand for Charizard and Blastoise: if those cards rise, unopened product usually follows.

Only buy a Base Set Booster Box to hold if you are happy to keep it either way, as prices can fall too. This is not financial advice; see should you buy sealed Pokémon products?

Before you buy

Check the shrink wrap: factory wrap on booster boxes has neat seams, often with Pokémon logos printed on it, and loose or glossy wrap can mean a resealed product. At €1,253 it is worth asking for photos of every side and buying from sellers with a long, positive history, since resealed and weighed product is common. A full box gives better odds than loose packs, and its value as a sealed item is easier to judge (how to value a sealed booster box). For product this old, ask whether it has been checked by an authenticator: fakes and resealed vintage boxes are made to fool buyers. Always compare totals with delivery included, and keep sealed product away from sunlight, heat and damp once it arrives.