August 31, 2015


I can’t say this championship ring has the most outlandish asking price ever; there have been some crazy ones in the past, but this one’s up there:

I came across this championship ring offering on eBay a few days ago and had to write about it:

The seller is claiming that this special ring was made for legendary Hall of Famer George Mikan.

The seller also is claiming that this is an “elusive and coveted ring”..

I have met many championship ring collectors and none have ever said to me, ” “Gee, if only I could get my hands on that George Mikan” career ring….”

The eBay seller, La Jolla Jewelry, is asking $209,000.99, and upon further examination of the insane asking price is a clue that the seller has no grasp of the championship ring market place: He doesn’t even have a “or best offer” selection.

So, it’s either pay $209,000.99 or nothing for us championship ring collectors.

Based upon my experience with championship rings, and I can be completely wrong, this championship ring, would bring around $20,000 at auction (there are always surprises, so my estimate is just that – an estimate).

That’s basically a final price of about 10% of the asking price!

You don’t have to rush to eBay to see this championship ring – it will probably be listed there for a long, long time.

Here’s the complete description of the item….

2001 NBA WORLD CHAMPIONS Lakers MPLS Diamond Ring David Stern to George Mikan

Available here is the elusive and coveted ring presented to George Mikan personally by then NBA Commissioner David Stern, April 12, 2001, after the famed statue dedication ceremony that took place April 8, 2001. The ring, designed by Howard Kapland (Henry Kay Jewelers), the same designer as the 2002 NBA Lakers World Championship Three-Peat Ring, considered by many to be one of the most well designed Championship Rings. Includes George Mikan’s name and World Champions, surrounding George Mikan’s “99″ jersey number set in solid gold and encrusted with Genuine Diamonds. The side of the ring features the NBA logo and the years ’49 ’50 ’52, while the other side features MPLS Lakers and the years ’53 ’54, signifying each of the Championships of the Minneapolis Lakers, with George Mikan at the helm. Included is a hand-written letter by David Stern, mentioning how much George Mikan means to the NBA and to basketball as a whole, a “great deal”. Additionally, the original invite to the Center Court Statue Dedication Ceremony and George Mikan’s game ticket is included as well. This ring was only created for George Mikan, no other player was given this ring, making this ring 1/1.

This item was owned by George Mikan and has never before been offered to the public. It was one of the last pieces from his personal collection that comes to us directly from the Patricia L. Mikan Estate.


Please remember, I buy championship rings (just not insanely overpriced ones), so please get in touch with me if you wish to sell your ring!

 

 

To Participate & Read the Internet’s Best
spot for Championship Rings, please visit:

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August 29, 2015


Continuing my blogs on championship rings from each Super Bowl match-up, here’s the latest: a look at the championship rings from Super Bowl XXVIII.

I’m sorry the amazing championship rings displayed, show my web address.   It’s not done for self promotion….

If I didn’t add it, other web sites would “misuse” my images, especially the sellers on ebay, who appear over-night and offer cheap championship rings from China.   Championship ring collectors wonder why Jostens, Balfour, and Tiffany allow this crime!   It appears that no one has an answer as to why these offerings continue, and it’s a shame (or perhaps an opportunity for championship ring fans depending upon their perspective).

The replicas don’t look as nice as authentic championship rings, and the quality varies tremendously from vendor to vendor.   These sellers display photos of real championship rings and then have the nerve to claim that the pictures are of their very own replica championship rings!

Almost every photo in my superbowl ring blogs are photographed by me, from my own championship ring collection.   As readers and collectors can appreciate, these championship rings are quite rare and only a few championship rings are available for sale in the market-place.   That means specific Super Bowl rings are seldom (and often never) photographed together from a particular Super Bowl game.

When I do post pictures that are already available from the internet, I won’t place my web-site in the image.

