Ally Opp

He loves marbles....whenever I have them out, he is there sniffing around. He will pick them up and take off with them. I've had more than a few instances of "misplaced marbles" associated with a mini anxiety attack, and then find the marble under the couch or in the kitchen. I have to really keep an eye one him around my mibs, because I wonder if he hasn't already taken a few outside!

I was a big Canned Heat fan, but canned marbles? I've never seen them before. I have to beleive that some others have though, right?

Are these Akro's being offered for sale now? Is the photo of the box yours? I get excited when I see corks like that....

Gad, the Eastern part of the country is getting slammed this winter! California has had some isolated weather events, but nothing like the rest of the country. Noah's Ark indeed...do you think one could be built from recycled wood pallets? Got to think green!

I am so glad to know that a lot of people really care for shelter and pound cats...I get sick thinking about all that are put down. My wife and I always (even though it is so depressing) stop in at Petsmart to look at their cats for adoption. Beautiful animals....we almost came back with a male Abassinian who was one of the greatest looking cats we've ever seen. His upper eyelids had a v-arch in them and he would just stare at us with that intelligent look....sigh. I will post up some more cat photos soon. Is this forum okay to use for animal stuff?

I just voted, John! The confirmation said "vote again tomorrow". Does this mean that I could vote for the Marble Car multiply times? Just wondering....I will vote as many times as legally can be done. Great design and I like where your heart is!

When I saw that this thread had 55 replies, I thought, "My God, all the collectors on this site are nerds", but then I kept on reading and my faith in the collector of roundish objects was reaffirmed. Get it? Got it? Anybody into multiplication?

As a newbie (still...sigh) I have a lot of cat eye marbles. As a kid, I kind of remember that all my cats were very well made with either all solid color veins, or at least a pattern in the multi-colored ones. I don't remember any being what I am thinking is being referred to as hybrids. Concerning cat eyes, what is the number one qualifier for it to be a hybrid? All the pictures in this thread are really amazing. Even though there are lots of cats out there, a lot of them can really hold my attention.

Old shell buttons are fun and it seems that old marbles and buttons show up alot in antique malls, yardsales and flea markets. I guess it has to do with the roundth?

Well, the yellow and white swirl right above the blue and red swirl Alley looks like a CAC. I would have been happy with this lot of marbles!

I was taking some photos of a group of marbles when Archie's head showed up in the view window. I kept on taking pix as he gentle moved the mibs around until he was happy. Archie is an adopted pound cat who likes to bring us large worms and drop them squirming on the carpet. The other night, he brought a very nasty Black Widow spider in, but I think it was attached to his fur. I had picked him up and was petting him, then put him down and noticed the nasty arachnid crawling on the kitchen floor. Luckily it was cold outside and the bug was crawling pretty slow. It still creeps me out!! Archie's fur is so thick that it would have been unlikely for him to have been bitten, but I was just wearing my robe! I swear, this cat loves water, mud, snow and will crawl under anything and put anything in his mouth! But he is my buddy.... I was amazed that he was so delicate (he had huge paws as a kitten) and was so careful. He did not disturb the other marbles and when he was done, well, he was done. This was taken about 2 weeks after we adopted him. Check out those whiskers and paws!!Archie has finally grown into his paws, and I will try to get him to pose for a photo---but don't count on it. He is camera shy now, although he loves to watch The Living Planet series with me, especially the elephant-eating lions. I think their roaring really gets his attention. He will watch the entire segment. He's really speacial, and we have had some great cats (pure bred siamese--I mean the real deal). If anyone is interested, I can post some older cat pictures.

I have always wanted to wet my fly line along there. After the big flash flood that wiped out Walker River proper, I have eyeballed the other stretches of water. Thanks for the compliments on the Ravenswood jobber box. I had a hunch, but thought the money was a lot, but my lovely bride allowed me to go ahead. She knows it keeps me out of trouble if I have a few marbles to fondle.

I don't recognize any of the marbles as Akro's, but the bag is probably what is being sought.

Well, right after posting this, I went to Joe's Marbles (a wonderful site!) and read with amazement David Chamberlains's article on Ravenswood and the small 30 marble jobber box. This is what I found, not a doubt in my mind! Thanks for the article, David! Do you still think highly of these early Ravenswoods? I can't stop looking at them!

Just got back from a trip up north to Reno, Nevada for some doctor appointments. All is well on that front. My wife and I decided to stay an extra night in Carson City. We took a half day and went south to Gardnerville and Mindin, two nice towns that have a few antique shops in them. We didn't make it out of the first one as it had over 35 different vendors with rented space. Spent 3 hours and found some goodies. I was really keeping an eye open for marbles and right off the bat found a baggie for $4.00 with a bunch of cats, a nice Akro Popeye, Red Flintie, and a few MK's. Also, I believe there are some unusual hybrid cats, but not to sure about cats. Next, I found this jobber box of 30 USA Marbles. I do not know the type....I want to say Heaton, but I think that is wrong. They were very dirty with grime and patina. After washing them in soap and water, they really sparkle. There are a few metallic's and most of them are not even close to being round. They are all the same type of marble, but I don't know if someone backfilled this box with the wrong type of marbles. Any help? Sizes vary from 9/16" to 11/16". All are transparent swirls, with the green ones actually being teal. I can add some back lit shots, as they are truly awesome marbles. There is evidence of transistional type pontils one about 1/3 of them. I'm at a loss, but they for sure are all from the same maker....maybe the same run? The box is in below average shape. One end flap is gone, and the other is inside the box. All thirty marbles are there. All 30 marbles are in near mint condition with only 3-4 having dings from being banged around in the box. I paid $45.00 for this jobber box plus marbles. Bad buy?

With that nice leather case, I immediately thought that these are support feet for something very expensive, but not too heavy. How about a large world globe? Those are very pricey, and I can imagine them being delivered or shipped with the feet separately packaged. Just an idea!

Yeah, I know what you mean. Cats are too smart, too independant, and just too damn unpredictable! Alas, our smoozing could have been historic. But it is probably for the best. I do have a really obnoxious cat--one of 2, who seems to think he knows more about marble photograhpy than I do. I will post his antics later. His name is Archie. Archabald when he is in trouble. Thanks for the brief interlude.

You have to like cats.....otherwise no smooze.

My small pee wee collection to date. Wow, this photo is pretty big. I used TinyPic for hosting. If this is not what the forum likes, let me know. I will have to study the tutorial on uploading photos. The purple pee wee is an Akro Flintie. I really like the Moonies though...I should have included a few of my bigger 1" plus Moonies for scale.

When I first got started in this hobby, I was seeing oxblood everywhere and buying stuff that I thought qualified. Now that I have a good collection of Akro marbles, I can make my own personal judgement about oxblood and not really feel to worried about it. I don't have any of the older MFC's, so I would not presume to know for a fact if I had one or not. I'll cross that bridge when one lands in my lap (odds?). If I found one in the wild, I think I would have a good base of knowledge to move forward, but until I have handled enough MFC's to be comfortable to call it oxblood, I would rather error on the side of it just looking like the oxblood color. I would probably risk spending money on a suspected MFC oxblood, only because I know what oxblood is supposed to look like, rather than wishing it looked like oxblood. I do have some other marbles, maybe Alleys, maybe Champions, that have glass that LOOKS like Akro oxblood, but not EXACTLY. For now, I know Akro made a lot of them (lots of cullet) and so did MFC (I'm going on faith, because I don't have one). The others companies....I don't know and don't worry too much about it. I have learned the hard, fast way what the stuff is and isn't. That is what is important to me. Everyone else new to this hobby has to figure it out. All the information on this thread is vital, but they need to have it in hand, and to have made some mistakes, to really figure it out. eBay does serve a sinister purpose in educating those willing to learn. I do laugh a lot, marveling at how many marbles are for sale with "real" oxblood, when it truth, the stuff isn't that common. I agree that in 20 years, anything dark red or reddish brown will be called oxblood by default. The serious collectors are going to have to come up with new terms, like "24 kt oxblood" versus "zirconian oxblood".

It is impossible to smooze without them! Notice how boring this post is because I didn't include at least one? Seriously, I enjoy this site and especially your posts!

Hey my good friend Steph! I will schmooze with you! Your friend, Doogle

Opal has been a tough concept for me to grasp in the world of marbles. In my eye, an Acme Realer has true opal traits as it has a fiery glint that really moves. Other marbles that have been described as opal look more like pearlized opaque or even iradized surface sheen. I have worked in stained glass for many years, and have watched the terms opal, opalescent, opalized, iradized, pearlescent, pealized all used interchangeably, and it seems by default to have been accepted. It is up to the glass artist to figure it out. I'm sticking with the Acme Realer to best describe opal's fiery look.