bumblebee

So I have this marble #1 which is 0.66" and my gut says Akro Sparkler:

Then I've got this marble #2 who is 0.72" and I always thought him a Master Sunburst, but when I look at that wide swath of color blending from blue to yellow on one side, it reminds me of a stretched out version of the color bands on the guy above. So who's who?

Here's some of mine with fantasy names. From left to right: two corking candy canes (made in Japan?), a Vitro and Pelt Christmas Bulb, (row 2) a green Akro Blushing Swan, a Master Marble Christmas Milk and Cookies and of course Mr. Claus and Mrs. Claus from Akro.

When you look through the bidders you see a lot of the same people bidding on a lot of his auctions. Even though you don't see a full name, you can still tell. I would say that he either has a lot of regular customers or.....

One of his bidders in the past 30 days has placed 174 bids, 90% of which were just for this seller, and he bid on 142 items but rarely placed more than 1 bid. Not saying that's evidence of anything but I find it highly unusual that ANY collector who is that active would not be bidding on more sellers.

Well he does have this incantation in the body of his listing:

KEEP CALM
AND
Bid
ON

Did you see they sold a Master sunburst for $172 that he listed as an Akro Sparkler even though the body of his listing says Master?

I just don't get it. I could list every single one of my Master sunbursts as Akro Sparklers, including 1" ones, and I'd never sell one for more than $50. Of course I'd never do that but is there some mysterious force that takes hold of people once the threshold of honesty and disbelief is passed?

Bingo! You nailed it. And yes those are the same clearies. I should have remembered this, being a child of the 70s. Here's another with the same nuts.

I went to an estate sale and found this Plexiglas stand for $2, which also included a bunch of 7/8" blue and white clearies. I was amazed I found it because I came late and the house was nearly cleaned out. I put some of my boulders on it and am pleased as punch.

Does anyone have this stand too? Can't tell whether it's custom or not. It appears to be fairly old.

It looks like something you could custom make. The black pieces are 2 1/2" each and screw together in the middle (to hold the center piece) and then are capped off at top and bottom with a nut, so it's the same on both ends.

His "near mint minus" is a small pile of glass shards.

Well at least he offers returns for any unwise bidder (or of poor eyesight) who actually wins it.

I'm not shocked. Recently I contacted a seller who had about 10 small handmades that ranged from cracked and split to foggy. He was insulted by my offer and claimed eight of them were "mint".

The older I get, the more I realize many humans do not partake of common reality.

I'm thinking there are clearies in there that are reflecting the black marbles which makes them look like they have inner swirls, sort of a black #3 inside them on its side.

At the moment my feeling is that these deep uv based marbles are most likely not peltier.

But im always open to new evidence.

Interesting...that bottom one with the blue feels more like an Akro patch now. One would think though that if these (or the original from Steph) were foreign then they'd be newer, more common, and therefore more likely to show up in a box or bag for confirmation. Or not...?

It reminds me of this 5/8" one that was previously ID'd on this forum and another as most likely Pelt.

Wow, digging those Pelt peewees! Never saw that machine before.

Wish I had more of these sub-1/2" Pelt rainbos...amazing how much they are like the big ones.

Not to mention all the potential fleabites and moons as they bang about, but I'm too lazy to examine each one after so I just put them away in denial about potential damage.

Many of you have had this happen, I'm sure. I had too many marble trays on my desk and I pushed my chair and knocked two off, including a cigar box packed with some of my favorite Vitros. Inevitably when this happens I end up not being able to fully refill the trays, so there are escaped marbles in my room somewhere.

My favs so far in this thread are the Vitros, the Masters and the Pelt Rainbos (when they look like Rainbos) at that size. Would like to see mint 1" slags.

Here is Grandpa Bennington (almost 1 3/8") next to his peewee grandson.

Nice one!

I don't hunt (yet) and still am not used to hearing rifle fire every morning here in Montana. Back in Southern California gunfire meant lock your doors and expect helicopters to buzz your neighborhood for two hours.

An illegal mating between a gooseberry and a cornhusk = caramel swirl.

That's what I was trying to suggest...definitely had a husky voice and wore ragged gooseberry pinstripes.

I was wondering about the one on the left as well as being painted rather than mixed clay, but the colors are spot-on matches...same factory, perhaps, different method?

Goosecornhuskberry

Would this be one?

Found this in Google images, apparently from an antiquetrader article but can't find the article showing the image.

It was my assumption orange peel happened due to surfaces on the marble machine, because I've only seen it on very large mibs. I figured the heavier big marbles while still malleable would gather these dimples by virtue of their weight. Just a theory, though.

Curious to know that as well, and also in what sizes? The biggest vaseline slag I've found is 7/8".