The ring on the left is the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl Ring from their 1993 season.   This ring was designed and manufactured by Balfour in 10K solid yellow gold.   This Super Bowl ring probably set records for the most bling when it was awarded. It’s a gorgeous championship ring and loaded with diamonds, including four huge marquis diamonds – each commemorating a Cowboy’s Super Bowl championship.

Although this is the Cowboys fourth Super Bowl title, it looks like Jerry Jones and his ego, were more interested in celebrating his two Super Bowl victories and no mention is made anywhere on the ring of the previous two titles.

The championship ring weighs approximately 57-58 grams.   Auction results for this Super Bowl ring are sparse – although a few have sold privately. A player’s ring sold last year Heritage for $28,680.00 and another player ring sold for $20,627 by Lelands back in 2009.

Sometimes a front office Super Bowl ring will become available for sale.   While they appear to be the same size as the player’s versions, they contain imitation diamonds and are not made of solid gold. Because of these two issues, the front office Super Bowl rings tend to sell in the $5,000 – $7,000 price range.

In a tradition that continues to this day, the team that loses the Super Bowl is recognized as a champion of their respective conference.   The Buffalo Bills 1993 AFC championship ring, shown above, is a beauty, and weighs in at 45-46 grams (the exact same weight as their championship ring from the three seasons before).

The Bills AFC championship ring was their fourth AFC title in a row, and each of the four championship rings are all uniquely different.   Each of the Bills AFC championship rings were designed and made by Jostens in solid yellow 10K gold.

When a championship ring manufacturer creates a ring with diamonds in the shape of footballs, going across the top of the ring, it’s visually is stunning. The Raiders did the ultimate version of this on their iconic Super Bowl XVIII rings and did a similar version on their 2002 AFC championship rings.

The Bills are the only other team in the NFL’s history to make a championship ring in similar fashion, and this is it!

I don’t know of any player rings that have sold at auction, although I did acquire a front office championship ring (shown above).

I believe there is one for sale right now on eBay, however, the asking price must be a little high as it has been for sale for quite a while.

Very new of the these gorgeous championship rings have surfaced for sale.

I want to buy super bowl rings (winning and losing ones) and I also purchase championship rings too.   Let me know if you have a championship ring you want to sell.

 

 

To Participate & Read the Internet’s Best
spot for Championship Rings, please visit:

Tags: buy, buy championship ring, buy championship rings, buy super bowl ring, buy superbowl ring, buy superbowl rings, championship ring, championship rings, sell championship ring, sell championship rings, sell super bowl ring, sell super bowl rings, super bowl ring, super bowl rings, superbowl ring, superbowl rings

August 27, 2015


Last weekend this Indianapolis Colts ring sold at SCP auctions for $2,904.00:

A Colts fan, or championship ring collector, did incredibly well, grabbing this Super Bowl ring for an unbelievable price of just under $3,000.00.

Just for the record, this was not my super bowl ring, and I’m not affiliated with the buyer, seller, or auction house.

Let’s take a closer look at this Super Bowl ring and cover the good and the bad.

The Good:

An original wood and glass presentation box was not included in the sale.

There you have the good and bad points.   Many championship ring enthusiasts complain how difficult it is to purchase an authentic championship ring due to high prices. Ebay is flooded with crazy asking prices for rings like this one.   Opportunities like this are rare, and I’m excited for the new owner of this gorgeous championship ring.

I lost a lot of respect this week for the Herff Jones company.   Readers of this blog probably saw earlier this week how SCP exposed a Herff Jones situation where they made some championship rings for a private collector.

That private collector eventually sold at least one of those championship rings, after the Herff Jones company specifically asked them not to.

Please remember, I buy championship rings all the time, so please let me know if you would like to discuss selling your championship ring!

 

 

To Participate & Read the Internet’s Best
spot for Championship Rings, please visit:

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August 26, 2015


Last week I featured this photograph showing three recent Boston Championship rings.   I requested assistance in determining how these rings all came together:

To summarize the blog from last week, the championship ring presentation box shown above is authentic and was presented with the most recent Super Bowl ring. It’s a Jostens box and contains the proper frost-engraved wording on the outside of the box (we can see the reverse lettering showing through the glass).

