DALLAS, TX.- Babe Ruth hit another one out of the park this weekend when his 1916 Famous & Barr Co. rookie card realized a record-setting $645,000, topping Heritage Auctions' $8.8 million July 14-15 Summer Sports Card Catalog Auction.

There are just seven examples of this fabled card in Professional Sports Authenticator's Population Report, which explains the demand for the card bearing Felix Mendelsohn's iconic black-and-white photo of the thin Boston Red Sox pitcher still years from becoming baseball's Sultan of Swat. The amount realized for this Famous & Barr-backed version of Ruth's increasingly popular M101-5/M101-4 card set an auction record for any example of Ruth's rookie graded PSA Very Good-Excellent 4.

Another rare Ruth, the 1917 E135 Collins-McCarthy example, realized $144,000 in a PSA Very Good 3, also setting a record for the grade.

The weekend event, a precursor to Heritage's August 19-20 Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction brimming with historic memorabilia and cardboard, was another near-sellout thanks to the more than 2,300 bidders participating worldwide.

"This auction was a perfect litmus test for the current state of the card market, and I am happy to report that the state of the market for sports cards remains incredibly strong, as the results were impressive across the board with multiple records set," says Chris Ivy, Heritage's Director of Sports Auctions. "It is a very good indicator of the market's overall strength after three years of unprecedented growth — and an excellent sign as we head into our Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction, which is the most significant auction event of the year."

Ruth's cards were two of 10 in this auction to crack the six-figure barrier, but, as Ivy notes, far from the lone record-setters.

Look no further than another legendary New York Yankee: A 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps graded PSA Excellent 5 realized $162,000, setting a new highwater mark for the grade.

Another of Mantle's Topps debuts — a PSA Excellent-Mint 6 kept for decades in a processed-cheese box — sold for $186,000. Sports Collectors Daily notes that while that wasn't a record price, "it's the highest of the last three sales of PSA 6 examples of the card that's the most popular and recognizable post-War baseball card." As someone noted on Twitter over the weekend, that's a lot of cheddar.

A signed 1952 Bowman Mickey Mantle realized a spectacular $99,000. The card stands alone in its class: graded PSA Excellent 5; the autograph is a near-perfect PSA/DNA Auto 9. It's also now a record-setter for a signed '52 Bowman Mantle.

One of Tom Brady's rookie cards — a 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket Autograph graded BGS Near Mint-Mint+ 8.5 and numbered 97 out of 100 — realized $402,000. Significant bidding on the signed card proved that, like the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie, this Brady debut still ranks among the true must-haves of the post-1980 era.

Brady wasn't alone among in-demand quarterbacks during this auction: a one-of-one 2021 Panini Prizm Trevor Lawrence Black Finite rookie graded PSA Excellent-Mint sparked a bidding war that drove its final price to $150,000. That's the same amount collectors paid for Hank Aaron's 1954 Topps rookie card graded PSA Near Mint-Mint+ 8.5 and a 1914 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson graded PSA Very Good-Excellent 4. That's a new record for the Shoeless Joe in that grade.

The finest-known example of Patrick Mahomes' 2017 Panini National Treasures Rookie Patch Autographs-Black, numbered 4/5, likewise garnered significant collector attention. And by the auction's end, this BGS Mint 9 card with the Perfect 10 autograph realized $120,000. A national treasure, indeed.

Two Topps football vending boxes also launched bombs during the weekend event, including a partial 1957 vending box retrieved from a dry goods store in Michigan. These left-over legends collected from "store stock" realized a record-setting $75,000. Meanwhile, a complete 1958 vending box from the same store sold for $48,319.

Basketball, too, had its day in this auction, as a 2004 Upper Deck SP Authentic offering set a record. But that should come as no surprise given everything about this card: It features pieces of game-used jerseys from three of the best players ever played in the National Basketball Association: Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryan. And it's the only example of this historic card graded PSA Gem Mint 10. Its final price of $25,200 was a sure-fire slam-dunk.

That's the same price paid for another rookie card: Batman's.

This auction offered the No. 1 card in Topps' 1966 set, featuring a painting of the Caped Crusader by hobby hero Norman Saunders. Graded PSA Mint 9, it's the finest-known example of this stunning Dark Knight debut. And now, it's a Holy Record-Setter, Batman!