Need some expertise
 

I am a championship ring enthusiast just starting out my private collection. I have a few questions about getting started:

Do you ever buy or would you ever buy rings from online ring dealers or would you recommend only direct from the players/staff members?

I know college rings are not worth much in materials so how would you price a college ring? I am wanting to buy a Texas Tech big 12 south ring. The ring is not gold and has cz's, probably worth a few hundred if that. So how would you go about quoting a fair price for the ring, or any championship ring for that matter?

Finally, what is the deal with salesman sample rings? Are they a cheaper alternative to the real ones? Are they worth the money or should you wait until a real one pops up?

Thank you in advance!

Rings
 

I buy mostly from auctions and sometimes from TJ. I personally stay away from non-gold, I often wont buy rings with czs unless its a minor league ring that were only produced with czs.

Hi Rohder19,

welcome to Net54baseball.com and best of luck in your collecting endeavors.

The online ring dealers are fine, don't be affraid to speak with them and see if they have something you are interested in. Just do some research. Sometimes they are more money than say ebay, since they are doing this for a living, but I find they are worth it because they are dependable, knowledgeable, and get some great rings.

Yes, college rings these days do not contain real gold and never contained real diamonds. The older rings from 10 years ago or older were made of solid gold (usually 10K gold)

The only sports rings that have value for collectors is College football and basketball. A football National championship ring would go for several thousand dollars while a conference ring would go for a few hundred.

Collecting rings is not like collecting a Tom Seaver 1974 card where you can find 5-10 for sale on any given day. They are hard to come by so if you really want that ring, it may be a good idea to pay more to secure the ring before someone else does.

Regarding salesman samples, the market has plunged thanks to Irv Lerner (see my blog or the other active thread on this section). Thanks to Irv and others, there are so many fakes out there that it's hard to know if what you have is a real salesman sample or fake.

Salesman samples seem to be a bad investment these days.

Additionally, many of the auction houses throw the word "sample" around when in fact they are selling a cheap replica.

It is very difficult for a new collector to buy professional sports rings directly from players. For those, your best bet is to buy from a dealer or an auction house. College rings can usually be found on ebay and craigslist and a lot of the time the seller is the actual player who needs cash and is selling at a good price. Salesman sample rings are a good investment if they are real sample rings but there are many fakes out there so you have to be careful and know the difference. That can be tough for a new collector but experienced collectors can usually tell a fake sample right away. If you are buying from a reputable dealer you likely won't have to worry about buying a fake ring. Hope this helps.