JABO 2003 FALL CLASSICS
by
I would like to commend to my fellow marble collectors the 2003 production of
Jabo, Inc.s Fall Classic marbles. They outdid themselves! It was an extremely
limited run of not more than 20 varieties. In comparison with historical marble
runs were talking about only a couple 50 gallon barrels per design. That's a
pittance! As word has it they were rapidly dispersed within the general
Ohio/West
I've had the unique opportunity this past year to not only purchase a 50 pound
box of these beauties along with Mike Johnson but I've received premium examples
from Dave McCullough and Ron & Paula Shepherd. I also picked up a few more at
Amana including a nice little cache of the Pee Wee marbles of which I discerned
only about a dozen different ones. These pee wees were run as a fun project by
Richard McKnight during one day of production. You make pee wee marbles only
because you can. Its kind of like asking why a mountain climber climbs
mountains.
I should add that I also received some of the marbles that were only produced
during machine changes and color changes. You would have had to be there picking
them out of the barrels!
Now, I must tell you what I think about this special production. They're
awesome! For a fact, they are some of the finest marbles in design and color
combination and rate highly when compared to some of the better marbles of the
past. Certain varieties at Amana were already commanding high recognition and
this was less than a year after their manufacture. I consider their value
potential considerable. Heck, Just look at them!
Hopefully the color reproduction of my photographs here does them justice.
Definitely look for some of them to be pictured in Mike Johnson & Susie
Metzler's book on the machine made marble industry when it comes out Spring 06.
This will be a marble book for the ages! I've made up some boxes of them for the
fun of it and the represent some of my favorite varieties (Photos #1 & #2).
Photo #1
Photo #2
Photos 3 and 4 contain matching 5/8 inch and pee wee varieties.
Photo #3
Photo #4
Mike tells me that these inch green, black, and yellow 03 Jabo's in photo #5 are
his favorites.
Photo #5
The single inch marble in photo #6 had great play at Amana!
Photo #6
Now for some truly hellacious examples. These five 1 inch examples (photo #7)
are to die for and the six phenomenal inch swirls (photo #8 ) literally bleed
into the background. Finally in photo #9, we've got a mix that any marble
collector worth his salt would give an arm and a leg for. It all makes you
wonder how these guys at Jabo can top this special production. I bet they're
thinking about it right now.
Photo #7
Photo #8
Photo #9
Photos #10 and #11 contain what are truly the pride of my collection, twenty
four rows of as many different pee wees. And to this day, I consider them one of
the best examples of machine made marbles imaginable.
Photo #10
Photo #11
By the way, anyone out there who has a lead on a prospect who needs marbles in
commercial quantities, you should put them in touch with the people at Jabo.
They know how to make marbles!