English Base Set Master Misprint Guide

[misprintjeff]

1999 Pokémon Base Set Master Misprint Guide

A 250+ photo guide for the misprints in English 1999 Base Set. Best view on desktop. The goal was to include the best quality photos as possible of all the significant repeating misprints with at least 3 or more known copies. Thanks to everyone whos’ errors or photos contributed to this project! Hopefully this will be a useful resource for everyone to learn, collect, and discover more for years to come! Please leave comments, suggestions, or questions below.
Created July-September 2023. Collaboration between @MisprintJeff and @JoshsOddCollection

Here are links to the other misprint lists: (Jungle List) (Fossil List)

Alakazam (1) - “Holo Hickey Alakazam” - Blue Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Blastoise (2) - “Stage Error”/“Illustrator Error”/“Red Dot Error” - Missing Black Ink & Additional Magenta Ink Dot - Unlimited

!

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Chansey (3) - “Black Dot Chansey” - Additional Black Ink - Unlimited

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Charizard (4) - “Black Dot Charizard” - Additional Black Ink/Micro Holoshift/Often a Holobleed - Unlimited

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Clefairy (5) - “Red Heart Clefairy” - Magenta Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Clefairy (5) - “Black Dot Clefairy” - Black Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Hitmonchan (7) - “Holo Bleed Hitmonchan” - Insufficient White Ink Layer Obstruction - Unlimited

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Hitmonchan (7) - “Red Stain Hitmonchan” - Additional Magenta Ink - Unlimited

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Machamp (8) - “Screen Holo Machamp” - Additional Gold Ink - Unlimited

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Machamp (8) - “Green Dot Machamp” - Additional Cyan Ink - Unlimited

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Magneton (9) - “White Ink Stain Magneton” - Additional White Ink - Unlimited

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Mewtwo (10) - “Holo Hickey Mewtwo” - Cyan Printer Hickies - Unlimited

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Mewtwo (10) - “Jumbled Text Mewtwo” - Doubled ink from gloss layer - Unlimited

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Mewtwo (10) - “Illustrator Error Mewtwo” - Missing Black Ink - Unlimited

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Nidoking (11) - “Green Holo Dot Nidoking” - Cyan Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Ninetales (12) - “No Damage Ninetales” - Corrected Design Error - Shadowless

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Ninetales (12) - “Yellow Hair Ninetales” - Magenta Layer Obstruction (Thread/Hair?) - Unlimited

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Ninetales (12) - “Black Hickey Ninetales” - Black Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Venusaur (15) - “Blue Drip Venusaur” - Yellow Layer Water Obstruction - Unlimited

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Beedrill (17) - “D.efending Beedrill” - Design Error - Unlimited

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Beedrill (17) - “Bloody Wing Beedrill” - Magenta Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Dragonair (18) - “Rainbow Smear Dragonair” - Black Layer Obstruction - 1st Edition & Shadowless

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Dragonair (18) - “Dragon Ballz Dragonair” - Gold Border Printer Hickies - Unlimited

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Electrode (21) - “Blue Face Hickey Electrode” - Cyan Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Charmeleon (24) - “Heart Tattoo Charmeleon” - Magenta Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Charmeleon (24) - “Blue Slash Charmeleon” - Cyan Layer Obstruction (Hairs or Cyan Ink) - Unlimited

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Haunter (29) - “Ghost Hickey Haunter” - Black Printer Hickey - Shadowless

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Haunter (29) - “Face Hickey Haunter” - Magenta Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Magmar (36) - “Fire Punch Hickey Magmar” - Black Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Wartortle (42) - “Blue Hickey Wartortle” - Cyan Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Wartortle (42) - “Evolution Error Wartortle” - Design Error - Unlimited

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Abra (43) - “Jet Plane Abra” - Additional Black Ink - Unlimited

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Abra (43) - “Yellow Stain Abra” - Additional Gold Ink - Unlimited

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Bulbasaur (44) - “Sunbeam Bulbasaur” - Cyan Layer Obstruction/Gloss Obstruction - Shadowless

(upload://ua1pqmSm3i0PDGrOeVLHbpcq7Td.jpeg)

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Charmander (46) - “Scratch Error Charmander” - Black Layer Obstruction - Unlimited

