Talking about that 1995 Cowboys Super Bowl ring, the one from Super Bowl XXX against the Steelers. Yeah, that thing was something else. Seeing pictures or mentions of it really throws me back to a specific time.
It wasn’t about the ring itself, not really. But it reminds me of when I decided, completely out of the blue, that I was gonna become a collector. You know, sports stuff. Memorabilia.
My Attempt at Being a Collector Guy
This must’ve been, gosh, late 90s maybe? Early 2000s? I saw these guys with all this cool gear, signed helmets, game balls, photos framed up nice. And yeah, those championship rings, even the decent replicas, they looked sharp. I thought, “I can do that.”
So, I jumped in. Well, kinda dipped my toes in. Decided I’d start with maybe some football cards or perhaps a signed picture. Something simple, right? Wrong.
First step, I actually went to one of those sports memorabilia shows at some convention center. Man, what a zoo.
- Tables everywhere, mountains of stuff.
- Guys shouting prices back and forth. Felt like the stock market floor.
- Everything seemed either super cheap and probably fake, or locked behind glass and costing a fortune.
- Trying to figure out what was legit? Forget about it. Everyone claimed their stuff was real, but who knows?
I walked around for like two hours, totally overwhelmed. Didn’t buy a single thing. Felt like I needed a history degree and a magnifying glass just to look around.
Then I tried looking online. The internet wasn’t quite the slick shopping mall it is today. Found a couple of websites. Prices were all over the place. Saw a helmet that looked cool, supposedly signed by someone famous. Clicked around, almost put in my card details, then just stopped. Felt fishy. Too easy to get ripped off.
It hit me pretty fast that this wasn’t a casual thing you just do. It takes serious time, serious money, and you gotta really know your stuff to not get burned. All that talk about authentication and grading… my head was spinning.
Honestly, the whole effort fizzled out fast. Maybe lasted a couple of months of half-hearted searching. I realized I just liked watching the games, talking about the plays. The ‘collecting’ part felt like work, like homework I didn’t want to do.
So yeah, that ’95 ring reminds me of that little phase. My big collecting adventure basically ended before it started. Guess I learned my lesson: some things are better just enjoyed from afar, or on TV. Way less hassle.
