bumblebee

Yeah, I wanted the two mint CAC exotic striped opaques too.

Word on the street the "Japanese pinch pontils" are from the 1930s...so I wonder what the ones made in 1907 look like?

Part of joining a club ("marble collectors") is fitting in, at least for me. That means imitating to fit in and to learn. So I caught on immediately that Akro and CAC were hot. When I dug through my first lot, it contained several minty Vitro black lines with gorgeously vivid colors. My eye was pleased, but my brain intruded like a nagging step-mother, "But those aren't CAC or Akro. What's more, they're not that old." I remember when I found my first Popeye, I felt I had arrived. It was like a merit badge. But I was not all that excited about the marble itself. My excitement had more to do with its present monetary value and its scarcity, rather than its aesthetic qualities. Now I've matured and learned that while scarce might mean valuable, it doesn't necessarily mean beautiful. To really collect what you enjoy you sort of have to not care what others think and become like a child, who knows nothing of the value or the history, and just enjoy them for what they are. Your eye will grow keen and the nagging step mother won't interfere with you anymore. So yeah, I've got some nice Popeyes I'd be happy to trade at the next marble show for Vitros...oh wait, hardly anyone brings Vitros to the marble shows...

I have a couple of other marbles with accidental birds on them. Birds have very swirl-like lines, after all. Sorry Rylee, this one's not for sale!

Two lashes are preferable on Pelt Geese, but these are so rare, I'll take four if i have to!

Wow, do I see a 1" vaseline slag in there?

Dang, whoever polished that took off *a lot* of the original glass...just kidding...

Did you look over the pics here, here, here, and here ? Unfortunately the detail on some of the group photos doesn't cut it but it might give a rough idea.

It's amazing what people will see or won't see based on the amount of money put in front of their eyes. He sure didn't explain its provenance.

What's special about that Vacor? Is it particularly old, actually handmade? I'm just not up on those. I have one very similar that's 7/8" but it's bouncing around in a bag of other new Vacors.

youhave2bid2win = http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=772&item=260904470817 also http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=772&item=250954269063 (fake fancy benningtons, etc)

Wow, Alan's chunks of oxblood steak are beautiful...but too rare for my tastes.

I'd like to see more before and after examples of this technique. I have quite a few fogged up marbles that aren't missing glass, but are just really cloudy from rubbing against each other for decades. I would sure enjoy seeing a few of them shine again. But then, I'm not one to sell marbles and these wouldn't be worth much fog or shine anyway.

Could you post some closer-up before and after examples?

Only slightly out of round. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Clay-marble-vintage-marble-/360422381482

Here's the prices realized PDF: http://www.morphyauctions.com/auctionadmin/image/auction/realizedpdf189.pdf

Looks to be a good sized lot of transparent clearies and ghost cores.

This is far from a dead horse. If these are authentic, what does it matter whether they were dug up or from ex-employees? In either case, if the original finders would tell the truth and provide a shred of evidence, the value of these would skyrocket. Heck, even I would buy one. I find it impossible to fathom why they would not do this, since it would be honest, historically invaluable, boost their value, and shut people like me up once and for all and polish some of the tarnish this episode has brought--seemingly unnecessarily--onto the hobby. To me it seems to have grown the crazy legs similar to a treasure story. I feel like at any time we're going to hear that the original finders mysteriously disappeared in the deserts of Mexico while on vacation, or that these were actually discovered in the Roswell wreckage by a rancher and were presumably the playtoys of alien children.

I just find it odd that the people who believe and insist that they are real have no knowledge of their true origin. If they are real, then why didn't CAC make more like this? Were these like their last run before they closed down that they gave away to employees at the last party? If these were "the best of the best" that some employee secretly squirreled away, wouldn't someone at some point have said, "Bob, these are gorgeous. Let's make more like this so we can sell them." ?

If they are authentic, then why the secrecy and hush-hush? In a hobby where every scrap of history and provenance is precious and eagerly devoured by hard core collectors, why do the origins of these remain a mystery after so many years? Clearly whoever found them has refused to reveal where/how/when despite the criticism from marble collectors and historians, and surely there must be more than one individual involved and colluding. They clearly have something important to hide. These are the only reasons I can fathom the secrecy if they are indeed legit: 1) Someone obtained them illegally (dug up) and doesn't want to get in trouble. 2) So many were found (dug or from an ex-employee) that they aren't willing to reveal the full scope of the find in order to protect their market value. (This seems like a contradiction, though, since hiding their origin is in fact harming their market value to a degree.) 3) The finder is trying to protect their privacy and security. This seems like a good reason, but in that case orchestrating a simple anonymous press release with a photo or two of the find would not threaten anyone's privacy or security and would greatly benefit the community. Surely whoever decided not to reveal their origin made a blunder, whether the marbles be legit or not. Those are all the reasons I can think of obscuring their origins if they are in fact legitimate. Does anyone have other reasons? If they are not authentic, then the mystery and secrecy makes perfect sense.

The fact that you have their e-mail addresses should be enough to track them down. In fact the e-mail they sent you would likely have enough information to track what residence they were at when they sent it (with help from their Internet Service Provider), unless they sent it from a public library or coffee shop type location.

Nice find. I remember when I found my first big brown. I also remember the bottom half of it was missing. What I'm trying to find is a vaseline slag larger than 7/8".

According to Terapeak.com this seller listed 167 pre-1970 handmade marble lots from May - Nov 2010 and sold 143 of them. It appears every lot was titled "VINTAGE MARBLES ANTIQUE TOY OLD BENNINGTON CLAY LOT." Total sales were $4,003.

Wow. Either the top bidder accidentally put an extra digit in his max, or they know something we don't. I'm baffled.

Good to hear. I'm relieved. I wrote and told them I was passing on the marbles. Gotta save money right now anyway.