Recent Pickups
 

Although the auction was late February, I received the ring in early March.

It's a 1927 Yankee player ring, belonging to Benny Bengough.

I won it at the Heritage auction event.

Nice ring. I like the understated look of some of the older stuff.

Sweet ring! It must have been a favorite of his :) How many player rings from the 1927 Yankees are known in the collecting world? I know Charlie Sheen has Ruth's from '27 right?

Great question!

According to my Records, Joe Dugan's '27 ring (in amazing condition) sold in a Leland's auction in 2002 for $11,205.12.

A club house manager (non player) ring (same as the players received) sold in a Leland's auction in 2005 for $21,326.

Miller Huggins' ring was sold in a Mastro auction for $204,000 in 2007.

Earle Combs ring was sold by Heritage in 2014 for $155,350. It was in great condition too.

The Benny Bengough ring is poor-to-fair condition and sold in 2015 by Heritage for $38,240.00. A couple of people in the hobby who know about rings thought I did very well. I feel very fortunate to have acquired this ring as another bid would have meant it would have been beyond my ability to buy it.

Here's where things get a little foggy...

In researching Yankee rings, I learned that in 1999, Sotheby’s sold what was believed to be Lou Gehrig’s 1927 ring for $96,000. The ring originated from the famous collection of Barry Halper.

Combining Barry Halper and the words "believed to be...." are not what some collectors want to hear so I am not sure if the ring was authentic or what it sold for.

Barry Halper also reportedly owed Ruth's 1927 ring. Please don't kill the messenger, I am just posting, that according to an excerpt from a Hauls of Shame story about Ruth's 1927 ring:

"questions about the origins of the ring were raised in a story published on Deadspin. The Babe’s granddaughter, Linda Ruth Tosetti, questioned the rings authenticity and whether it was stolen from the Ruth family decades ago. A 1988 book writtten by her mother, Dorothy Ruth Pirone, also claimed that the Bambino’s World Series rings had mysteriously vanished sometime after her father’s death in 1948. Confusing the matter were statements made by deceased collector Barry Halper in 1990 that he had purchased Ruth’s 1927 ring from Dorothy Ruth Pirone. Pirone’s daughter, Linda, said Halper’s story was a “huge lie.” "

It's been a slow year for me as far as picking up championship rings, but perhaps my luck is changing.

I just picked up this beautiful Super Bowl XIII - 1978 Steeler ring.

The Steelers did something unusual that year. On non player rings, they put a "78" on the Steeler helmet to designate the year. Player rings, had their actual jersey number on their championship ring's helmet. Players also had their position at the bottom of the ring (ie. QB, WR, DT). Non player rings had the recipient's initials. Of course, everyone had their last name prominently displayed on the ring too.

I'm not sure if this thread is for everyone to post their recent pick-ups but I wanted to share this University of Houston 1996 C-USA Conference Championship Ring.

1996 was the inaugural season for UH in C-USA following the breakup of the Southwest Conference and UH's first winning season in six years.

This is a player's ring but upon doing research on this ring I discovered that Olympian Carl Lewis personally bought rings for all the support staff who didn't qualify to receive a "free" ring. The support staff rings are identical to the player's rings.

On a personal note I'd just like to publicly thank Mike for his advice and counsel while I was negotiating the purchase of this ring.

That's exactly what this thread is for.

Congratulations on a great acquisition! It's a beautiful ring, and it's so neat when research uncovers something special about the history of a ring such as in this case, where Carl Lewis contributed to the organization!

Im a Steelers fan and thats a great pickup

Picked up another hard-to-get ring. The Super Bowl XXIII has eluded me and tortured me for too many years!

This one is a player's ring.