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Here is the start of my long-promised replacement of the seam tutorial I accidentally deleted a couple of years ago. Some companies are known for more swirly marbles. Some are known for having lines or patches of colors which run from seam to seam or pole to pole. If marbles have poles or seams it is helpful to show them when looking for IDs. Rather than try to define the jargon I'll start by posting examples. And rather than wait until I have all the photos ready, I'll post them as I take them. So here I am starting with some Master-made marbles. Masters often have relatively small U-shaped or V-shaped seams or "cutlines". Some people might consider them to have "poles" where the ribbons come together on top and bottom. I took photos of both poles here. Sometimes seeing both ends can help with the ID.

Here are some Peltier pictures showing the seams. They could be called cutlines, but generally these are called seams. Again both seams. Note, I am using a gray t-shirt for the background material. A gray background helps not-so-smart cameras get colors balanced. And a smoother background helps the camera focus on the marble instead of background textures. (Since my camera is picking up the stitches clearly, it's possible I need a smoother background to help the marbles be more focused.) Again, I took pictures of both seams. The top left marble was so busy that it almost looked like it had three seams, but that's a different subject. I finally found the second true seam, and got that photo. The top left one is a National Line Rainbo, aka NLR, from around 1930 give or take a couple of years. The top right is called a Bloody Mary. The rest are showing typical Rainbo patterns. (Rainbos are later than National Line Rainbos, and span the mid-to-late 30's through the 1960's. (Not sure if they were still in production in the 70's.)

I decided to make a sticky post for people to share their exciting marble scores. Such posts always inspire but they get lost over time, so let's post them here where they will remain on top. Sadly I have not had a good score in a long time, but this score from 2017 was my greatest of all time, worthy of sharing here. Please refrain from asking here whether featured marbles are for sale/trade. If the owner wants to sell, they can post in the buy/sell forum. Thanks!

These are Modern Asian. The type often called Imperial because many were distributed in the U.S. by the Imperial Toy Company. The turquoise one has threads of oxblood. That's a popular thing to find, not uncommon. This family of marbles can be very pretty. And there are variations you might never see more than once. I _might_ have seen this combo one other time. For awhile I hoped it was something other than "Imperial" but I can't think of anything else it could be.

Thank you Stephen !!

To me, natural light sometimes leads to a lot of reflections which can make it hard to see marble details, so I took a second set of photos using a flash. Your mileage may vary.

fortunite 2 have a few ............ bill

This is such a sad thing, but also I want to pass along that Ron loved the farm and his hobby was taking care of it and making it look as nice as possible. This was what he was doing just prior to his passing. His wish was to pass away in his childhood home / farm which did happen. The weekend before he was at a marble show doing what he also loved. So, as we are saddened by this, we must remember he was doing what he liked to do. He was happy. His last wish was to be placed to rest at the cemetery at the farm, which he redid and was very proud of it. It is a great final resting place as he will forever look over the farm from the hilltop. To my buddy RIP.

My best score ever last year

This morning we have Marble Kings. We call their cutlines "seams". The two marbles on the right end are modern. The top left is a Rainbow Red. The bottom is called "blended". The four in the middle are Rainbows -- they are said to have a "patch and ribbon" pattern, which is a prime sign that you are looking at a Marble King. The brown and yellow one is called a Bumble Bee. The light blue with red ribbons is called a Robin. The white-based Rainbow with the three different colored ribbons is called a ...wait for it .... Tri-Color Rainbow. Note the 'w' at the end of the Rainbow name with Marble Kings, while we leave off the 'w' with Peltier Rainbos.

Shooters I got today from hobby lobby.

Milky Oxbloods

Hello, this is Michelle, Ron's daughter. I have been going through some of dad's marble posts and pm's looking for something particular and came across this. I thank all of you for your kind words. He spoke so frequently of the "marble people" that I feel like I know you myself. Some I have met, most I have not. You meant so much to him, like a second family. Marbles were a big part of his life, and it made him so happy, thank you for being a part of what made him smile. Is it okay if I copy these pics and use them for a memorial table at the upcoming show? If anyone has other pictures that you would like to share for the table, please email them to me at dad's email address [email protected]. Thank you.

....................

large MFC is 1”

From a few weeks ago 20bucks . Was glad to find out it was authentic 😁 Hard to get good pics though the plastic . Looks like one of the bumblebees is purple not black ..

Another way to cut down reflections and get to the heart of transparent marbles is to take a picture of the marbles underwater. At least that's the advice we sometimes give, and it can have dramatic results with old German handmades with cloudy surfaces. Here are some Peltiers. One thing I accidentally illustrated here is that different color settings may be needed for bright yellow marbles than are needed for not-so-bright marbles. And I needed to brush the bubbles off the surface of the marbles. This will do until I get a better sample photo. Transparent Peltiers under water:

One more fun once a week category, with this one focusing on Slag and Swirl marbles. Covering a wide range of manufacturers both old and new, some Saturday fun for everyone 😊

