A pawn shop in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, recently sold an authentic Packers Super Bowl XLV ring, acquired from a team employee.
Dennis Brucks, a Packers fan who’s been following the team since the days of Vince Lombardi and says he was in the stands for the Ice Bowl in 1967, purchased the ring from Pawn America in Grand Chute, Wisconsin.
The ring was sold by a team employee named Sarah Pace, who is listed on the team’s website as an employee of the team’s facilities and fields department. When the Packers won the Super Bowl last year, they gave Super Bowl rings to all their employees, not just players and coaches. Apparently Pace would have preferred a bonus in her paycheck.
The 71-year-old Brucks told the News-Record that a Super Bowl ring was the perfect piece of memorabilia for a lifelong fan.
“Really, the price was right as opposed to what those typically sell for,” he said. “And I like the small size. I could have bought Fuzzy Thurston’s ring, but it was three times the money and it’s just way too gaudy, too big.”
Although Brucks isn’t saying exactly how much he spent, the Super Bowl II ring earned by former Packer Fred “Fuzzy” Thurston sold for $50,788, so if Brucks paid one-third of that, he spent about $17,000. He seems to think that was a small price to pay.
“When you want something relating to the Packers, how can you get any better than this?” Brucks said. “Whenever I want to, I’ll put it on.”