My name is Mike Ratel and I am a baseball fan and collector in Washington, DC.
I collect mostly baseball cards up until around 1990. Dad grew up not far from Ebbet's Field in Brooklyn and was a big Dodger fan. As a result I find myself being drawn to Brooklyn Dodger collectibles as well. I am collecting the Brooklyn players from the T 206 set which was produced between 1909 and 1911. Currently the cards I am collecting are 1950 Bowman, 1959, 1973, 1974, 1975, and 1979 Topps. I am always on the hunt to find 1958 Hires Rootbeer cards w/o the tabs and I need only 35 cards to have every baseball card that Kellogg's cereal put out between 1970 and 1983. I have the 1970 Kelloggs Football set and will soon be out looking for the very tough 1971 football cards.
I started collecting rather seriously in the early 1980's but for a number of reasons have very little material from that era. I am a big fan of the baseball players from the 1980's and it was the decade in which the NY Giants won their first Super Bowl and the Mets won their last World Series. Nearly everything from the 1980's is affordable and it was the decade that gave us the completely worthless but always lovable Topps and Fleer stickers, Topps 5x7 cards, and Donruss Action All Stars.
