Ric

It's easy to see how they got their name.

Here is an old pic I had saved. It was from a fellow named Roger who used to frequent here. He had a nice website that explained pontils, transitionals and other marble arcana. I hadn't looked at this in many years and, as usual, it seems Ron may be on to something.

Very nice, Art - that is a marble!

Kinda cool looking. I'm not sure I have seen this particular critter but I have seen similar ones - another one of the many uses for "gems".

Nice Al! I have never seen that one, it's obviously older than the one I showed, and it took a lot more work to make the box too. I wonder if Craig S. had a hand in it.

Told ya'. 😛

No, not Akro, and they were more common in Canada than here, AFAIK. Which is not to say they were made in Canada but I don't know about that.

I didn't know mushrooms could have transparent patches and I am not really seeing the "mushroom" structure at either seam where the ribbon meets the patch but . . . ? I thought about CAC on the third one too but, like Art, moved on because that long tail (particularly the end of it) seems odd for CAC, at least to me.

I'm going to be doing some work to look into this further. AFAIK Alley Ghosts are just common St. Mary's marbles washed out with clear, and when I begin to see more of them than I do the non-washed out ones I get suspicious - maybe it's just me, I haven't seen that many transparent Alleys from St. Mary's, at least ones that are similar to these.

The JABO marbles I am thinking of do not have a name that I know of but I do know which marble you're talking about - the one that looks really plain until you put some UV on it is the JABO Ghost I know.

Thank you, I think the same, but it's really nice to hear someone else say it. 🙂

About 5/8"

I'm with you, Art, seems like it has to be that or an even weirder Akro.

A couple of minimal patches. Perhaps remarkable only for how boring they are. 🥱 And please correct me if I'm wrong but I think the red one is harder to come by.

Another Alley - no oxblood. You can find lots of examples of oxblood here. Some examples are better than others.

Oh yeah, and welcome to the Marble Connection too!

I think Alley on the right one. The left one is not ringing a bell for me at the moment but I may be back.

Me too.

For now anyway. And maybe I'll dip in the archives later to see if I can re-remember how to sort them. Of course, Ron might come along and sort them in an instant. lol

Nice marble, Joe. It looks like a variant of what used to be referred to as a Champagne because of the base color.

AFAIK, Ravenswood, Alley and JABO all made similar - another one of those cases where caution is advised when trying to ID them. I used to be able to sort them with some confidence but I lost interest in them and with that, I lost the specifics. I would have to go back into the archives and try to relearn how to sort them - maybe someday they will interest me enough to do that.

I don't think so. It's going to take some effort and known examples to figure it out. It's something I've wanted to sit down and discuss with @wvrons for quite a while.

I am always hesitant to ID Alley Ghosts from photos because JABO made some very similar marbles and they can be tough to tell apart. Alley Ghosts used to be fairly uncommon and now they seem to be everywhere. IMO, mis-identification is the reason why.

It's important to remember that only a few companies made true black - CAC, Akro and Peltier mainly, but you might find it on an early Alley too. On Marble Kings, it's usually a really dark purple that can appear black.

An Akro error and a JABO is what I see for the first two. I can't decide on the third - it might be helpful to see where that long tail in the second pic attaches to the rest of the red - my first thought is another weird Akro but it could be something else too. You nailed it with "weirdo" though.