I was going to ask this as a question, but I solved it myself hours ago. Here is what I learned...

A copy/paste from a thread of mine at TeamBG:

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Success!

Here is the way to get any item from BG1 into BG2 whose file was overwritten.
Note that the Ring of wizardry is really the only superior item that falls into that category.
Drizzt's stuff, and other nice items were saved from this indignity!

Use WinBif to extract the item file from BG1. I put it on my desktop.
Change the file's name to one that isn't used in BG2. In my case ring08 became ring88.
If you send the item file into BG2 now it will look and work fine, expect the item description will be wrong.

How annoying.... To prevent that:

Open IEEP in BG1 TotSC and load the file (ring88 in my case).
Copy by hand the item description (on the right). Copy/paste won't work. Check spelling and spacing carefully. The unidentified item description on the left should be the same but even if it isn't it will be irrelevant once identified.
Now close up IEEP.
Open IEEP up again and choose BG2 ToB (if you have ToB installed) from the game options.
Open the file again (ring88 in my case).
You will see the wrong item description.
Erase it and type by hand the correct one in.
Now save it to the BG2 override file.

Now the creatures of Amn can eat your magic missiles!
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Such fun.
I may start making my own items now! :lol:

> Note that the Ring of wizardry is really the only superior item that falls into that category

Please enlighten me: Why?!

Twice the number of memorized first level spells!

Having 10/12 level 1 spells from the start is a big plus. You can have 10/12 magic missles. or 10/12 burning hands (to finish off trolls without wasting acid or fire arrows), or 10/12 ID item too.

I was so disappointed when I imported my character into BG2 with that ring in his inventory and found that the ring wasn't the same. I was trying for over a week to find a way to get it back.