Base Set Gyarados PSA 10 pop: three prints, three different answers

Published October 1, 2026 · Pop figures refresh with every site build; the current pull is September 20, 2026

Three different cards answer to Base Set Gyarados, and PSA grades them nothing alike. This page counts the unlimited print, the one carrying a drop shadow down the right side of the artwork window, and at the September 19, 2026 pull the Base Set Gyarados PSA 10 pop stands at 534 Gem Mint copies from 25,397 submissions. Its 1st Edition sibling gems at 3.36 percent, and the shadowless print sitting between the two gems at 0.88.

So the rarest of the three grades best and the middle one grades worst. Nothing in the production explains that, because two of them came off the same plate.

Only one of the three prints owns the Base Set Gyarados PSA 10 pop

25,397 graded. 534 tens, 4,500 nines, 6,103 eights, and 14,212 copies finishing at PSA 7 or lower, which is 55.96 percent of everything ever mailed in. PSA added 356 more last period on a thirty day trend of -6%.

Inside its own set this card is unremarkable in every direction. Fifteen Base Set holos have an unlimited print, and Gyarados ranks fifth by submissions, fifth by Gem Mint count and sixth by gem rate. Dead middle, three times over. Only one comparison stands out: the unlimited Charizard has been submitted a little over four times as often and holds fewer tens, the same arithmetic that runs through the Venusaur census. Before reading a ratio off any of this, it helps to know what a population report is actually counting.

The print in the middle arrives in the worst shape

Split every Base Set holo by its three English prints and the shadowless column collapses. Fifteen holos carry all three versions. Pooled across them at this pull, the 1st Edition print has taken 45,117 grades at a 3.00 percent gem rate, the shadowless print 84,586 grades at 0.89 percent, and the unlimited print 432,036 grades at 1.42 percent.

Shadowless gems worst of the three on thirteen of the fifteen. Magneton and Venusaur are the only holdouts.

Then look at the bottom of the ladder instead of the top, which is where the answer is. Of every shadowless Base Set holo PSA has graded, 71.63 percent came back a 7 or lower. The 1st Edition figure is 59.88 percent and the unlimited figure is 63.00. Run that card by card and the shadowless print is more damaged than its own 1st Edition on fifteen of fifteen, with no exceptions. Gyarados tracks the pattern hard: 56.20 percent damaged in 1st Edition, 55.96 in unlimited, 68.78 in shadowless.

So these cards are not failing a measurement. They are arriving hurt.

Two prints, one plate, two different lives

That matters because of how Wizards ran the presses. CGC's own documentation lays the sequence out: the first print run carried a First Edition symbol on every card, the second run was the same cards with the symbol removed and still no drop shadow, and the third run added the shadow to the right of the art box. A 1st Edition and a shadowless are therefore the identical layout, the identical Galaxy Star foil and the identical 1999 cut, separated by one stamp.

Identical cardboard, and a gap of nearly twelve points in how wrecked it arrives. Whatever did that happened after the packs came open.

The likeliest reading is that the stamp was legible in 1999 and the missing shadow was not. A nine year old could see a black circle on the left edge and decide that card was worth keeping flat. Nobody spots an absent drop shadow without a second card to hold it against, so those copies stayed in the playing pile. That is a reading of the census shape rather than anything documented, and it is worth holding loosely.

A second grader's numbers point the same way. As of mid November 2022 CGC had graded 965 shadowless Charizards for a median grade of CGC 5.5, twenty three copies at a 9 and none at a 10, which is that card's PSA census told from the other end.

One piece does not fit, and it should be said out loud. Grading is a paid decision, so a high floor price drags damaged copies into a census. On October 1, 2026 PriceCharting valued an ungraded unlimited Gyarados at $17.03, a shadowless at $73.07 and a 1st Edition at $468.03, with PSA 7 copies at $75.49, $172.42 and $1,475.00. By that logic the stamped census should be the most chewed up of the three, since a ruined one still returns fifteen hundred dollars. It is instead the cleanest.

