1996 Pokemon Japanese Base Set No Rarity Symbol Holo Gyarados #130 PSA 10 GEM

Released in 1996 in Japan, the Japanese Base set changed the world of Pokémon forever as the franchise’s first TCG set. Previous productions such as the 1996 and 1997 Carddass sets were intended to be collected, teach people about different Pokémon, and get fans excited about playing the Pocket Monsters Red and Green video games. After early success with those non-TCG sets, Pokémon created the now-beloved game in which players use cards to battle against each other. The 1996 Japanese Base Set was released on October 20th, 1996, and featured the original 102 Pokémon cards later released in the iconic 1999 Wizards of the Coast English Base Set. The 1996 Japanese Base Set consists of two main production runs. No Rarity cards were the first of those two. They are referred to as such because they are missing the rarity symbol that should appear on the bottom right corner of the card. No Rarity cards are extremely sought after for two reasons – their importance and their scarcity. As the first print run of the first Pokémon TCG set, these cards act as TCG rookies of classic characters and the first appearance of now-coveted holos such as Gyarados. The exact print run of 1996 Base Set No Rarity cards is unknown, but there are significantly fewer No Rarity cards than issues from the second 1996 Base Set print run that includes rarity symbols. As a result, finding high-grade examples of No Rarity Cards is difficult. PSA had graded just 369 ‘96 Japanese Base No Rarity Holo Gyarados cards, compared to nearly 2,660 examples of the version with a rarity symbol. This is one of just 11 PSA 10 No Rarity Holo Gyarados printings, while there are more than 521 PSA 10s with the symbol. For further context, there are 89 PSA 10s of the famous 1999 English Base Set 1st Edition Gyarados Holo. The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 03/27/2025.