My collections...

I don't think I ever formally introduced my collections to the world.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, it is a given that I am a Pittsburgh sports fan. My personal collection is comprised of both Steelers and Penguins cards.

My Pirates collection has been stagnate since about 1996 when I stopped collecting baseball. I held onto the Pirates, thinking that someday they would return to their status as an elite National League team. I think the Cubs will win a series before the Pirates ever get back to form. The philosophy in Pittsburgh seems to be that there is no sense in spending money on a baseball team when you have two other perfectly good sports teams to compete with.

My Steelers collection is on version 3 as it is the third attempt at building a substantial collection. The first time was sold off back in 1993 after deciding to stop collecting football. The second time came after the 1995 Super Bowl debacle. The current incarnation was only started in 2004 with the draft class featuring Big Ben. I wish I could make a substantial impact to this but most of the bloggers/forum traders/dealers that I work with seem to keep their Steeler cards for their own collections.

My Penguins collection has been accumulated over the past 20 years. I have small player collections of some of my favorite past Pens including Paul Coffey, Ron Francis, Joe Mullen, Kevin Stevens, Mark Recchi, Tom Barrasso, and Phil Bourque. I have some larger collections of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, the best 1-2 Punch in all of Hockey for about 12 years. Over the last few years, I have developed a small cluster of cards from some of the current greats like Malkin, Crosby, Staal, Fleury, Letang, and Gonchar.

I keep reading on others blogs about these "packages" that they receive from readers. How does that whole thing work and how do I get in on it?