I retired back in 1998 and a Realtor friend, Landon Daniels, collected marbles and invited my wife and I over to visit him and see his collection. He put a quilt on the table and opened his safe and started showing some rare or HTF machine-mades and handmades, saying this one is $1,000; this one $2,500; this one $600, etc. He also showed me his shooter Peltier Superman and a Vacor Serpent and mentioned a "little bit" of value difference, even though they looked pretty much the same - especially to me since I knew zip at that time. He said there are many others that are hard to tell apart so "learn before buying". We went to a SeaTac Show in Tacoma a couple months later (just on the Saturday show day) and looked around - ended up buying one marble - a Marble King Bumblebee shooter for $5. After that, I started looking online and determined that buying packaging (mainly marble bags by MK, Peltier, etc.) was a good way to learn about marbles. Of course there were some fantasy bags being made around that time but they were not ones made by marble companies so I knew something was off. Alan Basinet and I got together online and communicated about these fake bags and started letting buyers on eBay know that they were bidding on fake bags (back then you could communicate with buyers and warn them). However, as we all know, eBay needs their fees so soon they changed it so you could not communicate directly with buyers through eBay. But, you could still see the ID of who was bidding and figure out how to get ahold of them and still warn them. Six months later or so, eBay found that out also and quit showing the ID of who was bidding, etc. and here we are today with a "buyer beware" mentality of eBay (and other sites). Oh, by the way, bags were "the thing" for me and 4,000 plus later, they still are. I did heavily collect Akro corks, metallics, Ravenswood and various other machine made marbles over these 25+ years.

It started for me in the mid 1980s. Maybe 85 or so. I was visiting my grandparents and my mother went up in the attic and found her old marbles from when she was a kid. There were marbles from the early 1960s on back to turn of the century. I collected anything you can imagine, and knowing they were old interested me. Then when we were at a local antique store, I noticed the owner had some marbles in a case behind the desk. I asked him about them and he loved how much I was interested, so he started telling me about those cool corkscrews I liked so much and others. He sold me a few as I could afford them and I was totally hooked. I asked for old marbles everywhere I went. I thought I had it bad back then... lol if I only knew. But it's just fun, what really matters isn't made of glass.

Here is a selection of Alley Agates from the Lawrence Glass Novelty Company site in Sistersville WV. One hundred and forty-four different marbles are shown (sizes vary considerably). Please excuse the dirt, out of rounds, as-mades and poor photos. All of these marbles were dug. Enjoy! P.S. I buy mint examples - PM me!

This is Bandit and my Granddaughter’s little Chewy. Post away🔥 RAR

Pinky 🔥 RAR

Here are some of my favorite vacor. I found the patches in some net bags at Hobby Lobby. I've been stopping at Hobby Lobby once a week and buying all their $3 nets. lol

Somebody asked if I had a picture of myself with Ron and I had been looking for one all week. Turns out, I couldn't find any, probably because every time we had our photo taken together somebody else was taking it. I know Billy had lots of them but I never got any copies. Then this afternoon when I was looking through my photo archives I came across this one. It'll soon be framed and hanging in my office. Anyways, because my email provider won't allow me to send large attachments, I figured I would post it here where they can access it. I think this was at one of the Decatur shows in 2010. Man, I miss these guys.

The best one of these that I have ever found or seen. A few more Alleys.

👌nice mibs everybody

This one is 1-7/32”. Bought on eBay years ago for $15, had really bad pics in the auction and no size given.

Here are a few 7/8” Akro slags on a cool copper flower frog. Slag on!!!

Next up is Akro. Most of Akros cutlines will be called seams. For the famous Akro moonie with the fisheye, we may speak of the cutline as a pole. Left to right, the top has two Moss Agates, a Royal, and a Tri-Color Agate. The bottom has a sparkler, a Tri-Color Agate with oxblood, and two more Royals.

I would again like to thank all the people that respond to my many posts. I have been off work due to surgery. Today I found out I will be off for another month to recover. Marbles have really been a bit of a savour for me. Therapeutic for sure! I have had down days, and I head down to my office, sort marbles, take pictures and post them here. When I guess one right, or find something really cool, it makes me happy. I have learned so much in a short time on this site. Sometimes I get over zealous and post a bunch in one day. I apologize if sometimes I fill the page. Just know, this is a day I am sitting, and healing in my own way. Thank you again to all that respond to my posts. I have had some dm chats with some of you, and welcome anyone to drop me a message. All the best to all of you. And thank you one more time!

The veggies are flowering in the gardens! I need pollinators! By order of the Queen...... Release the Horde! Happy Marble King Monday 👍😎

Blue Galaxy

That's a beauty Chad G.! My contribution:

Akro Friday... on Saturday. Better late than never 😉 ~ tricolor special

I love Germans, my first affliction Mica is a hair away from 2 1/4 These are my top shelf Germans, all mint except the biggest one, the mica onion in the back row center.

Purchased at the Des Moines show. Can take it off my bucket list!

Just a little spinach 🔥 RAR

My favorite Alley for this "West Virginia Wednesday"

Thűringen Thursday

Probably Japanese related to the mushrooms but absolutely no proof. Almost all came from Canada, hence the "Canadian type" name.

In honor of Bill McCaleb, I'll post some of his little pretties . . . As I've said elsewhere, he sure knew a good one when he saw it.

Cleaning the cabinet needed to start moving them some how.... Here we go .....

.................... brrrrrrrr tuesday ................ bill

Wow, great scores here! Been a while since I scored a big group, aside from digging or friends. One of my last ones was this lot of exotic conquerors: