Anyone heard of Mel Bailey?

[Wite3]

Not that I love resurrecting old threads...but sometimes I am glad Net54 archives everything. I just purchased a small collection that included hundreds of autographs. One envelope of wallet sized black and white pictures from the 1960s just had "Mel Bailey's autographs" on the outside. Inside were approximately 50 photos from the early 60s. About half are autographed by the player and all contain a pencil notation on the back of who they are. The images are awesome. Looks like Spring training photos but it also includes some neat images of players from Hawaii team and a few other minor league teams as well (one with what looks like a DW on the hat, and one with a block letter R as well).

I am thankful, as usual, for Mark and this thread letting me know who Mr. Bailey was on my first google search.

[rkaluzok]

Why not resurrect an old thread.

Mel Bailey had a large collection of baseball guides. He was a major contributor to an article "A Baseball Guide History" by John Spaulding which appeared in the Sports Collectors Digest of July 1, 1988, page 148.

Since I have a large collection of baseball guides, I found the historical article very interesting.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Any chance of posting that SCD article? I am a huge guide collector.

[4reals]

Not sure if anyone will see this but I live 15 minutes from this gentleman lived and his family is holding an estate sale this weekend. There are THOUSANDS of photos for sale. More than I could ever take home including a huge stack of 8x10 B&Ws. If anyone is interested in buying let me know and I can play middle man.

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

I bought hundreds of NHL and WHA postcard sized photos and 8 by 10 photos from Mr. Bailey in the 70's. When I sent them out to get signed some players would ask me where I bought them as they wanted some. Same with old retired baseball players I was trying TTM were asking me about photos I bought from George Brace.

[mrreality68]

very interesting life and history on the man
Do we have examples of those photos to share?

[Sleepless72]

Hopefully bringing the Mel Bailey thread back from the dead with this post.

Does anyone know (approximately or specifically) when Mel Bailey started selling Real Photo postcards of his images? He usually included the date of the image on the back of the postcard, but I don't know whether he was selling them that way at the time. And when did he stop selling them? Were they available for order up until his death (I assume he has passed away), or did he close up shop earlier?

I have the same question for both Jim Rowe and George Brace postcards: start and finish. I would love to crowdsource checklists for them, but it would be even better if we had date ranges for these three distributors.

Thanks!