Delbert

Does that mean they were handmade by someone out of cullet dug at an akro site?

That last couple of sentences in th elisting about folds, dug marbles, dirt sticking to them, etc. looks to be in all his descriptions, probably a disclaimer of sorts.

Hey Gene.

Now, let's broaden the classification somewhat.... does the Fugly range also include the drab colors of the recycled glass Dark Ages, long before Jabo reared its head at the end of the millenium? I have some mibs that look like they were made of a dismal blend of brown beer bottles, white cold cream jars and trashy clear vinegar bottles with lots of bubbles and chunks of floor sweepings. I've seen some of them that fall into this category sold on ebay as "slags".....;-)

That price list shows the marbles priced per mille, which is a lot of 1,000. $4 per thousand of Prize Name Agates. Of course that was in Depression era dollars, but still amazingly cheap considering the quality.

The ones in a leather bottle were called "pills" and had a flat surface where the number was. They were made of the same material as the billiard balls: cycolac which is an imitation ivory composite. Confession: I was a hookie playin' poolhall fan. ;-)

Yes, great stuff. Thanks for the link, manddrakes.

Well, to me marbles would make perfect sense if they had been cheap and available in huge quantities during the days of sailing ships. They weren't, though. In those days, glass marbles were handmade, one at a time. That made them a little too expensive to be used as disposable ballast. It's also what makes them collectible today. Ballast brick was commonly used, as was paving stones. The ship needed ballast in order to remain upright under sail.

can you post a link? Ebay's search feature doesn't work right anymore.

As an ebay seller, my complaint is that they ruined the search feature and tied everything to their categories. Views on my listings went down by 90% overnight when they made the search changes. I sold $3200+ in July of '08 then it went down to $400 in August and I had a huge store so the fees for August came to $200+. I've kept selling there but haven't gone over $700 in a month since July of '08. That's my problem with ebay, the messed up search feature. It even keeps me from finding what I'd like to buy there since I have to go through every imaginable category and sub-category looking for what I want. I buy stuff there, and sell a little bit here and there, but it's harder to make a profit.

Wow, kind of like an online antique mall. Sellers have no idea what they have so they set set astronomical prices just in case. ;-) They want you to commit to buying without knowing what the shipping cost will be. With all its flaws I prefer ebay.

That makes perfect sense. By the time that machine made marbles became cheap enough to use for ballast, ships had been steel-hulled with bilges instead of ballast fill for about 80 years. Before molten glass handling machinery was perfected, glass marbles were labor intensive and therefore, expensive in relation to other things that could be used for ballast. Also, ballast had to be easily moved around and anything that needed to be shoveled would have been a poor choice. That myth sounds like something made up to cover the fact that lots of what is sold as "sea glass" is acid etched, not tumbled for decades in the surf.

Yep, the same seller listed a lot of broken pieces of handmades all arranged to look like whole marbles in the picture, never mentioning the word "broken" and called them "marbles" in the title and in the description as well, saying that the condition was "collectible" and "good condition", closing with his signature statement "this marble will be a great addition to any collection". He referred to the marbles as "pieces" as though describing different items of a lot. Look at his items for sale page and click on completed listings. What he doesn't seem to realize is that Paypal will rule in the buyer's favor almost every time and will just take the money back from him as a way of settling the dispute. He's probably in for the hassle of his life if one of the buyers of a pricey item files a Paypal dispute on him.

Well, the seller's ID name is ohioattics. That gives me a disgusting mental picture of where the marbles were found. ahaha Ebay has so many of these wannabe clever BS artists selling there.

About gutta percha, it was widely used for all kinds of things, including revolver grips and even hollow walking sticks. In fact, when Rep. Preston "Bully" Brooks went into the well of the US Senate and flogged Senator Charles Sumner, he used a hollow gutta percha walking stick. The material was hard and fairly tough but light, making it useful for casting a variety of objects.

That appears to be a sphere, not a paperweight. I guess if it's a sphere it would qualifiy as a carpet bowler ;-). Among the paperweights I own, 3 inches is about the maximum diameter, though some are elongated and stand as high as 4 inches. A few I have are spherical with a flat ground bottom. Does yours have a flat spot on the bottom?

Even a noob like me can tell that this is that rare, unique, HTF Robert E Lee handmade Peltier Akro Christensen moonie. ;-) Makes sense if you know fleabay sellers' descriptions.

Here are a few blacklight shots. They're not great, but the best I can do with my camera.

OK, here's the one I mentioned. It's and 'End of the Day" twisted cane w/ aventurine in the navy blue stripe, encased in clear. The cane glows brightly under a blacklight.

That one is kind of like a mib, ain't it? My paperweight collecting taste has usually run more to encased core works and millefiori. I have a favorite or two, but my collection never really spread out from that narrow focus. I'll post a pic of one encased core example I recently bought as soon as I figure out the image attachment process here.