Yankees' Radio Announcer John Sterling Loses Yankee World Series Rings in Fire

[sports-rings]

Originally Posted by ruth-gehrig

I know virtually nothing about rings which is the purpose of my post. I know a "recreated" ring is the closest thing to the original but how does value of recreated ring compare to original. Also, would a recreated ring how any physical characteristics to distinguish it from original?

Those are two great questions!

Sometimes collectors don't know when rings are recreated and this happens more times than you would think. Sometimes rings can be modified and look different too. The original ring recipients (not the new owner should the ring be sold) have a lifetime warranty and send rings back to the manufacture for repair.

It can be a simple repair such as a resize, or something much more complicated, say a crack in the onyx stone that needs to repaired by taking apart the top of the ring, replacing the stone and assembling the ring again.

Championship rings are so scare and in demand with collectors, that a properly recreated ring will not be detectible with the exception of a very knowledgeable collector.

The easiest way to know a ring was recreated was to do tons of research on the ring and have samples of original rings. Often, a ring repaired or remade years later will have different stamping inside the ring. For instance a Jostens stamp inside a ring from the 1960s looks quite different than one from today.

If an auction house deals with a repeatable and honest consignor, they will specifically mention the ring was repaired or remade. This could result in a slightly lower price as long as the ring looks like it is supposed to luck.

John Sterling is lucky in the sense that the Balfour rings he lost will be remade perfectly since Balfour has all of the original molds from the 1990s through today. Should John Sterling ever decide to sell these new rings at auction, they would go for a lot of money, even though the general public would probably be informed the rings were remade.

Your second question about recreated rings looking quite different is a really interesting question too.

Unfortunately, sleazy dealers, such as Irv Lerner, use the excuse (especially with fake salesman samples) that Jostens or Balfour "lost the mold while moving" as his standard response when asked why his supposedly "real" salesman samples look off.

In doing research and speaking with the Yankees and Balfour, I have learned that there is some truth in that.

When a Yankee ring from the 30's, 40s or 50s needs to be repaired or recreated, the original molds and parts are sometimes long gone. Both Balfour and Jostens have been sold throughout the years and their factories have moved many times and molds were lost along the way.

Other situations where rings would look different, is when the original ring company is long gone. I own an Oakland Raider super bowl II ring that has Jostens stamped inside the ring, yet a company by the name John Roberts made the ring (and was later bought by Jostens). That means that my ring was either repaired or remade by Jostens which has the rights to that ring.

Dieges & Clust made the earliest Yankee rings and the Brooklyn Dodger rings from the 1950s, to those rings too, and with those molds and stamping no longer in existence, it would be impossible to exactly recreate those rings.