The shirts of their/his/her back

I've never been on stage with thousands of adoring fans screaming my name. But this has little piece of cloth has...
Yes, that is indeed a piece of the New Kids On The Block's wardrobe from the guys' "Full Service" summer tour. (Click here and see if it looks familiar?)

I got this unique, one-of-a-kind collectible when I was one of the first to pre-order the New Kids' "Coming Home" DVD back in December. The encased swatch came as part of the deluxe DVD package.

Lest you think collecting event-worn swatches is new, I've been adding to my collection for almost a decade. Baseball card manufacturers have been affixing swatches of players' uniforms — either jerseys or pants, depending on the card company — for years. Back in Christmas of 2000, for example, I got this "Goose" Gossage card from Upper Deck which contains not just a pinstriped piece of his jersey, but his signature, too! Since then, I've collected dozens of such jersey cards — from Hall of Famers like Dennis Eckersley and Rod Carew, to stars like Joba Chamberlain and CC Sabathia.

Even the New Kids' swatch, which arrived with the DVD back in February, wasn't the first one in my collection from a singing star.
After Britney Spears filmed this Pepsi "Now and Then" commercial that ran during Super Bowl XXXVI, the singer donated three of the outfits she wore in the ad.

Those outfits were then sliced and diced, affixed to these trading cards, encased in protective, hard-plastic slabs and put on sale for eager fans (like me!) to snatch up online, with the money going to charity.To me, it's just cool to know whether my favorite singers or my favorite athletes wore them, I've got a piece of clothing (small though it may be) they wore when they did that they do that makes them famous.