A single piece of cardboard from the height of 1960s Batmania has become the most expensive example of its kind ever sold at auction. The card, No. 1 in Topps' original 1966 Batman series and titled 'The Batman', changed hands at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on 23 October for $219,600 once the buyer's premium was added, on a hammer price of $180,000. Heritage described the result as a record for the card.

The card sits at the head of the 55-card Black Bat set, the first Batman issue Topps produced, released alongside the ABC television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Collectors regard it as the character's rookie card, the key to the whole set. Its painted front was drawn by illustrator Norman Saunders with comic artist Bob Powell, while the orange reverse carries part of a continuing story. The black bat emblem marks it out from the later Red Bat and Blue Bat printings.

Condition explains much of the price. The card earned a PSA Mint 9 grade, and Heritage said only thirteen copies share that standing in the grading company's census, with none certified higher. High-grade survivors are scarce after six decades, when centring, corner wear, print quality and the fragile coloured borders all work against a card.

The result came in Heritage's Fall Sports Catalogue Auction, a sale that underlines how far the market for vintage trading cards has travelled from the newsstand. What began as a cheap tie-in to a television fad now commands sums once reserved for paintings and sculpture, with rarity and grade doing the work that provenance and signature do elsewhere.