First Edition is a printing-run identifier that appears on early Pokémon cards and on a small number of other trading-card products. On Pokémon, the first-edition stamp is a small black “Edition 1” badge printed to the left of the artwork on cards from the first printing of each set. Cards from subsequent printings of the same set, called Unlimited, lack the stamp and were produced in much larger quantities.

First-edition copies almost always command a multiple over Unlimited copies, and the multiple grows with set age and grade. The Wizards-era English first-edition print runs ended in 2002; cards from later sets do not carry an analogous stamp. The general bibliographic concept of a “first edition” appears across collecting categories — books, records, posters — with category-specific identification rules.

The first-edition concept exists across multiple collectables: first-edition Pokémon cards carry the Edition 1 stamp; first-edition books carry first-printing indicia in the copyright page; first-edition comics are identified by indicia and cover-date conventions. In every case, first edition refers to the initial print run before subsequent reprints, and commands a premium reflecting both scarcity and primacy. See our Base Set buyer’s guide for hands-on first-edition identification on Pokémon cards.