hdale7

I love em. Photo is small but I would assume the mibs are around 3/4 inch but can go up to 1 inch, looking at them look closer to 3/4inch with a few maybe being a hair bigger than the others and maybe are replacements for that set but if a few look bigger could just be positioning and angle of photo. Almost all are solid core, a few look to be divided core, maybe you have a couple latticinos in there, can't really tell with the photo. Anyone have a good estimate of age? They make newer style ones with handblown glass and call them Venetian marbles, I don't even know what the Venetian really stands for. But these look to have age to them and look a lot different than the "Venetian" types that people sell on Ebay. Seller was from England but German made for the market and probably 100-120 years old, correct? I'm a novice with limited experience and just asking so if I'm wrong, take that into consideration. This is the best I can offer as an opinion and nice pickup. I do like them.

Big welcome from Michigan.

Thanks and I'll look at those later and get back with what I see, editing just checked and didn't see a 9 design, solid blue. None of these need polishing, I've seen some before photos of mibs that had been redone and they needed it badly but these aren't that bad. Leroy does great work tho, i've seen the photos here and word of mouth on various forums.

Well posting pics that I spent 40 on. Can't find calipers, what happens when you have little boys who get into everything so using ruler. Pictures 1-4: Onionskin about 1.4in. Solid core swirl and divided core swirl about exactly 1 inch. Onionskin has numerous flea bites and smaller craters but not as bad as I thought it would be. Other two have small flea bites and a couple smaller craters. Pictures 5-7(all the same mibs just different poses): Just some mibs and will probably take closer photos for ids on a couple of them. Except for the purple swirl all close to 3/4". Pictures 8-9(all the same mibs): Bunch of Clay ones. Pic 10: Wooden one, and group of newer and I think values of no significance. I like to collect Handmades. I have long way to go to get to the knowledge of most of you mib experts that have been collecting a very long time. If there is something of importance or a real cool mib, point it out. Howie is excited and is proud of our first onionskin.

Top right and top left with the green/white one in between were german handmade marbles but she guessed close to an inch. My sister knows a little bit about mibs cause I tell her if you ever see ones that look like this and show her a few handmades that I have and close to an inch in size and pretty good condition, buy them if less than 10 dollars. My sister garage sales a lot. Will get them later tonight when sister comes home from work. She all ready has them in her possession. Ended up only paying 40 so think it's a good deal even if some may have fleabites and moons. I'll post pics tomorrow. I'm so excited like a kid in a candy store and Howie is too.

Howie is 7 and a half now, Ryan is almost 4, and Alexander is a little over 2 yrs. Felicia, you still collect the purple colored mibs, I sent you most of what I had when we traded about 2 years ago.

Happy birthday.

Sister works in Grand Rapids 2nd shift and is picking them up for me and meeting her at 2pm. 40 dollars sight unseen is worth it to me and saves me 10 dollars of gas to boot, Howie will be pleased as well, but the onionskin has the most damage and the smaller handmades have some nicks. the brown she thinks are maybe clay or wood but thinks they are clay, I guess that's what the brown ones were. Will post pics tomorrow and here was the link, forgot to post it first time. My link

From the photo see the big mib, 1 latticino core smaller but could even be solid, 1 smaller solid core I believe?, the one between the 2 small hmades can't tell what that is but possible hmade but don't really think so, and 2 brownish ones that I can't tell what they could be but due to lighting could be something and didn't photograph well. Some real common marbles, couple that I think are some nice mmade mibs but unsure if they are what I think they are/maker, and a few that can't tell if are worth anything or the maker. Such a mix and with the photos is hard to tell.

Hi Steph and Felicia, My job has been taking me all over the state/out of state and all extra free time is spent with the wife and my 3 boys on the weekends. Looks like I'm laid off for awhile so I have some free time on my hands now and will try to start tackling mib collecting/posting with more frequency.

Haven't had a chance to visit boards much anymore but have more free time now. Pictures not the best but think this might be a good purchase, about 40 minutes from me. I know handmades are down in pricing, some have nicks she told me and doesn't know if anything has been polished, etc, but like to add these to my collection. It's a drive to see sight unseen but from the crappy photos, 50 dollars is still a good deal, right? Editing because bought for 40.