Arita painted a sea monster, and Wizards gave it three energy

The credit on the face reads Illus. Mitsuhiro Arita, beside a 1999 Wizards copyright line and the 6/102 number. Stage 1, evolves from Magikarp, 100 HP, Dragon Rage at 50 for three Water and Bubblebeam at 40 behind a paralysis coin flip. The species line calls it the Atrocious Pokemon at 21 feet 4 inches and 518 pounds, and the flavor box adds that it can destroy entire cities in a rage. English Base Set reached shelves on January 9, 1999.

Arita filled the holofoil window with deep blue water, which matters at purchase time: white scratch lines read loudly against a dark field and almost disappear against a bright one.

The nine already pays for the trip

PSA's Standard tier ran $59.99 a card on psacard.com on October 1, 2026, against a $1,000 maximum insured value and an estimated 90 to 100 business days. Value services are still paused. Add the market copy and a submission costs about a hundred dollars all in.

One caution on that raw line. PriceCharting's Ungraded column read $17.03 the same day, and its sold tape explains why: thirty eBay sales in the four days to September 30 ran a $19.06 median against titles reading HP, PL and damaged. The thirty TCGplayer Near Mint sales since January 9 ran a $40.00 median, and the ten since July 1 ran $47.84. A copy you would actually mail costs the second number.

Take 15 percent off each rung for marketplace fees and a 10 returns $1,955, a 9 returns $229.50, an 8 returns $107.75 and a 7 returns $64.17. Weight those by the grades this card hands back and a submission returns $143.57 against $99.97, a 43.6 percent gain.

Now delete the Gem Mint column entirely. The 9, the 8 and the bottom block alone return $102.47, which still covers the hundred dollars. The ten is not the trade on this card. It is the tip.

Two figures in that table disagree with each other and the gap is worth naming. PriceCharting's algorithmic PSA 10 value read $2,611.24 on October 1, while twenty five dated PSA 10 sales since February 11 ran a $2,300.00 median and never once cleared three thousand. On the 9 there is no gap at all: the algorithm and the median of twenty two dated PSA 9 sales both land on $270.00. CGC 9s on the same tape ran $144.75, a little over half that, which is the usual tax for the wrong holder.

Find the shadow before you look at the corners

Every number on this page belongs to one of three cards, so identification comes before condition. A shadow down the right edge of the art box means unlimited and means this page. A black Edition 1 circle on the left edge means the 3.36 percent print. Neither mark means you are holding the shadowless version, it is worth four times the unlimited raw, and the stamped prints have their own arithmetic entirely.

If it is unlimited and it looks clean across a table, send it. The 9 clears the fee by $129 on its own and arrives 17.72 percent of the time, and the census share at a 7 or below is a record of what other people mailed in, not a forecast for a copy you chose on purpose. If it is shadowless, the odds drop to roughly a quarter of what you just read, and the card is worth more raw than the submission is worth risking. Every Gyarados row in the set sorts side by side in the BetterPop gallery.

Sources

• GemRate PSA population data via the BetterPop dataset, September 19, 2026 row pull. The three print comparison, the pooled 45,117 / 84,586 / 432,036 grade totals, the 13 of 15 and 15 of 15 counts, and the set rankings were computed across all 110,641 rows on October 1, 2026.
• PriceCharting, Gyarados #6 Pokemon Base Set, plus the shadowless and 1st Edition rows, price tables and completed sales tape all read October 1, 2026. The PSA 10 median uses 25 titled PSA 10 rows after dropping two Japanese Base Set #130 slabs; the PSA 9 median uses 22 titled PSA 9 rows after dropping four CGC 9s, one Goldin PSA 8 and three Base Set 2 rows.
• PSA, grading service pricing, read October 1, 2026, for the Standard tier fee, insured value and turnaround, and for the paused Value services.
• CGC Trading Cards, How to Tell if a Pokemon Card is a First Edition, read October 1, 2026, for the Base Set print run sequence and the drop shadow change, and the Featured Card of the Month on the shadowless Charizard for the November 2022 CGC population and median grade.
• Illustrator credit, HP, attack text, species line, flavor text, card number and copyright line read from the card faces of Base Set Gyarados 6/102 in both the unlimited and 1st Edition printings.