The person or organization who owns these three championship rings, has two extra ring holders and is using them to secure the Bruins Championship ring and the Redsox World Series ring in the presentation box.

That’s was all I knew for sure so I reached out to the readers of this blog to see if they could help shed light on how these championship rings from three different sports are housed in one presentation box.

One possible clue, is that Jostens did make all three championship rings, so could this be the ultimate “Salesman-Sample” ring set or “official Jostens display set”?

Dralec, an active member at the championship ring discussion forum sportslogos.net had the most promising theory:

“I don’t know for sure, but I think it had something to do with annual Jimmy Fund fundraiser which was hosted yesterday and today by WEEI and NESN in Boston. They had a panel earlier today which included owners of all 5 major franchises in Boston (Pats, Sox, Bruins, Celtics and of course NE Revolutions). They usually have players and staff visit with families, patients, perhaps that’s why all the championship rings were in the same place (guess no one told owners of Celtics to bring his)…that still does not justify the Pats ring box ……( I think Celtics ring was made by collaboration between Balfour and Intergold which was bought by Jostens).

So there you have the best explanation I have heard regarding this matter.

Thanks Dralec and thanks to everyone who contributed thoughts on this championship ring mystery!

Please remember, I buy championship rings, so please let me know if you have any you would like to sell.

 

 

To Participate & Read the Internet’s Best
spot for Championship Rings, please visit:

Tags: buy, buy championship ring, buy championship rings, buy super bowl ring, buy superbowl ring, buy superbowl rings, championship ring, championship rings, sell championship ring, sell championship rings, sell super bowl ring, sell super bowl rings, super bowl ring, super bowl rings, superbowl ring, superbowl rings

August 25, 2015


Championship Ring prices, like so many other offerings in the market place, are greatly affected by the economic principle of supply and demand:

SCP sold this beautiful, front-office, authentic, player-sized Super Bowl ring over the weekend for $16,558.00.

Whoever the consigner was, probably was surprised to walk away with the amount of money they received (usually 65-80 percent of the sale price).   Their payment could have been in the rage of $10,800 – $13,250 based on those percentages of average auction fees in our hobby.

Anyone who collects authentic super bowl rings, can tell you the winning bidder received a great ring that’s in good shape, contains real diamonds, is the same version players received, and came with the very rare authentic ring box for a terrific price.

While Super Bowl XVIII rings awarded to players go for a whole lot more, the prices of those player rings and front office rings are falling – only for this particular Super Bowl XVIII ring.

The reason why is simple: Supply and demand.   There have been many player and front office Super Bowl XVIII rings that have become available over the last 10 years.

Goldin auctions sold a front office ring four years ago that sold for $15,244.

So while championship ring pricing has been going up over the years, this week provided a rare example where a championship ring has been selling for less.   The reason it sold for less is clearly that so many Super Bowl XVIII rings have been offered for sale over the last 5 – 10 years.

Earlier this year, Goldin auctions sold a player’s Super Bowl XVIII ring for $26,620.00 which also was lower than prices we had seen for the same ring from a few years earlier.

Both of the Goldin auctions mentioned above did not include an authentic presentation box, but the ring from this week’s SCP auction did contain one (shown below).

The lessen that should be taken away is that if you want to purchase a specific championship ring and can wait it out, pricing does tend to lower as more rings from a particular year hit the market place.

Please remember, I buy championship rings all the time, so let me know if you would like to discuss selling your championship ring.

 

 

To Participate & Read the Internet’s Best
spot for Championship Rings, please visit:

Tags: buy, buy championship ring, buy championship rings, buy super bowl ring, buy superbowl ring, buy superbowl rings, championship ring, championship rings, sell championship ring, sell championship rings, sell super bowl ring, sell super bowl rings, super bowl ring, super bowl rings, superbowl ring, superbowl rings