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Great points and it brings the following info focus: Back in the 70s, basketball was so behind football and baseball. Finals were shown on tape delay. The NBA got a hot new commodity named Dr. Jay who had flash. Soon Magic and Bird emerged. The NBA started to grow tremendously. Perhaps teams did not have money for flashy rings and that's why we saw the same ring over and over again. Perhaps the league had a contract with Balfour and finally turned over the role of championship ring design and distribution to the individual teams in the early 80s! Thanks Yee Mar

Actually, teams have an extremely high level of involvement in the design process, which is why there are so many atrocities amongst championship rings in recent years. Herff Jones simply did what their clients asked. I am not sure how it works or how demanding the teams are, however, if you look back at the super bowl losing rings from superbowl 38 (Panthers), 39 (Eagles), 40 (Seahawks) and 42 (Pats) and 43 (Cardinals), jostens kept making the same ring over and over again. Did every team say, I want the same ring? Perhaps Jostens gave them a price discount because they already had the molds? I have no idea, I'm just speculating, but how in the world was the same ring produced 5 times for 5 different teams?

The story behind the hammer is really cool! The right side of the ring contains the Spurs Pounding the Rock symbol and contains an additional 22 round diamonds. There are five sparks shooting out from the rock which is symbolic the number of diamonds coincide with the number of championships an individual player is associated with. Here's my blog with more information and details about the ring: http://sports-rings.com/wordpress1/2014/10/29/spurs-receive-their-fifth-championship-ring/ Oh so each players ring will be different then? Since I believe only Tim Duncan was there for all 5 Yes, they are each different from what I read. I think that's really cool! The 49ers, when they won their last super bowl, put a small number on the shank of the ring, symbolizing how many super bowl's the recipient won. I remember I owned a ring of a staff member and former player who had a "5" on his ring. I believe there was one player who was there for all "5" but I can't remember who.

Tiffany drives me crazy with their "mm" dimensions! Worse, they never give the graham weight to the press so all the stories never contain the weight of the ring!

Home plate shaped? Reminds me of the Cleveland Indians American League championship ring from a few years back. Same shape!

thanks Dralec!

Here's what I have seen out there... 2001 = 65 - 72 grams. I believe they left Jostens at about 72 grams. When the rings get scuffed up, jewelers will polish them up and make the look new. However, this will take 1-3 grams of gold off the ring! so a 65 gram ring probably has been cleaned a few times! The tops are always the same, regardless if the recipient is a tiny kicker, or a 325 pound lineman. next, they use the same amount of gold for the sides of the ring whether you are a finger size 9 or a finger size 14. that's why the really big finger rings looks a little stretched, or thinner at the bottom of the rings. On the 2003 ring, two have hit the market place, both were 100 grams. On the 2004 ring, the one sold by Mastro, the Cobbs ring, did not have the weight listed in the auction. Davey's ring was sold by SCP and it too did not have the weight (SCP sucks at getting any details in the auctions). The ring I have is 102.1 grams and I doubt they started at 115 grams. It was probably an error by the pr department, or maybe when they started the design that was their intended target. their 2007 rings were 45-46 grams and their 2011 rings were around 55 grams. Hope that helps!

Hi Dralec, thanks for your kind words. I actually took photos of the rings that you mentioned and will post them within a week or two. I wish I could do the 5 49ers rings or even adding their recent nfc ring, but I don't have the XXIII ring or the 2012 NFC ring. I also can't do the viking or steelers rings, yet. Hopefully some day. I will be doing the Buffalo rings soon too!

A hall of famer I met told me that the HOF allowed the old timers to <i><b>purchase </i></b> the new ring, but it costs thousands of dollars. Some of the old guys are are very limited income and the person I spoke wit told me he was going to pass.

I looked at your link, the current Jeter pictures and the classic Sports Illustrated photo and you are 100% correct. Great research on your part! Looks like the ring is shown in all three spots. I think this shows that Jeter's real rings were not easily available to the photo shoot appearing in the NY Magazine. Notice that whoever made that ring was probably not authorized by the Yankees as the NY logo is off (The "Y" is too wide at the top).

I have thought of selling a ring or two on ebay, but I heard that with a credit card, a buyer could get a ring, and then have the credit card company cancel the charge. Next, paypal yanks the money from your account and you are out a ring and the money! I would recommend anyone selling a high-end ring use a reputable auction house. Can someone share with me what happended on ebay and Ymar is angry with them. I am not trying to be nosy, but trying to better understand the problems with ebay. thanks!

I totally agree with your thoughts. I have been told by a few jewelers that ring can now be scanned into computer software and a copy can be made with much better results than the was mold process. Pretty scary stuff!

Yes, I was thinking the same thing! I think that's the plane!

