bumblebee

Speaking of moons, here's some text from an unpublished marble wiki I was working on: Moons are circular or crescent-shaped impact fractures occurring in the subsurface of agate marbles. Unlike the more fragile glass marbles where moons can occur on the surface (missing glass) or subsurface (fractures), moons on agates always appear subsurface. Most collectors today consider moons unwanted damage that detracts from a marble's beauty and value. This was not always the case with marble players of the past. Earl Johnson, writing in 1946 about his boyhood marble memories, said agates were like “diamonds” and that the: …milky white ones that had the wonderful propensity of collecting 'moons' (like moons on finger-nails), when hit by other marbles! With great ceremony we used to soak a many-mooned agate in a bed of lard and presto, next day–all the moons were gone! 2) On the other hand, there are several instances of players seeing moons as highly desirable, even necessary. Weare Holbrook writes in 1940: And although flaws in an agate did not enhance its desirability, 'moons' were something else again; they were scars acquired in long and faithful service, a visible proof of prowess exhibited as proudly as the saber cuts on the face of a Heidelberg student.3) The author of this 1953 newspaper article describes how when he was a boy: …you wanted moons in your agates. You treasured them. They were proof your agate was the real thing. 4) This 1908 poem contains a stanza about a new agate being proven 'right' by adding moons: Then Guy Fuller bought an "agate," And to prove it was "right," He would throw it hard against a stone; "Half-moons" you'd see of white, On the other hand, another writer in 1921 says too many moons was not desirable: At the time we played marbles an agate should have two or three moons in it to prove it was genuine, but its value was lessened by a larger number. 5) But another author in 1921 says that agates: …were the mark of opulence and the more 'moons' they had in them the more valuable they were regarded. No agate was worth anything until it had some 'moons' in it. 6) If this sentiment was true nationally in America for a significant period of time, no doubt agate owners spent time ensuring their agates were covered in moons even if not from official play. 'Repairing' Moons Those who disliked moons were able to temporarily but effectively obscure moons by soaking an agate in lard overnight, or by boiling an agate in lard. Oil would seep into the porous agate and fill the moon fracture space, obscuring the damage for a time. This trick was also reportedly used by unscrupulous gemstone dealers who used it to obscure flaws in opals.7) This technique was reportedly used by unscrupulous players to deceive opponents into thinking an agate up for “keeps” or for trade was pristine. While the lard method has been proven effective, other substances are also mentioned by article writers as being effective at obscuring moons, though vinegar seems dubious: Buttermilk Coal oil Cream Vinegar

Wow that one is cratered. I will have to try that in a dark room myself.

Thanks, everyone. I have added the first eBay search link at the top menu. For now it's just the reputable sellers ones. I have set it to sort by "newest first" instead of "best match" but the downside there is the results will tend to be front heavy with Cedarman7 auctions because he lists so many. Still, I prefer "newest first" and assume most others do. Let me know whether you have any feedback. It used to be much easier to pinpoint marbles on eBay until they removed all the subcategories, but with some finagling you can get pretty good results with the advanced search options.

Chad where are you seeing that? I see no current or sold listings from the seller with marbles in them.

Seller told me early on someone had offered him $5k cash. What likely happened is someone offered him probably $10k cash with no eBay fees or taxes.

That's strange. I wonder what happened. I figured it would go to at least $14k but his repost showed $10k to buy it.

@wvrons, have you seen the seller's updated pictures? Condition definitely better than original photos. I was just thinking I'd never bid higher without seeing better condition photos. Any thoughts why the Blue Galaxy is the only "fancy" NLR in that box? Maybe they produced them later?

Are you asking seller about condition? To me the marbles look more like NM but maybe that's just the quality of his photos. They don't seem to shine like mint ones.

I'd rather not say. I was afraid if I offered too much he'd smell a rat. BTW, seller told me these belonged to his great grandmother who lived to be 99.

Imagine the nightmare bad packaging scenarios! I'd probably fly to pick it up too. Seller could do much better selling it with Morphy Auctions.

My jaw dropped when this new listing appeared last night. Seller had a Best Offer but no Buy it Now. I made my best offer but by the time he got it this morning, other bidders had already struck. Still, for one hour last night I was biting my nails and refreshing the page, hoping he got my offer before anyone else found this. 😉

Do you know his seller's name?

This week I will be adding a new top menu item containing advanced eBay search links. One of these links will only show results from reputable sellers of vintage marbles. So far the sellers I have are: cedarman7 hjdmarbles orange_orbital rhgeis65jk oldnurse85 natwilso-9 arasmus bobblocksmarbles Do you know of any other vintage marble sellers with a stellar reputation? I can only include so many, so ideally these would be regularly active sellers. I know zaboo left eBay. Thanks!

This sounds like a temporary glitch from last night's migration. You can still access the Joe Marbles site at http://joemarbles.marbleconnection.com but if you try the old link with the HTTPS it will redirect to marbleconnection.com

I have also used diluted hydrogen peroxide in a warm water bath on especially dirty marbles. It seems to pull off some of the gunk that liquid detergent does not. If you want to be a complete purist then use only distilled water so the marble surface has no hard water streaks on it.

Yeah looks like a cat-eye mishap, but very interesting.

Here's another example of agates fetching higher prices than I am used to, although I think this went higher because some bidders failed to read the fine print which said the blue agate lacked facets. That being said that black one on the right had some very nice rings on it.

Hansel are you the blood alley Whisperer? Those must have been ground in a mill a very long time ago.

Facebook is stimulating in the moment, but FB can't hold a candle to a forum like this with its 17+ years of timeless content thanks to its dedicated members past and present. Does it get much better than good citizens sharing their joy in a harmless hobby like this? I think not.

This is a fantastic tool from Google using data from their massive Google Books archive. Link to the tool is here: https://books.google.com/ngrams/ Like to about the tool is here: https://books.google.com/ngrams/info Obviously I could not use "marbles" for this example because marbles would include usage for statuary and architectural marble.

I am curious what "Italian Marble" marbles were in this ad from the March 1, 1928 Waxahachie Daily Light? I have found a California Agate or two but cannot recall finding any mystery "marble" marbles next to German agates except for the much older "blood alleys". My hunch is it was a limited import of some sort of plain milled stone marbles.

Yup...his other one was too but this was the killer.

Next time buy it for me and I'll pay you a finder's fee. Actually I double-clicked my picture and had the option to keep the original image aspect ratio, so I checked that. Funny all these years and I never had to do that. I just pasted these in from the eBay listing originally.

Yes, he's really nice. I did buy a pale smaller one off him that was a bit unusual though not a killer. Also got a 1 1/8" German handmade for $22 that seems like a good deal for NM. Won't know until it's in hand. Agate definitely not egg shaped. Looks normal here. Try refreshing your browser?

Bummer I missed it. Seller has no more like this. Check out the black and burnt orange and then the light bullseye. Anybody seen one like it before?