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Charmander (46) - “Red Hickey Charmander” - Magenta Printer Hickies - Unlimited

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Diglett (47) - “Rotated Energy Symbol Diglett” - Design Error - Unlimited

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Diglett (47) - “Red Obstruction Diglett” - Magenta Obstruction - Unlimited

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Gastly (50) - “Bug Obstruction Gastly” - Cyan Layer Obstruction (Cockroach?) - Unlimited

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Machop (52) - “Yellow Belly Machop” - Additional Gold Ink - Unlimited

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Magnemite (53)- “Face Hickey Magnemite” - Magenta Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Pikachu (58) - "1st Edition Ghost Stamp Pikachu - Design Error - Shadowless Theme Deck

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Pikachu (58) - “Thunder Jolt Hickey Pikachu” - Yellow Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Pikachu (58) - “Copyright Strike-Through Pikachu” - Additional Black Ink - Unlimited

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Onix (59) & Fighting Energy (97) - “Border Hickey Onix” - Gold Border Hair Hickey - 1st Edition

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Ponyta (60) - “Flame Tail Error Ponyta” - Magenta Layer Obstruction - Unlimited

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Ponyta (60) - “Bat Symbol Ponyta” - Magenta Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Rattata (61) - “Red Dot Rattata” - Additional Magenta Ink - Shadowless

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Squirtle (63) - “Red Diamond Squirtle” - Magenta Layer Obstruction - Shadowless

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Squirtle (63) - “Name Obstruction Squirtle” - Black Layer Obstruction - Unlimited

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Staryu (65) - “Red Hickey Staryu” - Magenta Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Tangela (66) - “Brain Aneurysm Tangela” - Cyan Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Tangela (66) - “Bottom Hickey Tangela” - Cyan Printer Hickey - Unlimited

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Vulpix (68) - “Blue Butt Vulpix” - Cyan Layer Obstruction - 1st Edition & Shadowless

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Vulpix (68) - “Water Symbol Error Vulpix” - Misplaced Cyan Ink - Shadowless

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Vulpix (68) - "Poop Hickey Vulpix - Black Printer Hickies - Shadowless

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Special Set Misprints:

“Holo Shifts” - Misaligned White Ink Layer - Unlimited

(Holo Shift Article)

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“Missing Holo Errors” - Missing Holo Layer - Shadowless and 1 Unlimited

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“Holo Bleed Obstructions” - White Layer Smear or Obstruction - Unlimited

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“Yellow Stain Shadowless Holos” - Additional Yellow Ink - Shadowless

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“Screen Holos” - Additional Gold ink - Unlimited

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“Additional White Ink Holos” - Additional White Ink - Unlimited

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“Blurry Double Prints” - Black Layer Misalignment - Unlimited

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“Missing Holo Edge Errors” - Missing Foil/Missing Ink - Holos

–The Foil Ends Prematurely and The Ink Blankets Lift Over The Edge of Foil

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“1999-2000 Yellow Shifts” - Misaligned Yellow Layer - UK/Australia Final Print 1999-2000 Unlimited Commons

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“Darker Gold Border Errors” - Dirty Gold Border Ink Layer - Shadowless Theme Decks & Unlimited Machamps

!

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“Gray Print Errors” - Insufficient Black Ink - Theme Deck Holos and Commons

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“Inverted Back Errors” - Upside-down Sheet Error - Unlimited Holos, Uncommons, and Commons

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“Grayscale Filler (1999) WotC-Style Borders” - Print Run Unknown (Sources claimed they found in booster packs from different print runs. 1st Ed., Shadowless, and Unlimited)

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Honorable Mentions

“Tape Obstruction Venusaur” - Retained Obstruction Error - One of a Kind

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“Double Prints” - Press Doubling

(Haunter/Pokedex Growlithe, Jinx/Porygon Pokeflute - Unlimited Uncommons

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[JoshsOddCollection]

Hello everyone

This article has been a work in progress between Jeff and I for the past 4 months approximately, on and off. Our goal is to have the most detailed Base Set error guide out there and we hope that you all enjoy it! There are a lot of errors that people already know about, and a lot of errors that are extremely rare and not well-known.

