We have WINNERS for the best Patriots and Seahawks collections!

When we announced the Super Bowl contest to find the best New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks collection on Collectibles.com, I honestly didn't know what we would find.

There were plenty of cards submitted, but nothing really stood out. There were collections of autographed jerseys — primarily Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski — but they were ones that you could easily buy at any moment.

What I did fall in love with is the real 1/1 of stuff. The pieces which proved these collectors were real fans through and through. Now I'm not saying that real fans have to have a 20-year history, but the fact that our two winners clearly had that made them stand out.

Not only did these guys have these items, but they uploaded them with pride to Collectibles.com for the world to see.

Our Seahawks winner is David Ellis. You can check out his collection here. Sure, there's the great game-used jerseys — a 1999 Christian Fauria, a 2001 Brock Huard, a Cortez Kennedy and team-issued Steve Largent. But the one that stood out for me was a team-issued 1991 Dan McGwire. All us kids of the 1990s knew about Mark McGwire's baby brother, who wasn't exactly a baby (6-foot-8). The Seahawks drafted him 16th overall in 1991, 17 picks before a guy named Brett Favre. What makes this jersey great is McGwire, unlike his brother, was a bust and McGwire only played one game in that rookie 1991 season, completing just three passes for 27 yards! So when I saw that McGwire jersey, I said "Real Old School Fan."

And guess what, I would have been wrong. When I called David Ellis to inform him he won, he told me he wasn't even born in 1991 and his collection is only five years old.

"I used to collect retail throwback Seahawks jerseys and one day I saw a cool Eugene Robinson on eBay that looked a little bit different — it was at least team issued," Ellis told cllct. "And from there I just found a whole community of Seahawks collectors."

Over the past five years, Ellis has stepped it up and now has 60 team-issued or game-worn jerseys and 20 helmets. The jersey he spent the most money for was for a Mike Teel jersey. Mike Teel who didn't play a single snap in the NFL?

"Yes, that Mike Teel," Ellis said. "It was one of those jerseys in 2009 when the Seahawks wore that awful green. It turns out that only three of those have hit the market and so when one hit the market it didn't matter who was on the back."

The price? $3,000 in cash and trade!

My appraisal of his collection? You get the right Seahawks fan, he could probably fetch $45,000 for it.

But the biggest prize is actually what is to come this week. You see, when the Seahawks last played in the Super Bowl in 2015, Ellis was in college. Since then, his parents began secretly stashing away $50 a month to be able to surprise him with tickets the next time Seattle made it. Ellis is now on his way to San Francisco.

For our Patriots winner I went really off the beaten path. Again, we saw a lot of signed jerseys, a couple team issued and couple gamers loaded into people's profiles on Collectibles.com. But the submission where we stopped came from Kevin Marszalek.

This dude uploaded 5,946 items on his profile and only had three Patriots pieces. But boy, were they beautiful. What's great about Collectibles.com is that you can add so many details. The details added here — for the three autographs on paper — were great. They are from former Patriots quarterbacks Tony Eason, Steve Grogan and Doug Flutie. Marszalek noted that he obtained them at Bryant College in Smithfield, RI in 1988 at a joint practice between the Patriots and New York Giants.

"I was nine years old and me and a friend were chasing these guys around," Marszalek told cllct. "I remember seeing Bill Parcells on a golf card and the platinum blonde hair of Phil Simms. If you look at my profile, you can see I also have autographs from that day of Lawrence Taylor, Leonard Marshall and Carl Banks. When Banks got close he stepped on my foot with his cleats, said 'Sorry kid,' and patted me on the head."

Marszalek said he knew nothing about collecting at the time, which is why they're all on pieces of paper. "Some are signed on the back with no name players," he said.

Despite moving three times in his life, Marszalek has always held on to the autographs from that day.

For his appraisal? Our man could probably sell the entire set for $50, but holding on to them 38 years later gives him a lot more joy than money ever would. "It's priceless," he said. "That's why I still have them."

Thanks for all the submissions and make sure you take a shot at uploading your collections on to Collectibles.com.