Blastoise’s Chinese-only value sits in one shared card. Fifteen Blastoise cards exist in these sets, nine of them carry a PSA 10 price, and three of the five places on this list belong to the same tag team — Blastoise & Piplup GX, printed at three numbers inside one product. The three together hold $457.93 of the character’s $870.12, or 52.6 percent.
The other two places come from a single later volume. Overshadowed Radiance supplies the highest-priced ordinary Blastoise in the language at $132.50 and a Radiant print at $100.00. The volume where Blastoise’s own VMAX sits — Primordial Arts, four prints deep — has not one tracked PSA 10 sale, and the two Collect 151 prints finish seventh and ninth of the nine priced cards.
How this list was built
Three rules, applied in this order.
- The card has to sit in a Chinese-only set. Every card below carries a set code ending in C — 151C, CSM2aC, cs3bC and cs5.5C. That trailing letter marks a Simplified Chinese print run, and it is the dependable way to tell a Chinese-only card from a card that merely happens to be printed in Chinese. Reading a Chinese set code from end to end covers the whole system.
- The card has to have a tracked PSA 10 value. Fifteen Blastoise cards exist across these sets and nine have a PSA 10 price on record. The six that do not are four Primordial Arts prints — Blastoise V at #25 and #129, and Blastoise VMAX at #26 and #160 — the reverse foil of the Overshadowed Radiance #14, and Blastoise GX #9. None of them has a graded sold record yet, and a card with no price cannot be ranked.
- The card has to be a Pokémon card. Sealed product, trainer cards and energy are out of scope.
One exclusion applies here as it does to every character ranking we publish. Promo printings of Blastoise exist in Chinese and they are not on this list. Promo numbering is shared across the Chinese branches — the same promo number appears in Traditional Chinese product as well — so a promo number on its own cannot establish which branch a card came from. Everything below sits inside a numbered set whose code ends in C, which is unambiguous.
The five, ranked
5. Blastoise & Piplup GX #156 — CSM2aC — $99.99
Raw $29.66 · no grade 9 record
The third print of the tag team and the third of them in this top five, one cent below the Radiant print above it. Its raw price of $29.66 is the second highest raw price of any Blastoise card here, behind only the #157 that leads, and it multiplies 3.4 times into a PSA 10 — the second narrowest step on the list. No grade 9 sold record exists for it.
4. Radiant Blastoise #15 — Overshadowed Radiance (cs5.5C) — $100
Raw $13.99 · grade 9 $44.58
The Radiant print, the only card in this top five that is not a tag team, and one of the two Blastoise cards we hold in PSA 10. Its grade 9 record of $44.58 is 45 percent of the PSA 10 value — the highest ratio here — and its raw price of $13.99 is more than three times the raw price of the #14 that finishes second. The Overshadowed Radiance Radiant Blastoise listing is here.
3. Blastoise & Piplup GX #3 — CSM2aC — $106.94
Raw $18.24 · grade 9 $40.59
The second print of the tag team and the middle one of the three, carrying a lower number than either of the other two. Raw copies at $18.24 becoming $106.94 is a multiple of 5.9, and its grade 9 record of $40.59 is 38 percent of the PSA 10 value — the same shape as the ordinary foils in the other rankings on this site.
2. Blastoise #14 — Overshadowed Radiance (cs5.5C) — $132.50
Raw $4.29 · no grade 9 record
The highest-priced ordinary Blastoise in the language, and the only card on this list above $107 that is not a tag team. Its raw price of $4.29 makes it the widest raw-to-grade step here by a distance — 30.9 times into a PSA 10, where every other priced card multiplies between 2.8 and 11.6 times. It carries no grade 9 record, which is worth knowing before reading the figure as a settled one.
1. Blastoise & Piplup GX #157 — CSM2aC — $251
Raw $89.89 · grade 9 $209.35
The highest Blastoise card in Simplified Chinese and the card that sets the ceiling for the character. It holds 28.8 percent of Blastoise’s combined value on its own, and its raw price of $89.89 is 3.0 times the next highest raw price on the list, so the separation between it and everything else is visible before grading as well as after. Its grade 9 record of $209.35 is 83 percent of the PSA 10 value — by far the closest middle grade here — and its raw-to-PSA-10 multiple of 2.8 is the narrowest step in the ranking.
What the ranking shows
Blastoise concentrates at the top and thins out quickly. Nine cards are priced, the three prints of one tag team account for half the character’s value, and the step from the fifth card to the sixth — $30.00 — is the widest gap in the list below the leading one.
| Band | Cards | Combined PSA 10 value | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| $250 and up — ranked 1 | 1 | $251 | 28.8% |
| $70 – $250 — ranked 2 to 5 | 4 | $439 | 50.5% |
| Under $70 — ranked 6 to 9 | 4 | $180 | 20.7% |
| Every priced Blastoise card | 9 | $870 | 100% |
Two further patterns run across the whole group.
One card owns three of the five places. Blastoise & Piplup GX is printed at #3, #156 and #157 inside the same product, and all three carry a PSA 10 price. They take first, third and fifth, and together they come to $457.93 — 52.6 percent of everything Blastoise is worth in these sets. The gap between the highest of the three and the lowest is $151.01, which is a spread inside one card rather than between two artworks.
One volume contributes four cards and no prices at all. Primordial Arts supplies a Blastoise V at #25 and #129 and a Blastoise VMAX at #26 and #160, and not one of the four has a tracked PSA 10 sale. So a whole volume’s worth of Blastoise prints drops out of the ranking, including the VMAX — the print we list. The same thing happens in miniature inside Overshadowed Radiance, where the reverse foil of #14 is unpriced while the plain #14 is the second most valuable Blastoise in the language.
