Fake NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL Championship Rings Worth $1.4M If Real Seized by US Customs

The Cincinnati Bengals have never won a Super Bowl and the Cincinnati Reds’ last World Series title was 34 years ago, but hundreds of championship rings recently generated headlines in the city of Cincinnati.

Hundreds of fake championship rings, that is.

Victoria Moorwood of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Tuesday that U.S. Customs and Border officials seized a shipment of 345 championship rings from Hong Kong at the Port of Cincinnati in April.

Experts determined every single ring in the shipment to be fake, although the total retail value would have been $1.38 million had the rings been real.

The rings, which included 18 different team logos such as the New York Yankees, Chicago Bulls, New England Patriots, Golden State Warriors and Pittsburgh Steelers, were on the way to a business in Utica, New York, when they were seized.

A press release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection explained that third-party retailers often sell fake championship rings to customers who are unaware they are not purchasing the real thing.

Yet all of these were determined to be fake “based on the rings’ low quality, lack of value and shipping origin.”

Perhaps a healthy Joe Burrow can help ensure the next batch of championship rings that arrive in Cincinnati are real ones by leading his Bengals to a Super Bowl title.