Great safety advice is being given to help. I thought everyone knew about dangers such as working with glass. I am a commercial roofer and believe me, safety is a daily concern. The dust can even get inside your skin/pores. So when it is 85 degrees I have to wear long sleeves, a respirator, and gloves so that I am protected from Asbestos, handling lead soil pipes, Fiberglass, Pitch, and all the other things you can suffer averse effects from. It's been stated that the dust from the glass is dangerous, wetting it down helps keep it down but it is very dangerous in the long term effects for doing marble work. The dust of various things can become injested through the nose and mouth and once it enters your body it stays there and can permanently scar your lungs, etc not taking into the fact the carcinogen angle. They have respirators that go over your face with a filter to protect you/looks like a gas mask and I have pics if you want to see what ones you should use that I have, dust masks help but are not a good thing to use for continued work with grinding glass and shouldn't be used, particles still get through them. Gloves are needed, latex or nonpermeable are the best with long sleeves/pants mandatory. Everyone be safe and one of these days when I have the money I will build/buy a 3 head machine. That hand stuff is too hard for what I want to do it for. Wouldn't a dremmel get a MIB out of round fast and have a wavy/uneven surface I would imagine and I have never thought of using one, and wouldn't? Doing them by hand made me feel the same way because I couldn't seem to get them all perfectly round some times, I may try to just polish but not do major work/hand grinding anymore, because I just can't do it right but others mileage may vary. Seems like with all the hassle, using a machine would be worth it in the long run if you plan on doing regular, major work on mibs.

I was going to reply to it but I was thinking maybe it's a different Steph:)

If this is out of line and not appropriate here I will delete the post. I started a blog of sorts about collecting marbles with my oldest son who will be 6 next month. We've only been collecting marbles about a year and a half and have a lot of fun doing it together. Did I do a fairly decent job, didn't make a ton of errors about stuff, etc? All I seek is feedback so I can correct errors I may have accidentally done or if there is something I can do to make it better. You can email or PM me suggestions if you wish. Thank you Howard. Blog

Again, thanks for the tips. The marbles didn't look that old to me from what I could see but the seller was saying they were vintage and older so where better to ask than the resident pros:) I guess 15 years or so old is considered old/vintage to some. The bad photo didn't help me out at all and I knew nothing about packaging except that the oldest Marble Kings were made in St Mary's before 1960 or so I believe. Thanks all, Howard

I know nothing about bags at all. I'm newer to this only been about 1 and a half years and couldn't tell the age of the bag or really even see the marbles that clearly, thus the reason I was posting here. Thanks for the heads up on that.

I am a poor collector so to speak with 3 young boys and usually find whatever I can at garage sales or an occasional estate sale. I have a chance to buy a couple of MK bags 25 count with a shooter, currently I don't have any marbles in bags so am not up to date on pricing especially since I use the Big Book of Marbles 3rd edition, those prices are just so unrealistic. Anyways, here's a photo that is the best I was given. 7 dollars for a bag is what they want. The next photo is some extra marbles that I am unsure what even to offer along with the bags or just let it go, they look fairly common and think I have some of those ones all ready as well and the photo is just horrible and I personally can't make out much detail with my stupid monitor problems and the quality of the photo. 7 dollars a bag seems reasonable? The other lot if you can make it out, what would you offer, wants 12 dollars for the marbles in the jar but seems more concerned about the old 8oz jar than the marbles?

Yes, it isn't hard to do marbles that you are only doing minor work too or just want to polish. This is how I mixed my cerium oxide: it was recommended 8 to 1 ratio so I took 1 tablespoon of cerium oxide and I had Optical Grade which is cheaper and 8 tablespoons of distilled water, don't use tap water and put it in a spray bottle, shake it up well and when using, shake occasionally. But if you want to tackle larger handmades with extensive damage and have to take off over 1/8th of glass, it does take a lot of time and hurt the heck out of my fingers. I bought a lot of several damaged handmades thinking I could just do it manually fairly easy and it wasn't for me.

Over an inch are considered big. I don't know the record size. I have quite a few that are close to an 1 inch or an inch. I don't know if I have any that are over much over an 1 inch though.

I tried the hand route but I gave up, I did do a couple pretty well but it is a lot harder than you think. I'm talking several hours and my hands started to cramp and I don't have that kind of time and patience. Not trying to discourage you but my honest opinion and I hope you succeed where I just don't have the knack for it. I used Cerium oxide for the final polish and bought it online at ebay from a Vulcan's Workshop seller or something like that. You mix it with water, etc. I wish you much luck since I had no luck.

Well, I have a few catseyes that are 1" and maybe just a shy over, someone mentioned handmades and have a german that is about 2 inches just a little bigger than a golf ball, and a set of I don't know what they are that were oddballs in my grandpa's stuff: several matching mibs with the largest one about 3 inches probably be considered a paperweight in todays terms. I don't have much to show anyone about mibs size since my collection is limited. Howard and Howie

Welcome, My son and I are newbies as well. Looking forward to seeing some of the Germans. Howard and Howie

Thanks all for the welcome and thanks Catfish, nice to see you here as well.

Hello board. Recently found out about this site. My 4 year old son, Howie, and I are newbies at collecting marbles so just introducing ourselves. From browsing here, I see some I recognize from LOM and hope to acquire knowledge, friends, and more mibs in the future. I'm still learning so bear with me all. Howard