One of the highest graded 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth cards sold for a record setting $540,000 in Heritage Auctions’ recently completed Summer Sports Card catalog sale. One of 20 graded PSA 8, the card’s price was nearly $400,000 higher than the last auction for a card of the same grade which took place in September of last year.
There are two cards on PSA’s Population Report rating 8.5 with no 9s or 10s.
A 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card, also graded 8, was the second highest priced item in the multi-day auction at $480,000–not a record but considerably more than the $111,000 price attained by another Mantle rookie sold by Heritage just two years ago this month. There are 53 PSA 8 Mantle rookie cards on PSA’s report with two higher, including a single 10.
A PSA 7 Mantle rookie netted $108,000 in the Heritage sale.
In all, 15 lots sold for over $100,000 in the auction, which included more than 2,000 lots.
One of two 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan rookie cards carrying a 10 grade from SGC went for $144,000, a record price for an SGC graded card of the all-time strikeout and no-hitter king. A 1968 Topps Johnny Bench rookie graded PSA 10 set a record when it realized $108,000.
The lone PSA 10 copy of the 1970 Topps Joe Namath soared to $90,000. The same card had sold for $19,000 in December of 2018.
The auction included dozens of vintage unopened boxes, packs and cases, topped by a 1986-87 Fleer Basketball box that sold for $174,000 and a 1979-80 OPC Hockey box (48 packs) that netted $151,320.
Modern card headliners included a 1997-98 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Scottie Pippen. One of ten Emerald versions of the popular insert, the BGS 7.5 rated copy rocketed to $156,000.
Complete results can be found here.
