For a young card collector, it's one of the greatest tales of all time.
During this week 35 years ago, Bryan Wrzesinski, 12, pulled off quite the steal.
He went to a new card store named Ball-Mart in Itasca, Illinois, and asked to see the 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan/Jerry Koosman rookie card.
The price tag simply said "1200."
So, Wrzesinski asked whether the card was worth $12, and with the owner helping other customers and a worker who knew little about cards in his place, she replied yes.
"What he did was like stealing," Ball-Mart owner Joe Irmen told the Chicago Tribune in 1990. Irmen recounted he had brought in a young woman from his next-door jewelry store to work as a clerk during the shop's busy hours.
"He knew what he was doing, and the girl didn't. He should have told her the card was more than $12. She didn't know if it was worth 12 cents, $12 or $1,200. She just took the kid's word for it."
Wrzesinski might have been 12, but he knew the real range for the Ryan rookie: $700 to $2,000, depending on condition and scarcity within the market 35 years ago.
Days later, when Irmen discovered the mistake, he sued Wrzesinski for $1,188 — the difference between the price the youngster paid and the price he thought he had marked the card.
Was it Wrzesinski's fault he took advantage of an employee who wasn't properly trained for the job?
A judge in the 18th Judicial Circuit Court of Du Page County ruled the card would go to auction, with the proceeds to be split and each piece going to a charity of the parties' choice.
Wrzesinski agreed to give his half to the Ronald McDonald House. Irmen agreed to give his proceeds to Alhambra, a home for mentally challenged kids and adults.
Now the story has gotten a lot of play over the last 35 years, but here's where it needs more context.
It's difficult to determine what the card would grade, as cards weren't graded back then. However, by looking at how off-center the card is from the photo taken with Wrzesinski at the time, it couldn't have been better than a PSA 7.
The all-time record for the Ryan rookie in a PSA 7 is $5,955.
When the card was auctioned in June 1991, it sold for $5,000, which, in today's dollars, is $11,740.
The wild part about the $5,000 winning bid is it could have been even higher.
At the auction, Chicago media personality Chet Coppock called the auction at $5,000, but Irmen himself said he would have paid more.
“I would have gone higher,” Irmen told the Chicago Tribune. “I’m surprised the auctioneer stopped at $5,000. The card would have been brought $7,000 or $8,000. I would have gone to $6,000 myself.”
Nonetheless, whether it was the publicity of the auction, or the fact the proceeds were going to charity, the card that was originally sold as the cheapest Ryan rookie of the modern era, became the most expensive — at least for the condition it was likely in.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.