Base Set Booster Pack

Base Set Booster Pack guide

What's inside the Base Set Booster Pack

Each Base Set Booster Pack is a single foil pack of a random selection of 9 to 11 cards, with at least one rare from Base Set.

Vintage packs came with different artwork on the wrapper, and collectors often pay more for a particular Pokémon on the front. Some sellers also list "heavy" packs picked by weight to hold a holo, which is worth knowing before you buy loose packs.

1st Edition and Unlimited booster packs 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.

Chase cards to look for

The Base Set cards collectors most want to pull are Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur and Mewtwo. Any one pack can hold them, but most packs will not: buying the single card is usually cheaper than opening for it.

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 Pack price today

Right now the cheapest Base Set Booster Pack on eBay costs €567.05 including delivery to Germany, and the typical asking price across 41 listings is €933.72 (ebay.de from €599.79, ebay.co.uk from €579.90, ebay.com from €567.05).

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, a Base Set Booster Pack costs €933.72, compared with €34.79 in a Base Set Booster Box. That makes it the most expensive way to buy Base Set packs right now, which is normal for single packs.

Base Set Booster Pack as an investment

Sealed Base Set is now a collector's item: very few unopened booster packs survive, and each one opened makes the rest rarer. Condition and authenticity matter more than anything else at this age. Single packs are the easiest to resell but also the most likely to have been searched or weighed. 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 Pack 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 packs is tight and crimped evenly at both ends, and loose or glossy wrap can mean a resealed product. At €933.72 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. Avoid "weighed" or searched packs from bulk sellers: some sellers weigh packs to pull the holos out first. 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.