bumblebee

Thanks...for some reason I've not encountered that size until recently but at least I was leaning in the right direction.

Aren't the black dyed ones associated with older agates? Otherwise I was thinking it was possible in later years they could have roughly hand-ground them then threw them into a grinding machine but I assume they'd have a very unique look then with no side-by-side facets but just facets that dip in and out.

Wanted to update this thread with an agate I had put in the "machine made" corner because I couldn't detect any facets with my naked eye. Recently I gave it another look with a 14x loupe and the facets were clearly visible over the entire surface. Whoever made this was a very skilled craftsman. Never again will I be without a loupe when purchasing agates!

This seller is selling these in beat-up "old" condition which is more compelling. Sold several lots already. If it weren't for the infamous furnace reflection photos from the primary seller of these, I'd be tempted to nibble at the hook.

Are these Jabo classics or newer Jabos or? Most are between 11/16" and 3/4". I don't collect Jabo but in the past the Jabo Classics I found were always 5/8" so the size of these threw me off.

You mean the lavender and mint? It's a stunner. Are you so in love you feel your cornflower blue ace/mossy cork slipping from your fingers into an envelope and addressed to me if I offer you this chorus of Fallen Angels in trade?

Nice. The tough ones are those with universal wear, with not a wink of original surface there to dazzle you at the right angle. But then again those are probably the most loved and played with, so it takes some imagination.

I regret selling several marbles. I even regret giving away a couple. Seems like I gave up more than just the marble.

In your prime you stole their breath away, a prize in battles won and lost. For that passion there was a price to pay. Bit by bit your beauty was the cost. Fresher faces replaced you in the ring, retiring you to a dusty past. Too broken to be the star again, yet too precious to become trash. Many decades in darkness you hid, losing your memories but keeping your scars, until a new lover opened the lid, and hoisted you back among the stars. What love and time took we have forgiven. Both have made you a rarer prize. Beauty lost to love is only hidden, taking our breath and giving a sigh.

In hindsight, VBOPS is easier to say and remember. Vitro Brushed Oxblood Popeye Sparkler. "Hey Joe, did you see those VeeBops somebody put up on eBay Sunday night?"

VitroSparklerBrushedOxbloodPopeye

Because of this listing and thread, I propose we adopt a new term in our community for listings of this type: VSBOP VSBOP listing : An eBay listing of marbles outrageously misidentified and overpriced by a seller who mixes marble knowledge with imagination to create a chimera and who, even when gently corrected by experienced collectors, continues to stand firm in his convictions and knowledge and fantasy.

Previously I had only found one melon ball in the wild (blue left) but today found two more, including an opaque light aqua. The top darker green one doesn't have a "big" pontil on the bottom pole, which is totally smooth.

Nice big slagalanche. If these were edible, I always imagined they'd taste like molasses and root beer.

Thanks. This was from an extremely limited run at the Vitro factory as they could only afford the Flemish oxblood brush artist for one day. Also, sticking the live sparkler inside the glass right before it hit the rollers was tricky and dangerous, and rarely worked as intended. Furthermore, there was only one cobra (a juvenile) in the state of WV that year, and they ran out of cobra within a couple dozen marbles. As for popeye, it was said one of the glass workers read the funnies every morning and kept them in his overalls pocket, and during this run the folded funnies--with the Popeye strip on the front--fell into the glass furnace.

Don't forget the bumper sticker version: MY OTHER TRI-LITE IS A SPARKLER BRUSHED OXBLOOD POPEYE 6-COLOR COBRA

LOL

Just when you thought your Vitro tri-lite was, at best, superior, word magic induces a money-fed frenzy of imagination which creates the Vitro Sparkler Brushed Oxblood Popeye which, according to the description:

We could do a group donation of old slags and he could remelt into a limited "Lazarus" run we would get dibs on.

Quick, somebody send a camera crew and make a documentary.

Interesting I had not heard that before. I found an article on Google Books describing a schoolyard game called Center Ball in 1908 which includes ring men:

You know, it struck me the base is like my Akro milky oxbloods, and sure enough those often have white wisps on the surface.

This 0.64" mystery arrived in an estate mason jar with 90% Vitro tri-lites and superiors. There were a number of odd-ball tri-lites and "tweeners" (IMHO) in this jar but this one stood out above the rest. See that faint whisp of blue inside the smoky base? I'm guessing an anemic conqueror?

I managed to capture my favorite "electric blue" color in my collection on what I believe is a Master meteor(?) And while we're at it, I got a good sunlit shot of my 1" Eurosparkler with his orange peel surface: