Ric

I think Fire is right on track - might all be Vacor (Mexican) in the center box, but the off-white one could be about anything given the single view. They're good photos too but they'd be even better with the lids off the boxes. As far as I can tell they are all common types.

Nice one, Chuck. It's got that deep purple and a bit of "whitewash" over some of the striping glass - something more common on the Sistersvilles than other locations, in my experience anyways. Thanks for showing it!

@Fire1981 Here's one just for you, Fire - one of my favorite lefties, finished off with a little back-spin. 🙂

I'm with Art and seeing Akro, where you can see them. These types were common players in Jumpo-Marblo games made by Rosenthal.

I can see that, Fire, left handed people may well have spun the majority of their marbles one way and right-handed people may have spun most of them the other way. But I think that would be most significant for single-gather marbles. I'm not so sure it was as significant when pulling and twisting canes. And I have a feeling that which side of the glory hole they were working had more to do with looking into it and seeing what they were doing rather than which direction they were gathering the marble.

Thanks, Art. They did make some pretty ones. No oxblood in these though. That upper right green/white/purple type is the reason Winnie (RIP) and I made a trade - we wanted to compare them. Some of the transparent swirls can look a bit like Veiligglas too, but you can certainly tell them apart. In 2013, when we made our trade, Winnie was probably the only girl in Europe to have a nice selection of Sistersville Alleys, and she thought that was really special. I still miss talking with her. She was a lovely person with a really big heart, and she sure loved marbles.

Just a few Sistersville Alleys . . .

And the boiling water looking bubbles in the base point toward Akro too, IMO.

In general, I agree. Whether or not a marble glows is of little interest to me. But there are cases where collectors have made UV significant. For instance, for an Alley to be a Pistachio it has to glow. I am not certain who came up with this "rule" or why, perhaps just because the ones that glow are less common. When I compare the "glowers" (Pistachios) to their non-glowing lookalikes (not Pistachios), I am hard pressed to see a difference in the base glass, striping glass or patterns. As for value, Pistachios sell for more than the non-glowing lookalikes, which speaks to their collect-ability, which I assume is based on rarity, which in turn is based on the fact that the marble glows. And if Pistachios and their non-glowing lookalikes were made at different Alley locations it would speak to their age as well, although I am not sure if this is the case.

This is another tough one - I'm leaning Akro, but it's a nice patch regardless of who made it.

Awesome pics, Fire - not your typical commute to work, that's for sure!

I think Alley too.

The bottom line is, buy and collect whatever you like for whatever reason you like it! The day marbles don't make me happy is the day I sell my collection. The only thing that is not in the eyes of the owner is the marble's monetary value - that is entirely up to the buyer. Personally, I like my marbles as pristine as I can find them. But I have plenty of non-mint marbles in my collection, either because I have not found a better/cleaner example or I was unwilling to pay the asking price for one. Does that make me a snob?

This marble is tough because of the colors. Akro, Alley and CAC all used the combination of yellow and red. The red does not look CAC on my monitor, but that could just be my monitor, other's monitors may display it differently. To me, it looks mostly Alley but that could easily change if I had the marble in hand. I think this marble is a good example of why the accuracy of color reproduction is so important for proper marble ID. As I always say, first thing to do before you upload a photo for ID is to make sure the photo on your monitor actually looks like the marble in hand. My bet is that was done here but slight differences in the way color is reproduced on different monitors can throw off an ID too. At this point, I'd want to see this marble in hand before I made a call one way or another.

Yours is heavily played with and hers is in excellent condition. It also makes sense to me since you are in Canada and are more likely to find them there than here. I've been looking for examples but haven't had any luck yet.

I think it is one of the Japanese Duck marbles that @shiroaiko introduced to us recently.

I don't get this - I'm right handed and I would be spinning it clockwise. I totally understand the idea of right and left hand spins but I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with whether the marble maker was right or left handed, just which direction they were prone to twisting the cane. Added Later . . . Did you mean, "Makers of right handed marbles spin/spun the cane counterclockwise, and makers of left handed marbles spin/spun the cane clockwise"? Because that makes sense.

They are all good points but I would qualify the last statement by saying, "unless you're trying to trade with them or sell them a marble". My go to is, "It's your marble. You can call it what you want, grade it as you wish, and value it as you like. You just can't expect others to agree." 🙂

I definitely see what Alan sees with this one, but I also see an Alley.

I agree with your disagreement, it would have to show a few more colors before I would call it a Sparkler.

Looks like a dug Popeye Patch to me.

I'm leaning toward Akro over Vitro for this one. Some of these give people fits because they look a lot like Vitro Helmets.

A few of Billy's good ones . . .

I agree with Al - it's a strong flicker or a weak flame. Some marbles just don't like to play our name games. It is an Alley Agate though. 🙂

And I really didn't mean to sound harsh. I have an aversion to marketing hype, in general. I know people collect all sorts of marbles. I like a lot of marbles others would consider junk and I am sure I have thrown away 1000s of marbles others might consider valuable. There is no accounting for taste, one person's killer is another person's reject. If you had titled this post "Unique Ghostly Spiral", I probably wouldn't have said a word.