bumblebee

Here's a recent auction that sold a couple of these in a Vacor group. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Marbles-Vacor-Michelangelo-Swirls-Lot-W-/192621542984?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137

Thanks! I've seen a few thin purples on my Vitro but never this much. Purple Haze!

Found this deep purple today among a lot of 1960s marbles. Is it MK? Almost looked like a Vitro helmet but I rarely find MK so?

If you are familiar with those 9/16" vivid Vacor Dragon-like marbles that seem to show up wet mint among other Vacors but are considred by many to be torch made, then you will find this listing of a 10/16" Leighton to be uncannily similar in color: https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-16-OUTSTANDING-AQUA-BASE-LOOP-LEIGHTON-EY-OXBLOOD-PONTIL-MARBLES-GP-MINT/223112216398 I've attached images of the mystery 9/16" mib below. What a fun hobby this can be! (For future proofing, here's a partial archive link to the eBay listing since eBay now seems to remove many of its completed listings: http://archive.is/yKI2t )

It's tough to say because there is definitely a reflection effect that happens on the scanner bed. I expected this to be a foolproof way to find facets but other marbles I knew were faceted didn't show up this dramatically so I there are lighting and focus variables that just are too out of control. Not shown here is another marble from the same lot. Under a loupe it does not have any long facet "channels" but I definitely see the occasional flat spot. Makes me wonder whether that means it was left in the polisher longer than normal? Maybe on rougher jobs they had to polish them longer. We need that time machine to go back and ask!

Facets are tricky to spot sometimes, especially on this darker one, but when I threw this one on my flatbed scanner, there was no mistaking!

I attended the OC show this year and it was about 25% vintage marbles. Combined with in-room trading a couple days before the show, it was still worth it to me but you cannot be shy anymore and have to dive in with so few sellers.

Wow, surprising racial bigotry against Japanese pre-WWII...I wonder what the marbles were? Couldn't be our familiar Japanese pinch pontils, no?

Probably many original workers are still alive since Japanese longevity is so high.

In that case I am probably just assuming the inflation was happening during those decades at a level it was not. Unfortunately the chances of finding one of those Lucky Boys unused are probably not good, but maybe a better (color?) photo will emerge to help solve the mystery.

Are we sure that's from 1929? The prices seem very high. This page from Billboard 1943 shows a listing for a "Lucky Boy" marble vendor (right side of page). This one from 1957 shows prices on complete machines hardly higher than the 1929 one.

I tried it with a small pink pencil eraser on one of my few but didn't get results. What sort of large pencil eraser is this? Pink one?

Like I said, they're solid and cheap but the blue is a bit off-putting, although if you put a layer of gray foam under it, that might neutralize things enough. Still, I cannot think of anything better that's nearly as a ffordable.

Those are mostly Vitro Blackies You're right, though, they are cool marbles that are common and easy to find but with lots of interesting variety. I still find interesting new variety among those even after 10 years.

I ordered one of these 208V2 racks for displaying marbles and think it might be one of my favorite affordable display methods so far. You can find them on eBay and Amazon.com for under $6 including shipping, or $1.99 each from the manufacturer (not including shipping). What I like: - each contains three plastic trays that hold 50 5/8" marbles each. Note, two of these have the larger hole size; the third one (shown on right of my picture) has smaller holes but still holds 5/8" marbles albeit not as securely. - trays are hard and sturdy. They don't bend if you lift a full one up by one end. What I don't like: -the aqua blue color is not neutral. I understand they did make clear at one point, so I will look out for those. I am now trying to think of what sort of tray I can put multiples of these in. I understand they also have ones with 15/17mm holes which might work even better if combined with a foam layer underneath?

He really liked peppermint swirls!

Popeyes still make collectors crazy. I have 25 Vitro tri-lites in my opinion better looking than 99% of Popeyes, but hopefully that remains only my opinion so I can keep scoring cheap Vitros!

I sometimes wonder if the artist(s) who made these had simply only released the very best ones in limited quantities, that they could have made more money that way.

Amazingly juicy collages there. I had a dangerous contemporary marble moment at a recent show. I was so blown away by the beauty and craftsmanship of them that I spent the bulk of my money on a nice Geoffrey Beetem marble. It has taken me almost the entire time I've been in this hobby to purify my judgement of a marble to simply what my eye likes, rather than anything else I know about it.

That blue color is stunning.

Wow. I would nickname it The Thing.

Thanks, John. My head's spinning but I wonder whether anyone digging CAC's site found guinea frit?

Testing the compatibility of their guinea frit glass rods on base glass? Mr Shamrock, where are thou?

My earliest "wow" moment was finding a beat up Master sunburst and being stunned by the color quality and depth of the glass. That's when I knew vintage marbles were special. That could have been my bug-catching moment. Cherry-picking a mint Golden Rebel from a box was wonderful, but selling it later has tainted that memory.

The top one is built like a Vitro tri-lite and the bottom ones look more like the photos of Cosmic Rainbows, but I will definitely keep them in my cryptid section.