Any thoughts or anyone want to discuss any of the amazing championship rings at the Heritage auction?
One ring that's very interesting is William Perry's supposed Super Bowl XX ring.
While many William Perry championship rings have been made by Jostens as "Salesman samples", in his huge, unwearable finger size, there have been some grumblings in the ring-collection community if this is the actual original ring that Perry was awarded?
Anyone can easily replace a salesman sample ring with real diamonds and have the wording "Not for resale" removed from inside the championship ring.
Heritage is the auction company selling the championship ring and they have acknowledged the fact that many rings are out there with the "not for resale" engraving found inside the ring. Heritage issued this statement: “While it is widely known in the hobby that the ring was rather widely reproduced due to its crowd-pleasing absurdity,....we can confirm definitively that this is the one and only original presented to Perry for his part in ‘shuffling’ to Super Bowl XX victory.”
I am not implying that Heritage has done anything wrong, but I wonder if William Perry is being 100% honest about the origins of this ring. There is paperwork from Perry stating this is his original ring but how can he be 100% sure if he has not owned the original Super Bowl ring for many years?
I have personally owned and seen many of these size 23-25 Jostens William Perry salesman sample rings and other than the words "Not for resale" and imitation diamonds, the rings look exactly like the real championship ring.
A sad story emerged a few years back: A young boy purchased a William Perry ring and thinking it was Perry's original super bowl ring, and gave it back to him. That made the national news and I understand that Perry took back the ring. Since a real Bears Super Bowl XX ring, with real diamonds would sell for $20,000 - $30,000 it was most likely a salesman sample that typically sells in the $2,000 - $4,000 range.
The ring appears to be in exceptional condition, and if you have been around championship rings as long as I have, that fact alone would raise some concerns.
The Super bowl ring will be on display starting Wednesday morning at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.
The championship ring in a pre-bid internet auction has already reached $31,070.00 and will sell for that amount if no other bids are made during the live event.