Japanese Team Rocket (1997): all 65 cards with PSA prices — 30 Dark Pokémon and 17 holos

Fourth in the complete-list series: Team Rocket, the fourth Japanese expansion. It introduced Dark Pokémon, printed わるい (“bad”) in Japanese, and it is home to Dark Charizard, one of the most requested old-back cards after the Base Set Charizard.

What is it?

• Released on 21 November 1997 as Expansion Pack vol. 4. The Japanese name is ロケット団 (Rocket Gang).
• 65 cards: 53 Pokémon, 9 Trainers and 3 Energy.
• 30 of the 53 Pokémon are Dark Pokémon, evolved Pokémon raised by Team Rocket. The rest are ordinary pre-evolutions such as Ekans, Charmander, Squirtle and Eevee.
• 17 holos. Fourteen Pokémon: Dark Arbok, Dark Golbat, Dark Vileplume, Dark Weezing, Dark Charizard, Dark Blastoise, Dark Gyarados, Dark Magneton, Dark Alakazam, Dark Slowbro, Dark Hypno, Dark Dugtrio, Dark Machamp and Dark Dragonite. Plus two Trainers, Rocket’s Sneak Attack and Here Comes Team Rocket!, and one Energy, Rainbow Energy.
• The Trainers are disruption cards in the Team Rocket spirit: Sleep!, Digger, Goop Gas Attack, Nightly Garbage Run, Challenge!, Imposter Oak’s Revenge, The Boss’s Way and the two holos above.
• The three Energy cards are Potion Energy, Full Heal Energy and Rainbow Energy. No basic Energy.
• Cards are unnumbered; this site orders them by Pokédex number.

Highlights

• Dark Charizard is the face of the set. It has by far the largest PSA population in Team Rocket and the most active PSA 10 market.
• Dark Blastoise and Dark Dragonite follow. The Dark versions of the starter and the dragon are popular with the same collectors, and their PSA 10 counts are the next highest in the set.
• Dark Gyarados and Dark Alakazam have a high share of PSA 10s relative to their total graded count.
• Grimer is not a holo, yet its PSA population rivals the holos, which is unusual for a common.
• Outside the Pokémon, Here Comes Team Rocket! and Rainbow Energy are holos. Holo Trainers and Energy are rare in old-back sets and tend to be the last pieces of a complete set.

Reading the prices

• No variant print exists, so same card, same grade is directly comparable.
• A Dark Pokémon is a different card from the same Pokémon in other sets. Dark Charizard and the Base Set Charizard have separate price pages here.
• PSA 10 / PSA 9 below are the median of the latest confirmed sales (up to five).