kbobam

Fel, I cannot BELIEVE that you'd mention 7ups without including me in the conversation! Grinning teal marbles -

Hey you guys! Glad there're some Mega people out there! If I'm remembering correctly, the one on the left is a Red devil. A little snow might do him some good. Went to a site I haven't seen for a while to see what Butterflies looked like, and saw a few things that I think I just have to have. Luckily, since they're Megas, I won't have to give you the traditional sarcastic "THANKS A LOT!"

Happy February! (The sun came out for two minutes today!) Here's a shot of some Megas. Don't expect many will be drooling over them. But getting some nice-looking brand new 1" marbles in the mail for 50 cents a pop seems well worth the price of admission to me when so much entertainment is so expensive these days. ( :

Thanks, everyone! Hiya Sue! Just put in a new operating system and I wanted to get Joe's link too. Joemarbles didn't work for Google. Finally tried Joe <space> marbles and it came right up. Of course since I was remembering the joemarbles name, it would have been a little more efficient to just try the obvious. D'oh! http://www.joemarbles.com/ And let me stick in a "Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!" here.

Here's a Jabo Cyclone trying to hide behind another marble. In spite of its two inch size, the George Williams clear transparent was a pretty poor choice!

Hiya, Carole! Hope you're not working tomorrow! (Also hope that growing up you got special birthday dinners instead of suffering a similar fate to those poor "near-Christmas" kids.) Have a good one! Bob

I didn't think of my Muddy until just now, since it's a favorite and always gives me a 'warm' feeling. But looking at it objectively, it's a pretty 'cool' marble. If not downright cold!

A 1 3/4 transparent base from George Williams, which I am not referring to as a 'swirl'. Very bright, whether photographed or in hand. The black lines in the photo are actually the clear base and only look black under certain conditions. Cheers, Bob

And I neglected to say thanks for the compliment to Sue. That was a great move to 'work with' Charles as far as having it your way. (Like at Burger King!) I've never thought to ask a seller to alter a set, although clearly the larger the set the greater the odds there'll be a marble or two which you don't really care for. Should have been obvious, especially when dealing with someone like Charles, who couldn't be easier to get along with. Another example of furthering one's 'marble education' at TMC! ( :

Thanks, Mike! Appreciate the suggestion to blow the shot up, since you can't really 'get it' unless you do. Bob

Hi, Carole! You sneeked in there while I was writing. I had an idea, but who knows?

Something funny's going on. Although if your post connects with the 'where is everybody' posts. then maybe it's a question of people returning from the shows. Then we'll have more stuff than we want to see to choose from! I can't wait.

Gee, Sue! I'm surprised you didn't get one of the special "Scoop Series" three-mib boxes!

If the timing's acceptable to add another 'half on-topic' post, I'd like to clip one of Steph's neat ads and comment. (I've always winced when people try to give 'levels of degree' to words which don't have them. Like "Very Unique Marble!". 'Unique' is 'unique', dang it! Can't be a little or a lot!) ("The illegitimate-child-ization of the English language will be the downfall of us all!", I yell out in possibly-pretentious but I'm still right anger.) But seeing that last "In all the world..." line in this ad, my immediate response was "That's gotta be, like, the most truest thing I've ever read!" Cheers, Bob

Williams and I share some similar wavelength. I can see a certain 'look' which I like in most of his marbles, even when the individual mibs are completely different. Also including a blurry shot of a fox who came by to see if maybe the human was going to leave and that lovely glowing blue thing was edible. Bob

Sorry I can't answer your question. But I can put down for the record that for all the marbles I've purchased from you the auction descriptions and photos have been especially honest and accurate! Bob

Boy I hate it when that happens.

For the sake of efficiency (The crowd roars YAY!) I'm not going to comment on Steve and Alan's marbles and photos. They're always magnificent and appreciated. What I'd like to do here is ask the man in Oregon if he just changed his avatar. Maybe I just didn't notice it before. What a great marble! Have to assume that someone somewhere is calling this a "Swan", mostly because of the shape of the design, and maybe also a little bit because of the 'S' pattern. Really nice!

