bumblebee

I agree. Seeing those first two I thought to myself there was no way they could look good again. But they look great now.

If it were me I'd ebay the $50+ ones individually and promote them here. Your photos are fine for eBay. Then the rest I'd sell in lots of 10-20 on eBay with plenty of good close-up photos. You could probably do well selling those more colorful Akro corks individually if you didn't mind the bother, assuming they are wet mint. They seem to have dust (or is it scratches?) on them.

Meanwhile, here's a 3/4" sparkler that could have been yours for only $384: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marbles-Akro-Sparkler-3-4-/290942836304?pt=Marbles&hash=item43bd8b5e50

I'm tempted by the $32 kit but the seller has very sketchy feedback...

Wow, a true nut job. Did you see his completed auctions? 99% unsold Buy it Now. He tried to sell the one you had your eye on for $859. Yup, we all know what he can do with his WET, PREMIUM marbles.

I had my first good score recently. I had hardly ever found higher-end marbles in the wild like these and it seemed almost too good to be true. My gut told me they were the real deal, but by the time I was half way home I was totally paranoid and upset that I might have been taken with repros or remelts. It was a terrible feeling I could not shake. Had I been taken I would have quit the hobby for good. I don't think I enjoyed those marbles until days later. Sure you can blame my inexperience, but the very fact that I had to worry like that proves in a sense that this hobby has been corrupted. Add to that the avalanches of special runs and contemporary machinemades that even old timers get tricked on, and you have the makings for a hobby that is becoming too risky and too "dirty" for newcomers.

Wow, if that's wet imagine his dry!

The bloodie was my first "good" CAC I found in the wild. Prior to that it had only been slags. I'll never forgot my surprise and delight at the deep milky white and the depth of detail in the finely striated brownish red ribbons. I knew that marble was special.

That first photo with the two grown boys on the floor with marbles is priceless.

Seems like a statement that could be scientifically tested today assuming someone is ready to sacrifice a flinty and other glassies.

Their other marbles had similar cute IDs, but they at least were all machine mades. I just adore agates. Now I just need to find some dyed yellow and green ones.

Apparently you people who search for phantom conquerors don't like hand cut bullseye agates. Surface wet mint (with some subsurface moons) and .875" and very finely faceted, with a lot of translucency under the bullseye when backlit.

That's rad! Finally, those marbles look right in that context.

I took some close-ups of this gorgeous 1" tri-lite I scored of the Bay recently in a big lot of mostly Vitros. Delicious!

Yes! I saw a tiny version of that in your timeline thread but couldn't make out the colors. So it seems safe to say "as early as 1931" up until whenever they stopped making tricolor/specials.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense they would reserve that color combo just for the War since we know Specials came out earlier, but it also seems likely they may have doubled up on production of them during the War. But I'm assuming since Akro had so many color combos they likely did not put out an ad just to announce the red white and blue ones, by which we could date them.

I just gave one as a gift to a non-collector who appreciates antiques. I was tempted to say they were made in the early 1940s as a patriotic response to the war effort, but did not remember a source for that being fact. Anyone have solid info as to when they were made?

Perhaps someone found original glass canes and made them into marbles. Might explain why there are "same cane" ones?

Yes! Except the one I saw was a two-color prize name, so it was a more vivid "swath" of that color. And for the life of me I cannot remember its second color. I suppose to conclusion to this is that Akro Agate made a mind-blowing variety of marbles sometimes in stunning, exotic colors.

Really close, but lighter like this.

I feel like the one I saw was lighter, almost custard lime...it's been years but I'd know it if it I saw it. One of my countless "if I were a multi-millionaire" fantasies is to have my own glass factory where I'd recreate all the recipes in Helmer's book and hire artisans and engineers to create machines that would make 1.5" replicas of the original marbles.

I'm assuming the colors on Akros are quite rare being as I've not seen them since. With marbles anything is possible. Could have been a single small "pot" glass batch someone mixed up, ran through the cork machine, and never made again.

Several years ago at my first marble show a seller offered a vibrant Akro prize name cork with an electric light lime-aqua color in it that I've not seen since. He was selling it for $50. He said it was a very early example when there Arnold Fiedler was mixing up crazy colors (or possibly when someone else was using his recipes later), but I've since not seen any with those colors except a vibrant orange and blue and orange and green. Does anyone have more information on these, or pictures of them?

Something like this may end up being a mixed martial arts competition, with opinionated experts coming to fisticuffs over the nature of seams and the meaning of "mint".

Condition was why I did not bid but I sure wish I had gotten that hot pink strip one. I'm still amazed at what auctions I missed despite several minutes daily of browsing mib auctions.