Koga's Beedrill · Gym Challenge, what to know.
About the Koga's Beedrill card
Koga's Beedrill is card 9 of 132 in Gym Challenge, released in October 2000, a Rare Holo. It is a Stage 2 Grass-type with 80 HP.
As a Stage 2, it evolves from Koga's Kakuna, which places Koga's Beedrill deeper in its line and means most collectors hold it alongside the cards it evolves from.
Koga is the Poison-type Gym Leader of Fuchsia City, a ninja who later rises to the Elite Four. Koga's Beedrill is part of that themed lineup.
Illustrated by Ken Sugimori. Sugimori is the lead character designer of Pokémon itself, so his card art carries the tight, on-model look that defined how the creatures appear in the games.
About Beedrill in the Pokémon world
The Bug-Poison final form of the Weedle line. Three drill-tipped stingers and a wasp silhouette. Notoriously strong in early tournament play before defensive Pokémon caught up. Base Set Beedrill is a rare non-holo. Jungle reprinted it. Both have steady collector demand, with the Base Set print being meaningfully scarcer in high grade.
What is Koga's Beedrill worth?
Koga's Beedrill is a holo rare, one of the cards that holds Gym Challenge's value. The print variant decides most of it: a 1st Edition copy in high grade commands a large premium over a Shadowless or Unlimited one. In top-grade 1st Edition, Gym Challenge holos range from the mid hundreds for the lesser cards up to Blaine's Charizard at the top; raw and Unlimited copies trade for a fraction of that. The live market price above shows the current figure by grade.
Print variants and how to spot them
Gym Challenge shipped in 1st Edition and Unlimited, with no Shadowless print. The trainer-prefix naming runs across the set, and the 1st Edition Koga's Beedrill carries the Edition 1 stamp and a premium over Unlimited in matching grade.
Grading and condition
On a holo like Koga's Beedrill, surface is the grade cap. The grass foil shows hairlines under raking light, and the print reveals scratches that flat scans miss. Centering on the left and right borders is the second thing to check.
If you are collecting Koga's Beedrill
Buying Koga's Beedrill well means pricing the exact print and grade, not the card name. The 1st Edition Koga's Beedrill trades above the Unlimited copy, so confirm the stamp before you agree a number. Always see the holo surface in good light first.
Three prints, three markets.
Edition 1 stamp under the artwork. Trades above Unlimited in matching grade.
No stamp. The standard, more affordable print.
