david Chamberlain

Sorry cat'seyeJack but I have to disappoint on this one. If your colors are true in the photograph I'd be willing to send you ten more just like it if you can truly prove me wrong. I'd appreciate it if someone else would weigh in on this one as well because these marbles have been around since the 1990s and are well known. For a while you could buy them in qtys. of 100 from what's-his-name in Kansas City who makes the fantastic marble boxes that don't look like repros. Nice guy. Really, Marble King made these in the 1990s as sort of a reprise of the old 5/8" St. Mary's with four colors. Heck, I'll send you 10 regardless. PM me your address. David Edit: P.S. Just remembered something and the marble in question is a perfect example of this. They had trouble with the green either not fully making a vane or hybriding elsewhere and this marble besides having the subdued colors exhibits this problem with the green.

This is interesting. I never locked into the numbering system early on and straight out of the shoot visualized marbles in fractions of an inch so I've developed a second nature feeling for increments of 1/32" at least 'cause it is a considerable size difference if a 5/8" marble is 1/32" above or below 5/8". I can't do it all the time but most of the time I can come within 1/32" in determining a marble's size and it matters. Boy does it matter! Of course pee wees but in so many other cases because anything out of 'standard' shows and you can be sure someone will give that marble an $add-on$. One of my most unusual cat's-eye marbles and I had it in qty. because it was like all the others in a true Chinese Checker set literally made in China with Chinese instructions was a little larger than 5/8" which made them appear to be enormous. You can see pictures of this set in my CAT'S-EYE SERIES Photo #16 in the back pages at Marble Mental. All of them simple one color 3 vane but very tight vanes almost banana-like. Never seen a Chinese Checker set other than this one with marbles this size and it definitely added to the value of the set. Incidentally I gave the set to Mike Johnson as a gift a while back. I could go on but I think you get my idea. Size counts! Where have I heard that before? David

It is rather a fine line of distinction but I cannot see it for being definitive in any way as a method of general IDing. I'm not pooh-poohing the idea I just don't see it as universally applicable. It might say something about a particular run but beyond that I don't see it as a working proposition. David

Yeah, that 4th one in the top row is quite unusual what with the blue x-thru, and then the single yellow vane + the size factor. You know that the middle one in the bottom row is one of the newer 4 color MK's done as sort of a reprise of the old St. Mary's 5/8" 4 color cat's-eye, don't you? David

Are we talking about the same marble? And when did today become yesterday? Have I been at this damn computer that late? It's still today here. I'm confused. David

Teal is a tough one. You don't hear that color often. Dave McCullough sent me five marbles from the Madyia II run that he described as 'light teal' and less than 5000 of them made. I dunno, when you're talking 5000 "less than" hardly covers it! As you may have determined by now I have no idea how to answer your question; thought I'd just bumble around and confuse you all the more. David

I dunno Scoop, with the animals salivating in the wings your offering might not fit the bill. Try again. David

Quantities of a particular marble does not denote Salesman's Sample Box possibilities unfortunately. Just means you've got a lot but it's cool because you have the opportunity to see how the particular variety varies from marble to marble. There's always a plus side when it comes to marbles. I got a kick out of your sizing. David

Not a Spiderman. I'm afraid what you've got there is a Superboy. David

I've an Alox marble of even more suggestive attributes. See my Alox article at joemarbles.com. The 4th Photograph(marble on the top right). David

Wouldn't that be falling in the 'too rare to price' category? David

That pretty much cinches it. David

Wow, hybrid horseshoes cum bananas! David

Very interesting. I would suspect that this seller at some point came into a bunch of empty mesh bags. Mind you this is just conjecture. But I think I know Alox and I have seen dozens of these bags and never have I seen these marbles in the bags. If Marble King they are the newer ones and another case of someone giving Marble King marbles a bad name by using them fraudulently. Will it ever end.......no! David

What I don't like to think about is those high end, name marbles that might have been fried along the way over the years. Or for that matter ones that were sent sailing in sling shots. Before Jabo got a better handle on packaging I consigned more than a few pounds of them to wrist rocket practice. One morning I spotted a coyote about 1/10th of a mile away settled down on a ridge so I went back inside to get my wrist rocket and supply of Jabos(5/8"). The first one came down about 10 feet from him and he lifted his head to look over. I swear the second one came right down on top of him and he was out of there. "Some damn fool firing marbles at me!" "What's the world coming to." David

I'm curious. How much bigger than 5/8"? I know that even 1/64" larger can make a 5/8" marble look small but are they by any chance 1/32" larger. If they are perceptibly larger than they are extremely unusual for a 3 color cross-thru. The 5/8" cross-thrus when they were first recognized after Larry & Marlow's book came out were garnering $20 ea. I have no idea what they've settled down to these days but they were always 5/8" and not the size of the ones you have. Yes, there was talk about 7/8" and 1" or 15" 3 color cross-thrus but not the size of the ones in your thread here. Just a little background....David

Hi Pen, Horseshoe Cats are basically cage-style cat's-eye marbles that kinda loop around within the marble into a horseshoe pattern. If there were a pic here you'd right off say, "Oh yeah!" Vitro while in Anacortes WA was particularly noted for making these in 5/8" size and larger. I am mailing you the CAT-EYE book by Castle & Peterson gratis whenever I finally get around to it. Sorry....been procrastinating what with prep work for a big Yard Sale and Gawds knows what else. David

I'm sure that your marble postings are being enormously appreciated. And yes, even today there are a lot more marbles yet to come out of the woodworks. David

He appears to have emerged unscathed. David

That marble would be enough to get anyone going! Incredible horizontal action and a none too common color combination to boot. David

I've had a few chips off that same block myself. Let's hope that spreading "smiles" is contagious rather than just infectious. Sorry, I can't help myself when I'm left such an opening! David

That's a dog and a half! I've a greyhound and a border collie. Good girls both.

Whoa! That baby took off in the last few hours just like I predicted.....$338! Congratulations! David

Good question(s) Wayne. I think you could say that the majority of collectors agree on certain names either from tradition or current combined weight of agreeing meaning consensus. Then there's thems which are completely out of this loop and are pretty much on their own. Secondly, I believe that there are efforts afoot to bring some uniformity of understanding to the names. This involves different parties. Already you can plug into this information on various websites. It isn't perfect and I guess time will tell. Only today I heard that although Jim King was not too far away from publication the latest Jabo runs coming as fast and furious as they have will be putting that off for a while. I would imagine that he would be wanting to provide as much documentation for these Jabo runs as is humanly possible. Of course, we always have the right to call our own marbles whatever we want. I personally reserve that right. David

I'll tell ya marbleus1 some of your hieroglyphics are lost in translation. But they sure are entertaining. David C.