bumblebee

Reminds me of the bag of mint CACs found in a wall.

Here's the seller's reply as to their origin "I bought they on a german fleamarked.some bulgarien sellers have east german circus carnival marbles on ebay for sale and maybe my marbles are from the same time.because I live in east germany."

I'm confident Carl Fisher, the clay marble whiz, could reverse engineer how striped opaques were made.

A marble seller in the USA is selling some Bulgies as Leightons.

I have to say that the existence of "outie" pontils is interesting. First off, whether these were made in the 1950s for carnivals or recently for ripping off eBayers, the persons responsible for them clearly messed up in quality control because "outie" pontils render these useless as marbles, fake or otherwise. Since the seller claims they were purchased in bulk for carnivals, then it seems like the buyer got ripped off, or did the buyer intend on grinding these down before giving them as carnival prizes?

One taste of easy money and it's downhill.

Ouch! Can you remelt the remelt?

I agree and think the "guinea" ones are clear evidence that somebody searched eBay for the most expensive marbles, saw prices on CAC guineas, and then imitated them along with the "Leightons". Problem is they failed to realize the original guineas were machine made. Yet they have reserves on them from $79 and up, which to me shows this is not just someone pulling random marbles from a bag and listing them innocently like he claims. Speaking of his bag, check out this photo he sent me.

I tend to assume people who buy these are victims, but in reality some of the buyers are going to go resell them to new victims at higher amounts.

Wow, interesting! Translation is rough but on the top one seems to state he wants to buy a batch of marbles made in 1995? So maybe this guy is wanting to buy them from others in order to sell them. 1995 must be important because if he is claiming they are at least 47 years old, then "from 1995" could not have meant "from before 1995" because in that is not far enough back to align with his story. In that case, ebay in 1995 was not a hot market for marbles so maybe these were used in carnivals after all?

Check out the pontil on this one he sold recently. Has anyone ever seen a vintage transitional with a pontil like that? Weren't they at least ground flat? If these were true vintage, then pontils like this could only be explained by these not having been processed by the grinders/melters, right? OR, it could be that somebody did make these by hand for carnival games about 50 years ago, maybe an old marble maker, and since they were just prizes it was too much labor to mess with the pontils? The seller told me he has about 4,000 of them total.

I stand corrected: He is selling other carnival shooting gallery items that look old. Step right up and test your luck!

He's sold 339 since January. Seems very odd that they thought of hand making "GUINEA" marbles for this circus. Surely he can provide a photo of the box containing what's left of these marbles? Surely there must be other evidence from the circus game? Seems like someone with that much to gain and so much energy for listing them would naturally provide such evidence to increase bids. Heck I'd buy a couple at $30 each if I had more confidence.

Thanks for throwing another good show, Rich. Here are some marbles I picked up there. Not pictured are several more 7/8" Vitro hybrids.

I hope to see an update on this thread with more pictures if you have the time, Ron.

Wow...wish I lived closer to marble country. My only consolation is that it is 72 degrees here today.

I agree with Steph on the USA side, and in fact the import marbles do seem to have different sizes if you look at this Butler Bros catalog clipping from 1928.

Picking up jaw from floor. Thanks for the eye candy.

Killermarbles traded me a nice little CAC striped opaque for a nice little handmade I had found locally in the wild. It is always an exciting and humbling experience to see collections like his where there are marbles that are worth more than your entire collection. I also got to hold Galen's big insane red/black/yellow CAC flame that looks like it flew in from outer space. Holding it, I had this feeling that even if I collected for 50 years I would not find its like. I bought three guinea halves and from the right angle they look whole! Now I can say that I own 1 1/2 guineas. Bennie Jones was there Friday night but not Saturday, so I ended up spending most of my mib money with him and his increasingly flexible pricing. It sort of spoiled me for Saturday when vendors were asking for $15 for 5/8" Masters and other offences against my cheapskate collecting sensibilities. I also got a cork with a clear, honey-colored opalescent base, which is just stunning in hand. Never saw one before but now it is one of my favorite corks. Would like to see its big brothers.

Hooray for oldmarblenut!

I hope both report that guy with the link I gave earlier.

I don't think ebay acts on fraud listings unless they are active brands like fake purses and what not. That one guy sold fake Benningtons for years and everyone reported him to no effect.

Was this it? Did you make a best offer?

If he threatened you within the ebay messaging system you can visit http://ocs.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactUs&wftype=3002 with the details and tell them he did it within the messaging system, etc. I suspect they might actually do something, although knowing eBay it will be a slap, not a ban.

Good question. I have seen a couple guys like that at shows and always walk away puzzled how they manage to sell anything.