For the sake of efficiency (The crowd roars YAY!) I'm not going to comment on Steve and Alan's marbles and photos. They're always magnificent and appreciated. What I'd like to do here is ask the man in Oregon if he just changed his avatar. Maybe I just didn't notice it before. What a great marble! Have to assume that someone somewhere is calling this a "Swan", mostly because of the shape of the design, and maybe also a little bit because of the 'S' pattern. Really nice!

Oh boy. Thanks a LOT, Bob! Seriously, as well as sarcastically. I like the marble I have so much more than I ever expected, but had no idea that there were variations on the theme. (Now I guess it's time for a Tri-Lite 'favorite search'! You wouldn't have a couple extra quid until next week, would you?) Beautiful shots, and fantastic the way you used the two of them to show the different 'faces'! Bob

Alan, I think the photo guide is a brilliant idea. I have a few bonus Aces from thoughtful sellers which I wouldn't have been able to identify as such. Now that you point it out I can see where there could easily be confusion with many of these marbles, and there sure are a lot of them. Not that I personally think the large number of varieties takes away anything from any given style; it just emphasizes the need for something like the guide. It'll be fun reading too, and I hope the 'few and fearless' who take on the challenge of writing it have fun putting it together as well. Derrick, you're probably on to something there. Although I know you weren't pointing the "untrained Jabo eye" at anyone personally, in my case it would probably be true. Which might be why I like the 'more easily distinguishable' Aces so much. For that matter, I recently admired a Mansion that Steph posted, although I don't have any at this point. Turned out that this particular style was not only her least favorite, but also that of the actual maker. D'oh! Guess I just like like the 'easy ID' marbles! Mary, you did it again! Had already decided that the photo was better than I thought at first. It's just that it was so easy to shoot I figured it couldn't be worth much. Some marbles are tough, and some are easy, as mentioned in the 'Trilite Take Two' post. But that really doesn't have any connection with the end result. But while I did wind up liking the shot I don't think I ever would have noticed the purple on the wood. Maybe subconsciously?! Who knows. That's what makes a 'critic ' with a good eye so valuable. I'm going to try setting up this shot again when conditions are the same, to see if the marble actually created the purple or whether it was just one of those lucky 'photographic' things. Bob ( :

Not a particularly exciting photo, but hopefully the topic title spared those who don't like or are just tired of these. For the rest of you, the latest Ace is an example of one of my two favorite types. And I'm beginning to think that my favorite types may have some "cross-overs', which is a fun thing in itself! The main thing with these is that the exciting design is only a fractional part of the entire marble. Until this one I always figured that the ones I really liked would have the pattern only on one side. This particular design circles at least 3/4 of the marble, but is still simple enough to work its marble mojo on me. Hope some of you like it. Bob

Okay! One of those "a B is always an A, but an A isn't necessarily a B things. Thanks. ( :

Any chance of getting a peek at these? Wow! I can't even imagine! Would also like to ask Edna about the red ones. Had a quick 'back and forth' with Steph about them since she was the one who showed me my first glimpse. Standing to be corrected, I think she was pretty certain that the original makers referred to hers as a "Cyclone". In the auction where I got mine it was referred to as a "Cobra". Have seen subsequent auctions with both Cyclones and Cobras mentioned, although really they seem to be the same marble. Is "Cobra" an 'after the fact' name which someone came up with for a Cyclone with a sort-of cobra shape to the pattern? Thanks!

As a Maryland 'wimp', I was embarassed to ask if the recent 'hotspell' was affecting others on the East Coast. Glad it helped a little for some. Also glad that while it didn't help Mary much, she has her avatar buddy who can obviously deal with it and is undoubtedly a warm little bundle. Or maybe not quite so little anymore. Bob