Jeff reached out to me and wanted to write an article together so we started making this and have been planning it in Discord for quite a while. This has been a tremendous effort, especially on Jeff’s part, so shout out to him for that. Jeff put most of this list together while I helped source photos and scans (I contributed a few errors but Jeff already had like 90%+ of them on his list). We hope you all enjoy it and look forward to seeing all of the errors that everyone finds in their collections!

Make sure to check all of your cards and see how many of these you happen to own! Cheers everyone, and as always, happy collecting!

[shockerb37]

Love this, excellent work.

[thefiercestorm]

Awesome to see all the photos. I don’t think I saw the yellow belly machop. I’m not sure what you guys deem significant but here are energies I have acquired over the years. The red lines were from several different sellers. I know base set energies are littered with printer hickies but I bought some psychic energies off a guy who had about 50

[misprintjeff]

Thanks Shocker! And thanks for your help and contributions! You basically single handedly found all the Screen Holos besides the Machamps. I need to get photos of the best white ink smears you found as well since we just added that section.

[misprintjeff]

I didn’t add the Yellow Belly Machop because I could only find one picture of it so it didn’t seem that significant yet. If you or anyone else has pictures of said “Yellow Belly Machop” please post it with a closeup.

Those red line errors are very cool, but i’d rather not bog down the list with energy errors for now because it’s already getting pretty long.

[Dyl]

Regarding inverted backs, here’s my Venusaur:

Here’s a Charizard (not mine):

[meta]

Oh my god the cockroach Gastly has me wheezing. I hadn’t seen that before.

[quuador]

Here a repeating Pikachu misprints I didn’t see in your list; strikethrough copyright misprint:

As for some general Base Set misprints:

• Grey 1st edition stamps
• Black back 1st edition imprinted stamps
• White back 1st edition imprinted stamps
• Thin non-holo 1st edition stamps

It’s also missing the non-holo Shadowless cards, unless I skipped past it by accident:

And not sure if they’re repeating misprints, but here are some misprinted Base Set cards I saved pictures of that I didn’t see in your list:

And here some MTG + Base Set related misprints & test prints:

Greetz,
Quuador

[thefiercestorm]

Here are mine. I have seen a couple others posted in the FB group

[shockerb37]

Not my cards, but here’s a clefairy with the same color shift as that chansey.

[jaws]

Awesome list! Thanks for making this guys.

[jeverstones]

These are some of my own copyright strikethrough errors. Interestingly, mine are 4th Print although yours is Unlimited.

[jeverstones]

I also notice that the Black Flame Ninetales (Unlimited) isn’t on here (unless I missed it!).

[JoshsOddCollection]

We added the Pikachu and a section for the missing holos, thanks for the reminder The rest of the errors don’t appear to be repeatable but if we find more instances of them then we’ll add them!

[JoshsOddCollection]

The Black Flame Ninetales is a print run variant and more of a design change than an error. I personally think CGC did a good job covering it in their article on it.

[quuador]

Btw, is this thread only for all English repeated Base Set misprints?

Since there are also Chinese Base Set cards with additional ink blocks printed in the artworks next to their artwork borders (highlighted in green in this photo). The Machop is the most known example of this, but the others are also all repeating misprints, which were duplicates I’ve bought from a Chinese collector back in 2019:

And of course there is also the Portuguese Wartortle, which doesn’t have a corrected version available and are all with Wartortle instead of Squirtle in the evolution box.

Greetz,
Quuador

[misprintjeff]

These are really crazy design errors! The article is for English though. I had only included the Portuguese Wartortle evolution error since it’s somewhat related to the same design error happening in English.

[JoshsOddCollection]

@quuador

Btw, is this thread only for all English repeated Base Set misprints?

Yep, that is correct. I’m not knowledgeable enough with errors in the other languages and frankly I’m not really interested in them outside of Japanese

[misprintjeff]

I added Blurry Double Prints and Jumbled Text Errors. It’ll be cool to track the variations with these weird ones. I also found the CGC scan of the Tape obstruction Venusaur to add to the bottom as an Honorable Mention. This list is getting pretty damn thorough I love it! Keep giving suggestions to make this better. Also just published the Jungle list today. On to the Fossil list now.