bumblebee

Refreshing to see no bids on it.

I put the five names in a box and my daughter drew the winner this morning... Congratulations to @B-rett66, you win all the marbles!

I was wondering that too, but when I searched the FB Vacor Fans group for "eclipse", this came up in about the fifth post from back in May!

Here's a 5/8" machine made Vacor Eclipse I purchased in a net bag today with a fine nine.

Here's an old thread in addition to the Joe Marbles page:

OK, you're in. Good luck!

Does appear to have the orange peel texture characteristic of a Euro Sparkler.

You can buy regular rebels all day long, but I sure don't see many peewees.

Good idea! I think we could come up with something to do as a group that would get more newcomers excited with marble mail.

Santa's elf has been busy. All the major American marble makers are in this lot, as well as a couple of surprises. When I first started collecting, it was difficult to find vintage marbles in the wild that were in mint-range condition. Took me a while before I truly understood how good a marble can look in mint condition, which is one reason why marble shows are so instructive and inspiring. In that spirit, most of these marbles are in the higher mint range.

Many of us can relate to this one.

Here's one just for you.

This morning, on my way to work, a disheveled elf called me into an alleyway and showed me this picture on his tiny flip phone, claiming it was part of the Christmas marble package being worked on in Santa's workshop. Of course, I cannot confirm nor deny this because that would spoil the gift, but I might as well share what I saw:

Tis' the season for giving, so I am putting together a Christmas marble mail package for one of our newer collectors. This drawing is for those collectors who will dance like Walter Huston in Treasure of the Sierra Madre when they see vintage tri-color veneered patches and marbles with a neat spiral pattern. 🤣 In other words, I ask the old timers to take a step back and let the newcomers enjoy a better chance at winning all the marbles. But I won't judge anyone for entering, so you do you! The rules: You must be registered here as a user prior to the date of this post. To enter, simply reply here with the the phrase: I WANT ALL THE MARBLES! (You are free to reply and say other things, but you won't be entered unless you write I WANT ALL THE MARBLES!) On December 11th, I will put all the names in a hat and have my daughter choose the winner at random. I will message the winner and send the marbles to their shipping address. While it won't help you win, if you write in your reply why you want to win, it may inspire me to sweeten the pot even more. The drawing ends by end of day December 10th, 2023, so good luck! Names entered as of 12/5: @B-rett66, @Linda Gail, @Melissa, @Djp5690, @Big Billy red beard

Hah! I am repurposing that one elsewhere....😃

This time by the DALL-E-3 engine. Took me a few tries on each prompt to get the image I liked. These take under 20 seconds to generate. "a marble collector" "a female marble collector" collection of vintage agate bullseye marbles toy marbles made by aliens leprechauns playing marbles santa claus with a sleigh full of toy marbles

Topics that go bump in the night...

Maybe if she pawed them it would be Bye Bye! 🤣

Great point. Many of those mint marbles have already outlasted their original owners. They're just on loan to us.

So my girlfriend decided to go on a late-night cleaning spree, and, without my permission, tackled my dusty 6-ft marble temple shelves. All of you know what that means, and you're probably thinking the worse, and the worse is what happened: she somehow dropped or knocked off (from what height I know not) my most valuable brag box, which is sealed with a magnet, and which is still missing six marbles this morning. I presume they all fell out and she just put back the ones she could find. To find mint bricks and tri-color CACs floating around on the hard floor or lower wooden shelves feels as bad as you all can imagine. My mint Akro Royal with heavy aventurine is still missing, probably under the shelf on the floor. I refuse to take out a loupe and examine them. What's the point? They're each unique and irreplaceable, and I wouldn't sell them for five times their market worth. An obvious lesson here is ensure people in your life realize how fragile and important your marbles are so they see the DO NOT TOUCH sign. But for me the bigger lesson is that ultimately we all must let go of everything precious in this life when we leap into the unknown country. Little incidents like this can help us practice that shrug of letting go. When my time comes to be knocked off this mortal shelf, I hope that wherever I end up, someone or something discovers me in the darkness, shines their light on me, and finds me precious enough to be worthy of a seat in some divine--and much more secure--brag box. 😀

From the City Museum of Ljubljana.

Thanks guys! I was a bit lax on updating the donation tracker and pleasantly surprised by how we beat the funding goal this year, so thank you everyone who contributes here in activity and financially. I definitely fought a few technical battles getting the board moved to a new server and then offloading all the images to different hosting, but with that all settled now we should be able to coast along for a few years without running out of resources. This is a precious resource for marble collecting lore and information so I am honored to be able to keep it going.

So far it's been stable since I made the change, so fingers crossed we can coast along smoothly for a few more years.

Maybe it will inspire a marble maker. Confess my heart skipped a beat from the fantasy agates.