psia-antique

How complete is your work on the subject? Pictures of the machines? Names of the makeresof the machines? Dates? Any more info will be greatly appreciated.

Pretty enough to be a JABO. March 31, 2009 Posted by ourfriendben in wit and wisdom. Tags: collectible marbles, Dave McCullough, JABO marbles, Steve Sturtz Like most marble collectors, our friend Ben is an eBay addict. Yes, you might stumble on a nice jar of old marbles at a flea market or antiques mall, or, as I once did, a couple of bargain cigar boxes in a beatup old garage. But mostly, if you want marbles, you want to see what’s up on eBay. Recently, our friend Ben scored what I thought was a huge coup on eBay, a group of hand-selected old marbles that looked just fantastic for basically pocket change. (Thank you, marble gods!) In due time, the marbles arrived and looked even better in person than they did on eBay. I was thrilled. As I gently poured each bag out into my palm, I recognized that I was holding prime examples of the great creators of marble history: Akro Agate, MF Christensen, Christensen Agate, Alley, Peltier, Marble King, Vitro. Oh, wow, these were wonderful marbles. There were even some fantastic multicolored clays and Benningtons. I was beyond excited. Then came the moment of truth. I had poured one of the bags into my hand and was admiring my latest treasure, when I found myself looking at one of the marbles and muttering, “Why, that’s almost pretty enough to be a JABO.” Whoa, what was I saying?! JABOs are the newbies on the American marble scene. Disdained by serious marble collectors for years, in 2008 they finally came into their own. By the time of this writing, late March 2009, not only do the world’s great marble collectors recognize that JABOs rank at the forefront of machine-made marbles, most of these collectors have financed their own special runs of JABOs. Which is to say, they’ve put their money where they think the history of marbles will be. On a much more modest scale, I’ve done this, too. My love affair with JABOs turned into a once-in-a-lifetime chance to participate in a JABO special run at the factory earlier this month, thanks to the generosity of official JABO historian Steve Sturtz, aka Dr. JABO, and the endless kindness of JABO marble-making genius Dave McCullough. (Steve even invited me to contribute an essay to his latest book, 2008 JABO Classics: The Experimentals.) Woo-hoo! Does this make me a JABO expert?! Uh, no. Does it make me even more excited about the amazing marbles Dave and JABO have been putting out over the last couple of years, full of gold lutz, silver mica, green and blue aventurine, red, pink, blue, and purple oxblood, and designs and colors like you wouldn’t believe? You betcha. I know, I know, that JABO’s marbles are as good or better than any machine-made marbles the world has ever seen. But even knowing, I was surprised to catch myself spilling this batch of primo marbles into my hand and thinking, “Why, this one’s almost pretty enough to be a JABO!” Damn right. Time to shake myself and confront the truth: JABOs are beautiful. JABOs are more than beautiful. JABOs are the most beautiful. Any other machine-made marble can consider itself lucky to be compared to a JABO and be found almost worthy. Pretty enough to be a JABO? Not likely. But pretty enough to rate the comparison? Okay!

"Originally the sight was started to discuss Real Vitage marbles.The focus is changing or has changed to a place where some wan't to show there wares,mostly the Jabo folk.Everyone want's to plug something from time to time,but NEW JABO........TODAY!!!!! everyother day.I am bored with it and they all look the same. " You have talked to us in the past about your research. Instead of complaining about JABOs, why not start a very positive thread on a subject of which you have some knowledge and share it with all of us. I,for one, would be happy to read it. Regardlessof how dull your work is, I promise not to tell you I am bored with it. In other words, stop complaining and start a thread you are interested in.

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Those numbers may have been for the first run.By the third run , it was a $5,00 setup fee plus $2000 for the marbles plus you had to buy your chosen materials so the price of runs went from there to multiples of that.

There is only one thing worse than not knowing and that is knowing something that AIN'T so...

Great news! JABO has fired up a second machine and will consider taking orders for private runs to be run into May. There are apparently three in the works already. So any rumors you have heard about a last run are and were not true. It would be wise in the future to check when you hear rumors about a last run. Industrial orders have been coming in slowly and all industrial inventory on the floor is awaiting shipment. Keep up the great work David. Keep our jobs on shore!!! Sounds like David will consider more private runs if there continue to be more industrial orders and the company is not sold.

