Nolan Ryan card prices are soaring, yet another signal in the hobby that vintage cards are in high demand. According to the Ryan Card Ladder index, his cards are up 28.83% in the past three months.

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 ...