Buying Trophies
Perhaps for your fantasy football league, son’s Pee Wee league or even just your own personal collection you have been combing the internet for a replica Heisman Trophy, Lombardi Trophy maybe even Lord Stanley’s Cup. At this point you must be wondering, why can’t I find anything, surely there’s a market for this?Yes there is in fact, which is in part why you can’t find one. To manufacture a Heisman Trophy replica, for example, and sell it for profit would be a violation of copyrighted material as the Heisman Trust owns all rights to producing trophies in that image. Since they hold the rights, the Heisman Trust, originally the Downtown Athletic Club, is the only entity that can legally produce such trophies. There are in fact many different replicas of the Heisman Trophy, however, all of them have been commissioned by the trophy’s governing body and awarded to the winner each year.Of course, what the winner does is ultimately up to his own discretion. Unlike trophies such as the Stanley Cup, there are multiple Heisman Trophies in circulation. As an individual award, once a player wins it his or her to take home, whereas many championship trophies are only held on to for a matter of time before they must be returned to the league and awarded to the next year’s winner. In the case of the Stanley Cup, each player gets to spend a day with it in the off-season, used as a baptism fountain, dog bowl, drinking glass, whatever a player’s mind can imagine.If you are in desperate need of a famous trophy to accent your memorabilia collection, perhaps the Heisman is your best bet, though fair warning it will cost you. It is rare for a winner to put their trophy up sale but in rare cases it has happened. In February of the year 1999, O.J. Simpson sold his 1968 trophy as part of the civil settlement for his murder trial. Larry Kelly sold his 1936 trophy only 10 months later in an effort to settle his estate and leave some money for his family. Since then Paul Hornung, Charles White, and Bruce Smith have sold their 1956, 1979 and 1941 trophies respectively, with Smith’s trophy setting the high water mark for value at 395,240. The original plaster cast used by trophy sculptor Frank Eliscu was also sold for 228,000 in December 2005.