What are Shadowless Pokemon Cards?

The Pokemon Trading card game has long been considered one of the big three collectors games in the space. Many of today’s collectors grew up with the game and so there’s a lot of nostalgia for it. While today, we have a bunch of different kinds of art treatments and rarities to collect from newer sets, the holy grail for many collectors are Shadowless Pokemon cards. But what are Shadowless Pokemon cards and why are they so iconic?

Shadowless cards are something that honestly, very few people who are outside of the collectors space really know much about. There aren’t many of them out there in the world, so they don’t really have a lot of main stream attention. But all the same they’re incredibly sought after, and we’ll tell you why.

What is a Shadowless Pokemon card?

So what is a Shadowless Pokemon card? The easiest way to see if a card is shadowless is looking at the right border of the art. If you see a darker “shadow” then that is a normal card. But if you see a lighter, consistent color tone, then you have a shadowless card.

Now where do these cards come from? These cards actually are very hard to find. They’re only available from the base set of Pokemon. During the first few print runs of the base set, the design of the cards were still being solidified. Eventually, the final design was made, resulting in the version of the cards that we know today.

Why are Shadowless Pokemon cards so rare?

The rarity of these cards is because of what they are. These cards were only released for a few years in the very early days of the game. Also considering that these cards are older, finding any that aren’t graded, but are in good condition is near impossible. The value goes up when there aren’t any creases, edge damage, or other issues.

On top of that, these cards are a hallmark of an important part of the history of the franchise. These cards were the cards that set off a world wide phenomena, inspired countless other games, and were what propelled generations of kids to get into card games in general.

How expensive are Shadowless Pokemon cards?

In terms of price for these, there’s two versions of Shadowless cards that you can find: First edition and unlimited shadowless. The unlimited shadowless cards can go for hundreds of dollars, with the first editions hitting the thousands. The crème de la crème of the first edition shadowless cards is the first edition Charizard.

Loose Charizards of heavy played quality can go from around $500 and up. But if you want something truly special, PSA 9 or 10 versions of the 1st edition shadowless Charizard is what you want. They’re insanely rare, and often start in the tens of thousands of dollars and only goes up from there.

It’s safe to say that if you’re interested in Shadowless Pokemon cards, be prepared to shell out a lot of cash. But that’s all there is to know about Shadowless Pokemon cards! While you’re here, if you’re looking for some other nostalgic collector’s cards, be sure to check out our guide on the Pokemon TCG Classic box set that’s coming out soon, as well as our card list for Pokemon 151, which is a set that’s commemorating the original 151 Pokemon.