The dogers have a rich history of owning airplanes before other teams did. And, they were the first team to own their own jet plane (a Boeing 720B). Here is a link to their rich history of aircraft: http://www.thinkbluela.com/index.php/2014/01/05/the-flight-of-the-dodgers/ Regarding the name in the Pennant, the Dodgers have a tradition of making cool personalized rings part of their championship ring heritage. The coolest thing is way back in 1955, their only Brooklyn Dodger world championship ring had each players own signature, in blue, on the sweet spot of a baseball, on the shank. They did this again in 1959 on their championship rings.

There have been one or two platinum "Team of the Century" sold by the major auction houses (perhaps it was the same ring) . I don't believe the ring was a real team-issued or team licensed ring, but I could be wrong. I believe the ring shown on Jeter's middle finger is a championship ring from his time in the minors, but I could be wrong. The Team of the Century ring is similar in style to the 1998 ring - kind of more round than the 1996 and 1998 rings. Two rings I may take pictures of and do a story on, were issued by Balfour: the Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio career tribute rings. Both rings have diamonds on top of the ring in the shape of their respective uniform numbers. I also have a Yogi Berra career ring that's marked "LGB" but I am not sure it is a real ring that was issued by Balfour. By the way, the Yankees, Steiner, and/or Balfour should do a Jeter tribute ring, in similar style to the Mantle and DiMaggio rings.

Dralec - wow, that's great research! You don't hear a lot about Reeves anymore and I had no idea he had so many super bowl rings (I guess few involved in media, count the 3 rings he was awarded as a Cowboys assistant coach.) I'm always looking for new content for my blog so off I go to the bank safe and will take pictures of all of his rings for a future blog story. Looks like Reeves last super bowl appearance was with Atlanta in Super Bowl XXXIII. That means that at that time, Dan Reeves was involved, at some level, in 27 percent of the super bowls! That's a better than 1 in 4 percentage!

Not sure if you heard, but Josh and Lelands is suing Jim Brown. They claim that Brown and sold or given the ring to a relative or abandond the ring (in the legal sense). In the filing, it was mentioned that Lelands purchased the ring for 110,000. To me that seems like a big risk, I'm not sure they would have gotten more money than that for the ring at auction. Here's the crazy thing. According to Scott Welkowsky, Jim Brown is the name on the salesman samples for that ring There are very few salesman sample rings around, but anyone having one with proper markings can pop a real center dimaond in it and claim it was Jim Brown's ring. Jim would not be able to tell if it was his ring or not, especailly if he had not seen the ring in decades. So according to Scott Welkowsky, there is significant risk in buying that ring at auction. I don't know what to think, I'm just passing along what I heard.

I agree the logo would have been bad ass. Here's a picture of the Peoria Pirates AFL ring. Sorry for the crappy picture. But looks good with the logo. You guys are totally right-on! I have seen and admired that Pirates AFL ring for a long time. I never gave much thought to the Bucs ring, until you mentioned it. The Raider rings are in high demand because of the badd-ass guy on the shank, and the Bucs logo (with a little red, the way the Giants did a little blue on their last ring) would have been a home run!

Thanks Dralec! I did see the story, and did something on it. Thanks for thinking of me! I also was confussed by the pictures on the internet, not knowing if that was the ring. You're the Pats fan? Great story on Joe Andruzzi. What a great guy!

Thanks for your kind words! According to Tim Robins, there are a couple of collectors out there who have every superbowl ring. Irv Learner who is an absolute thief (he makes and sells fake salesman sample rings and ruined the market for them) has 4x as many rings as I have. Irv is a piece of work, and went around for years saying he had every superbowl ring. Turns out he included salesman samples in his counting and he is far from a complete run. Tim is not a collector, oddly, he is not even a sports fan! Scott is a collector and knows more about championship rings than anyone I have ever met. TJ is also a dealer and knows a lot about rings. TJ is a collector too and has an outstanding collection (from what I can gather). There are a lot of collectors out there with amazing collections - they just don't come here and photograph their rings like I do - LOL If you guys don't mind, I will continue to photograph rings when I acquire some more and get the ones I have from the bank vault. I love taking pictures of multiple rings that have a common theme! thanks again

Well said and so true!

Hey Karl, thanks for the reply. The first Forty Niner ring made by Balfour. Did not know about the UCLA ring. I wonder what the first Tiffany Championship ring was. It might go back to the 60's or even earlier.

You know how hard it is to get super bowl tickets. A few years back the NFL recognized the guys who went to every single superbowl and started sending them tickets. Of course they had to pay for the tickets. So if Tiffany or Jostens wants to send me a super bowl ring, I will gladly pay their going rate! thanks for your kind words!

Hi Dralec, I was surprised it was as heavy as it was too! When comparing the shanks together, you are so right - Denver just seemed to go through the motions - their shanks are really poorly designed. Maybe that's why Jostens is losing more work than ever to Tiffany. I have a picture of the Ravens 2nd ring next to the Seahawks ring and it's an embarrassment the size difference. I will post that picture in a day or two. Thanks again!

I should have done my homework before posting the question. I meant first one ever, and now I see there are plenty of examples over the years of final 4 rings and rings for lesser accomplishments. thanks for the answer!