Ric

I can tell you like marbles, Melissa, and that you like learning about them too - it was obvious to me from the start. And I will try to do a better job of explaining what I am thinking, at least occasionally. 😉 And I appreciate a thank you now and then too but please go easy with the accolades, they are wholly unwarranted and the attention embarrasses me. Maybe I am weird that way but I have spent most of my life trying to do things as best I can without being noticed. When it comes right down to it, I am just a guy who really likes marbles, which makes me no different than many others here. And I promise you, there are many other collectors around who make me look like a rookie. 🙂

I'm counting on @Melissa's good nature and hoping she won't hold it against us for sorta hijacking her thread . . . I have forgotten everything I once knew about this truck - who modified it, when, and how many are out there. And I'm hoping someone else might be able to clue me in - maybe @Nantucketdink?

That's a neat monster truck, Dave. I don't know anything about them but it sorta looks like it could use an alignment. Regardless, I'd have played with that when I was a kid!

@Fire1981 Wee-boy is a hilarious - almost too goofy. What were they thinking - like, what's the point? 😄 And you should sculpt a mini-me to put on that Zamboni!

I'm not sure, Kimber, but I am thinking about a newer Marble King.

All nice ones, Tommy - looks like there might be a Sistersville or three in there, and I'm thinking that last one might have a good UV glow. Does it?

I have to ask again . . . is this marble really not one iota over 1/2"? lol

Me too, those reflections on the surface make it even harder to decipher.

The thought did cross my mind, and you may be right, but something about it made me think about another possibility.

This should give you a start . . .

A generous offer indeed! Please check your inbox. 😊

It looks like an odd Wales type marble to me. Just the other day I was fishing around in my Vitro archives and found a red one in with my Conquerors - stuck out like a sore thumb.

Nice couple of marbles, Dave. That blue CAC is very pretty - nice base glass and a great pattern, clean as a whistle too!

That is a beautiful little group of marbles, Chad!

It looks like an Alley to me. A Master Sunburst would have two distinct seams on opposite sides of the marble. Although, swirls have cut-offs too. They are usually so buried or obscured that you can hardly detect them - that just happens to not be the case with this particular marble.

A single continuous snaking ribbon like that known as a "wirepull". Too bad it's so beat that the innards are obscured. I can think of a few possibilities of who may have made it. Are there lots of bubbles inside?

Champion made game marbles galore, and the only one I might question is lower left but I would say there's a fair chance of Champion for that one too.

Yes, the six-ribbon ones are considerably less common and I think older than the four ribbon variety.

A type II Brontosaurus to be specific.

Absolutely, the company called that style an Onyx.

Another good Alley, IMO.

Oh boy, Sherry, that's a nice marble - a keeper Alley, IMO. I want it. 🙂

Sometimes you just have to be careful deciding what's a patch and what's a ribbon 'cause they can get pretty crazy sometimes. 🙂

See that little tight swirl of color on the "top" of that upper left marble? That is a weak example of a Heaton "ear", IMO. And then, the extension that sort of spirals to the bottom of the marble? And that sort of long slit of color on the underside? Those are both Heaton traits too, IMO. Although, if the green striping glass was bubbly, and the little slit of color was absent, I probably would have gone with Cairo. Putting these sorts of explanations into written words that make sense and have some value is a lot harder than you might think - there are lots of "ifs", "ands", "ors" and "buts" that have to be taken into consideration when trying to identify WVSs. And I can guarantee that is one reason Ron never wrote a book on WV swirl identification - to do it well would be a daunting task with very little reward, and he understood that. And it's also why he went so out of his way to try to educate people one on one whenever someone who was interested sought him out at shows to ask questions. He sure taught me everything I ever could have ever wanted to know. I often come across WVSs that are a challenge to ID and my first thought is still always, "I'll have to show it to Ron and see what he thinks". And I feel very fortunate that we were such good friends that I miss him beyond words. 😢

@Melissa You know, Melissa, there is only a reasonable chance that I got all of these IDs correct - definitely a better chance on some than others. Most are not very good examples of a particular company. At some point, with such simple swirls, there just isn't much to go on and it really comes down to just a gut feeling that comes with many years of effort and experience with them. Identifying WVS like these is not something you're going to get any good at without a pretty near ridiculous obsession with them. And it's always important to remember that these are random swirls. Surely, there are some traits (size/patterns/colors/combos/glass/etc.) that you are more likely to find from one company than another but there are also many "outliers" from every company, and some of these outliers could easily be placed with multiple companies. At that point, unless there is something particularly interesting about the marble (maybe you just like it for some reason) it's better to just give those types away to kids, throw them in a jar, or incorporate them into your landscaping or something, because they really are just cheap children's toys. There are millions of them around and they have no collectible value. I mean, they aren't very good as ID references, they have near zero monetary value, and there is really nothing about them to admire except their intrinsic value toys, which is mostly dependent on a child's imagination and desire to play with them. I mean really, the top two marbles in your post are nominal examples of Heaton structure, IMO. But those bottom two - why in the world would you keep those or even care who made them? The only way these types of super simple swirls have any collectible value is if they are in original packaging. Then, at least, you have a solid source of reference you can use for identification purposes, some historical value (dug marbles might qualify here too) and, depending on the package's rarity/desirability, perhaps some monetary value as well. And that is why I have collected bags of WVSs for many years - I like boxes a lot too, but they are easily "contaminated" so you have to exercise considerably more caution with them. I am now retired, so my time does not have the value it once did. But I can guarantee that the time and effort I spent to write this reply is worth at least a thousand times the value of the marbles in your original post and I really hope some good comes from it. So here's to hoping that, in some way, it helps you address your SMD. 🙂