Cloyster · Expedition Base Set, what to know.
About the Cloyster card
Cloyster is card 42 of 165 in Expedition Base Set, released in September 2002, a Rare. It is a Stage 1 Water-type with 80 HP.
As a Stage 1, it evolves from Shellder, which places Cloyster deeper in its line and means most collectors hold it alongside the cards it evolves from.
Illustrated by Kyoko Umemoto.
About Cloyster in the Pokémon world
The fully evolved Shellder. Spiked shell with a face visible inside. Standard Rare. Niche collector interest.
What is Cloyster worth?
Cloyster is a non-holo Rare. In Expedition Base Set, value concentrates in the holo rares, so a Cloyster trades modestly, though a clean, well-centered 1st Edition copy in PSA 10 is scarcer than the print run suggests and carries a real premium. Check the live price above for the figure by grade.
Print variants and how to spot them
Confirm the print and finish on Cloyster before pricing it, since variant and rarity set the market more than the card name alone.
Grading and condition
Non-holo Rares like Cloyster are easier on surface but no kinder on centering. Wizards-era cards were less protected than the holos, so high-grade Cloyster survivors can be scarcer than expected, with edge whitening the usual cap.
If you are collecting Cloyster
For Cloyster, check centering by eye, edge whitening on all four sides, and surface under angled light. Non-holo Rares from this era are cheap enough that a PSA 10 submission on a clean Cloyster can make sense.
