bumblebee

I won't be able to because I'll be too busy clearing snow off my 75-ft gravel driveway at 6 AM in the dark.

Thanks. I must have misheard that someone was hand-faceting contemporary agates intentionally to mimic vintage ones. Guess I just scored a very nice old one...now to find some blues or greens.

Great advice...I've noticed out here in MT people aren't as internet-connected so you have to dig around in person rather than on sites like Craigslist to get leads. Hoping I can get to shows within reasonable distances.

@Steph = It rolls well enough. You can definitely feel the facets everywhere with your thumbnail. @machinemades = I assumed the contemporary agate artist I heard about was intentionally cutting them in the traditional way, hand grinding them down, rather than using a sphere machine. In other words, he wanted those facets to show, but again this is just me overhearing rumors.

I have heard online and at shows that there is/was somebody who hand-cuts agates so that they look just like the German ones, nicely faceted. I happen to have a gorgeous 3/4" one that is wet mint and heavily faceted over the entire surface. I won it at a Zaboo eBay auction and have always gotten a sense this one was just too wet and faceted to be vintage, a feeling that increased when I heard somebody was hand-cutting and polishing contemporary ones. Of course not having any other truly wet ones, it could just be my inexperience. Does anyone know who is making them this way today, and do you have any examples? Personally I don't care whether this one is vintage or not because it's clearly hand-cut and a piece of art, but I am very curious to know and would want to buy more of this caliber, vintage or contemporary.

I moved to MT a week ago. The window in my office, which looks out on our back yard, is perfect for lighting up my agates. I am thinking of making some sort of cat-eye mobile to hang from the window, maybe inside two plates of circular glass? It is stunningly beautiful here, and no doubt will also be stunningly cold to this Southern California native. Our back yard would be a small park where I am from. White tail deer and even beaver sneak in to steal apples. I already have a lead for two coffee cans full of pre-1950s marbles, so fingers crossed!

Wow...must...have...that....box

Sweet. It must be prototype pelt month!

Black bananas are gross! I prefer yellow and ripe, with light brown mottling.

Yes, and where's the fire?

Wow, nice! I would have outbid two of the winning bids, but of course the winners would have outbid me anyway.

I noticed a lot of handmades went for under low estimate. I should have bid!

Definitely a Jabo Akro

Freeze dried Mountain House Chicken Stew with a best-by date of October 2015. Can't let this prepper gear go to waste!

Got mine too. Sweet and minty, but now I find myself craving more Sparkler variety.

We saw five or six nice streaks, even in the brightly lit California suburbs .

I will take lot 5 assuming still available.

Surprising how little action this thread has seen, but then again I would not have looked here had I not read Steph's advice in the other thread to look in Buy & Sell!

I'll take lot 11. Thanks!

I always pronounced it Veetro, and indeed that is the American pronunciation for in vitro (Latin for 'in glass'), but the veterans at the show were saying Vittro so peer pressure trumped instinct.

via Imgflip Meme Maker

Oddly enough somebody was selling a few of these locally in Southern California as part of their "vintage" collection. They might have been unwitting victims of the eBay sellers.

I am interested to see how these auctions continue doing in light of supply and demand. For me personally, I have no interest in "same run" Sparklers (at least not at market prices) because I prefer variety. But practically speaking, my pockets aren't deep enough to win Sparklers at current market prices, so I am more the jackal outside the kill, hoping the lions eat themselves to sleep so I can get scraps.

I think most here would agree that two or more machine made marbles manufactured one after another is a run. Subjectively speaking, I say it remains a run until one or more variables alter the appearance of the marbles coming off the rollers to the point where the human eye can detect a consistent difference. So if JABO makes 1 million clear industrial marbles, it's a run insofar as they all look the same to us. But if midway in the process Joe's watch slips off into a glass tank, then there will be a brief "Joe's Timex" run. If Akro Agate was able to precisely control all of the variables of the manufacturing process, especially the variables in big quantities of raw materials used in the glass recipes, then theoretically they could have produced Sparklers a year apart but which to a collector's eye look like the same "run" (or batch). But I consider that a very tall order given the complexities of a Sparkler marble. Think of just some of the variables that could alter one or more aspects of a marble's appearance: temperature, equipment wear and maintenance, employee skill and error, and especially those mass quantities of raw ingredients and the recipes. Think of those variables influencing the look of a Sparkler. It sure as heck ain't no Prize Name.