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This was a great year for finding marbles!

A few Alleys found through the years

"Superboy" 0,70

I finally won my first and only lot thus far with Blocks auctions last night and I am glad to add any Marble Kings to my stash. I see a good number of Bumble Bees and Cub Scouts in here which always widen my eyes. Looks like there might be some Cubs that are Kato type. Someday I will get a few of the harder to find Blended ones and the likes of Spidermans, Green Hornets, Dragonflys, Watermelons, and Hercules. For now, all the kids at recess will be so jealous of me, trying to win my Marble King Rainbows. Image is from Mr. Blocks auction 01/25/2026.

Mine has more white

This cold weather has me feeling blue☺️

x2, Not polished. That's original surface IMO.

Some MKs for this Monday

X2, MFC, I don't think it's polished, all the dimples have smooth edges, just someone took good care of it and it never got played. Surface looks natural to me, you can even see a few wrinkles.

My favorite, some call him a 'clown'

5/8” CAC striped opaque

Akros for the win

Caged solid core, what's the size ?? I see one bubble pop and 2 fleas, otherwise a pretty clean marble. Unfinished pontils and on both ends helps me date it to between 1870 or so and 1910. The size is probably around 11/16ths, just guessing though, most of these were made by the Germans for the English gameboard market, the brighter colors also help date it. Dollars to doughnuts it was part of a gameboard set at one time.

Looks Vacor to me

perils of the hobby

Japanese

A cool blue & green corckscrew 5/8”

Way too much. Those were going for 35 each not long ago. I've seen them hit 80+ lately and I wouldn't pay that but 225 seems way too high. Prices are nuts these days though.

This is an Alley Opal Lady. A sought after marble by collectors.

Alley bacon

Flicker has a good memory. There were Hurricanes that were packaged for Europe with the name Africa on the header. Here are two pics of the Don Juan bag (Netherlands) and a very rare Mega bag with the Africa name that "slipped through" the Guadalajara "checkpoint" that Pete was able to get prior to the 2003 time frame when I bought it from him.

G'day folks! Here is a nice example of a Akro agate corkscrew lifesaver, it measures 20mm. Cheers

Had this, just in case...

He finally got me

Your RAR reminded me of a great time years ago. We had a group, Ron Shepherd (RIP), Bill McCaleb(RIP), Nola Morgan, Dave Becker and I called "RARS". It stood for "Rare Alley Recovery Squad. It was so much fun competing at shows to see who could find the rarest Alley. The rule we followed was, If you set it down and your fingers are not touching the marble it was up for grabs. So many times, one of us would look at a marble but were not quite sure and put it back. Ron eagle eye Shepherd would have it in his hand, and it was sold. It was so much fun when we all were in a room at the same time, like chickens picking feed. Sure do miss them days and those guys. Anyhow, many of those marbles came from back in that time period.

Looks like the consensus says CAC swirl, that's my take anywho...never heard of a CAC Cubscout...

....Snakeskin alley

Lazy Cork. 5/8 size. Lavender and Teal Green combo. Are these HTF? Not a huge Akro collector. Thanks.

Hello! I'm so so excited to find this post and see your research and others talking about it. Naoyuki Seike is actually my Great Grandfather! If you'd like would be very happy to put you in contact with my father and he can maybe share more information with you. Naoyuki's Daughter (and my grandmother), Junko followed in his inventor path and also worked for Zojirushi and had many patents related to cooking and food science.

This one got some character

19/32 equals Monster? Nice CAC but....?

Polymers Dave Becker made for me, flame type, all with av in them. Smore

For me that is a vacor seahorse

Yes, it should be similar to this green. Clear, high-quality glass

Any grey base pelt is VHTF, Pink is a close second,. nice mibs

I think a lot of newer or casual hobbyists don’t know anywhere to look but eBay, so their perceived rarity is based on what’s available to them on that platform. Which stinks because I’ve seen CAC swirls that would likely only fetch $200 tops as a 9.9 mint on Block sell on eBay for $300-$400. I’ve seen quite a few German’s sell as CAC guineas on there as well. I kind of have two opinions about it. I love going through old marbles, like a jar from the goodwill, and seeing what I can find. I don’t care that they’re scratched or chipped or imperfect, I just love the hobby and seeing the different types, especially if I find one I’ve never seen and can learn something new. I also don’t mind paying top dollar for a really stunning example. But what I refuse to do is pay hundreds of dollars for a marble that’s not truly mint condition or close, and/or really really stunning. Sadly, like all things, I think the crowd of flippers have seen opportunity in marbles and the people who appreciate them, and they are using eBay to sell regular common marbles at premiums.

Yep ! The game marbles need to be taken out as well as Cats Eyes. Good luck🔥 RAR

Africa or Hurricane? No difference in the marbles unless you have a headed bag. Different distributors around the world sometimes assigned different names to the same marble. American collectors use the Mega names but try to tell that to a Mexican collector who probably has the greater right. Then there's the European and Australian markets. Vacor itself didn't give a rat's a**e as the collector market concerned them not in the least (until they commissioned the Atmosphere).

Some can be completely covered in AV and with very narrow swirls, others flaming and....even more They deserve a viewing...

A few neat ones I picked up this year.

Big uns here 15/16 to 1in

Burned Christmas tree

Joshuah Justice 1,62

Just came in the mail today

Awww--Steph, Such a cute image and cool to see you posting again. Yep--I kept this image for Christmas cards next year---Yep I did—keep coming back—we all love you here, always have---always will. You are the rock behind us all. Marble—On!!

Some Oxblood on this Sunday before New Years.