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Ant, You have pics of 3 on JABO Land in the thread "Sorting through my JABOS." They are the 2 in the top row and the one on the left in the second row.

bo, Thank you for the bump yesterday. You reminded me to keep all up to date on David's computer/chat board progress. To date he has recieved a number of emails and said ( in a phone call) he has responded to all. As recently as last week,he again said, even if he were computer literate, he would probably not post on the chat boards He has learned how to join chat boards and has made a number of posts on JABO Land. We look forward to David "Brassy" gracing us with his posts here in the near future and hope this board becomes a regular haunt for him. We are pleased to see an old guy like him move into the 21st Century. Congrats David! We look forward with baited breath to hearing the avoir du pois and magic of your word.

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If you prefer the hunt, that is great. Go hunt! I agree with you, I, too,love the hunt and even if I could spend millions I would not. I would hunt for them. As a matter fact, those who know me, know just how much I enjoy the hunt. I even bought a Pelt Grey Coat within the last six weeks that was mislabelled on eBay. As I said in my earlier post, none of us as individuals get a vote. The market- eBay searches- tells us that JABO is state of the art. Notice that I haven't listed 20 JABOs since December of 2008. I have been hunting for other things. My hunting has led me to a great collection of Cairo Novelty, Heaton Agate, Alley Agate, Peltier, and even a few cats. So whether JABO or not, get out there and hunt.

Like it or not, JABO is the third most common marble search by manufacturer on eBay. Most people who invested in the experimental runs did it for fun and to learn. Those who read Dave McCullough's letter of provenance know that the experimentals were my idea. It worked and jobs stayed on shore! The rest you know. There is always one bad apple and Griff has described it well. That bad apple even has a man of the cloth to advise him and he still acts the rotten apple. He and his partners are the only ones who seem to have made money on these runs. He was heard to say at Sistersville that he had made $150,000...who knows what the truth is...I am sure we will all find it exotic and bet we see more demand pull marketing tactics again. I have explained very carefully to two people that you cannot control prices. Well see if they learned anything. Either way, they should be thankful for my ideas that have made them money. I am thankful that they wrote checks to JABO to support my ideas. I have not made a dime at it and am way under water financially, but have enjoyed every second of the experience. Hopefully, I will break even some day. I sure have enjoyed giving marbles to random kids who regularly squeal "look how sparkly" they are. As for rarity, JABOs are very rare compared to Pelt, CAC, Akro, etc. The total number of marbles produced in the experimental runs of 2008 was 1,500,000. That is a lot to hit the market at one time and with the false pricing created by a demand pull marketing idea of the first groups, the prices stayed high until the economy fell out of bed. The irony is that these marbles are very rare and some are very underpriced. Not all that have been sold or made are worth $10 and some are worth hundreds by rarity. The experimentals set new standards of excellence in the areas of gold lutz, mica, aventurine, complex patterns, oxblood, and numbers of colors per marble. God made Ford and Chevy so everyone could have an opinion. The same is true of marbles. Everyone has an opinion. It seems to me, though, that real opinion should be something along the lines of lets all agree that we enjoy collecting marbles. We should all be willing to learn from the other guys collection and be happy for him in his personal collecting choice. If you read the introduction to my book "2008 JABO Classics:the Experimentals" by Marblealan, you will know that today, JABO is everyman'smarble.

Miracles never cease. David Chamberlain has moved into the 21st Century. He has a laptop and an email addy...it is dlcmib at yahoo.com. As I type this Wvron is laughing into the phone.

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David Alan! Go to ,your room! No porkchops for you!

I just got off the phone with the producer of the Dirty Jobs show. The show will probably be aired in the August/September period which in TV lingo is the the second half of their season and the time when new shows are aired. As always,they promised to call with an air date as soon as they have one.

are you going to be selling anyof those gorgeous "9/16" and peewee lutz' that were made on that Thursday night?

I tried to call you and got no answer...the pics to remove are Dave at work. thanks

Edna, Some of those pics shouldn't be shown. Please take them down. I think you know which 3 or 4 they are. Thanks.

Great BUMP! Talked to Chuck this AM and he really thinks he is going to win the ugly marble contest. I'll he doesn't. Sounds like he really trying to put some bells and whistles the weekend.

David, Happy Birthday! Many more...and for those of you who don't know, he is 61 today. You should all also know that David is a NOTRE DAME fan and he has a fighting Irish marble made by Sammie Hogue on his desk and a picture of Touchdown Jesus hung on the wall behind his desk...Yes, he is an Irish fan! Birthday advice to you is...remember, the "Gang of Two" is watching...

"Rumor has it " that David McCullough is a reasonable person, who for 30 years has tested compatiblity. I have been told that he even tested all the glasses and fritts for the experimental runs of 2008. However, I have a grave concern. I had to replace so many exploded experimentals from 2008 that it has almost ruined me and I have been forced to sell my Lear Jet and fire my chauffer...dire times.