Pokemon card number: how to read it

A card number, or set number, is the number printed at the bottom of a Pokemon card that tells you where it sits in its set, usually written as a fraction like 4/102, where the second figure is the set's printed card count. It's the quickest way to tell apart cards that share a name: Base Set Charizard is 4/102, while the Base Set 2 reprint is 4/130.

Cards numbered past the printed total, like 236/191 in Surging Sparks, are the ones collectors often call secret rares. Promos and some subsets skip the fraction and use their own codes, such as SWSH050 or TG01.

Before you buy one

• Search the number every way it's written. Modern cards print leading zeros, such as 006/165, and sellers write the number with and without them, or as "#6" or "6 of 165". Searching one form misses the others, so try more than one.

• Let the number pick the version. It separates versions a name can't: Jungle Vaporeon is 12/64 as a holo rare and 28/64 as a non-holo rare. A reverse holo shares its regular print's number, though, so for those, check the title and photos.

• No number in the title? Find it in the photo before you trust the set name.

Add a card from ChaseBoard's catalog and its watch matches listings on the card's name and number, reading 4/102 and 004/102 as the same number, so the leading zeros take care of themselves.