Where Blastoise is printed
| Product | Set code | Blastoise cards |
|---|---|---|
| CSM2aC | CSM2aC | 6 |
| Primordial Arts | cs3bC | 4 |
| Overshadowed Radiance | cs5.5C | 3 |
| Collect 151 | 151C | 2 |
| Total | 15 |
The counts are cards, not artworks, and the four products behave in completely different ways. CSM2aC is the one product here that prints Blastoise alongside another Pokémon rather than on his own: it gives him six cards, and three of them are the same tag team at three numbers. Primordial Arts gives him four and prices none of them. Overshadowed Radiance gives him three, two of which are in this top five. Collect 151 gives him two, and both finish below every other priced Blastoise except one.
Blastoise is one of the original 151 Pokémon, which is why Collect 151 prints him at all — its two Blastoise cards are the #176 ex at $46.00 in seventh place and the #9 EX at $24.70 in ninth. The four commissioned Collect 151 art rares are all Pikachu, so nothing Blastoise has in that set is an exclusive artwork in the sense the Gem Pack cards are.
If you want one card
- One card, no budget limit: the tag team at #157, at $251. It is the highest Blastoise card in the language and the only one above $140. We do not hold it.
- The highest-priced ordinary print: the Overshadowed Radiance #14, at $132.50 — the only Blastoise card here outside the tag team that clears $107.
- The card we hold from this list: the Radiant Blastoise from Overshadowed Radiance, at $100.00, fourth overall. The Radiant Blastoise listing is here.
- The card we hold that is not on this list: the Primordial Arts Blastoise VMAX, whose print has no tracked PSA 10 sale yet. The Blastoise VMAX listing is here.
- If you want the tag team: all three prints sit between $99.99 and $251.00, and the lowest of them is the #3 at $106.94.
Frequently asked questions
How many Blastoise cards are there in Simplified Chinese?
Fifteen, across four products: six in CSM2aC, four in Primordial Arts, three in Overshadowed Radiance and two in Collect 151. Nine of the fifteen carry a tracked PSA 10 value.
What is the most valuable Blastoise card in Simplified Chinese?
Blastoise & Piplup GX at #157 in CSM2aC, tracked at $251.00 as a PSA 10 and $89.89 raw. It is the highest Blastoise card in the language, and one of three prints of the same card inside the top five.
Why does the same card appear three times in the top five?
Because Blastoise & Piplup GX is printed at three numbers in the same product — #3, #156 and #157 — and all three carry a PSA 10 price. Together they hold 52.6 percent of the character’s graded value. The lowest of the three is $99.99 and the highest $251.00, so the spread between them is wider than the spread across every other Blastoise card in the ranking combined.
Why is the Blastoise VMAX not on this list?
Because Primordial Arts supplies four Blastoise prints and none of them has a tracked PSA 10 sale, so there is no price to rank. The VMAX at #160 is one of the four. A card without a price cannot be placed against cards that have one.
Is a PSA 10 worth the premium over a raw card?
On seven of the nine priced cards, clearly yes: raw prices sit between $2.85 and $29.66 while graded values run from $24.70 to $251.00. The two exceptions sit at opposite ends — the tag team at #157 multiplies only 2.8 times because its raw price of $89.89 already carries the premium, and the #14 multiplies 30.9 times because its raw price is $4.29. Grading outcomes are never certain, and nothing here is a prediction about what any individual card will grade at.
Where do the two Collect 151 Blastoise cards finish?
Seventh and ninth of the nine priced cards: the ex at #176 at $46.00 and the EX at #9 at $24.70. Collect 151 prints the original 151 Pokémon, so Blastoise appears there twice, and neither print is a commissioned artwork — the set’s four art rares are all Pikachu. The Collect 151 guide explains what the set covers.
Other character rankings
Each character ranked here has its own page: Pikachu, Charizard, Psyduck, Ponyta, Meowth, Chandelure, Gengar, Ceruledge, Captain Pikachu, Cubone, Applin, the six Paldea starter lines — Sprigatito, Floragato, Fuecoco, Crocalor, Quaxly and Quaxwell — and the nine forms of the Eevee family: Eevee, Umbreon, Sylveon, Espeon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Jolteon, Vaporeon and Flareon. For the whole market rather than one character, the ten most popular Chinese-exclusive cards ranks across Pokémon, and the price ladder sorts the same catalogue into bands.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- PriceCharting — Pokémon Chinese console listings, including Collect 151 (151C), CSM2aC, Primordial Arts (cs3bC) and Overshadowed Radiance (cs5.5C). PSA 10 values retrieved 25 September 2026.
- PriceCharting — individual card pages for Blastoise & Piplup GX #3, #156 and #157, Blastoise #8, Blastoise GX #9 and #162 (CSM2aC); Blastoise V #25 and #129, Blastoise VMAX #26 and #160 (Primordial Arts); Blastoise #14 and Radiant Blastoise #15 (Overshadowed Radiance); and Blastoise EX #9 and Blastoise ex #176 (Collect 151).
- CardSpicy — How to read a Simplified Chinese Pokémon set code, on the trailing C and the Scarlet & Violet era Chinese subsets.
- CardSpicy — Chinese vs Japanese Pokémon cards, on the test we apply to separate an exclusive artwork from a Chinese printing.
Prices quoted are secondary-market observations at the dates cited and move quickly; nothing here is a valuation or an investment recommendation. Our own asking prices for the cards we hold are on each product page.