Chordus

That'd explain the dull color of glass... the pattern is very MFCish, but I've never seen an MFC with a pontil. I didn't even realize there were marbles out of Japan like this.

Jabo does make a certain amount of sense for the fold. I'm 90% sure you're dead on, but everything but the glow and the fold is a dead ringer for a slag. I guess that's a pretty huge "but" though! The reason Jabo didn't register as a possibility is that the lot this comes from is almost exclusively MFC and Akro (mostly slags), WV swirls, plus a couple of CACs and Pelts for good measure (two CAC opaques!). The set is quite incredibly overall... the only outliers are this marble and the two I have in the other post. The set's from eBay, so it's plausible that something else worked into the set (not an estate lot of known age). I guess I'll throw this one in my "valueless but still pretty" set.

I've run across a marble with a strange combination of traits. The picture makes it look like a WV swirl, but in real life, it looks like a slag. Not "it might be either," but almost irrefutably a slag when under normal light. Problem is, it's got a brilliant yellow vein of glass when put under a black light, which is definitely not a quality of any blue slag I've run across. It's part of the blue glass that's glowing, not the white strands. I think I vaguely recall that Jackson made dark blue swirls which fluoresced... is that what this might be? Any other guesses?

I bought myself a set of marbles a couple of days ago, and I've run into a pair that's wholly unlike anything else I have. One side of the marbles looks like your run-of-the-mill MFC transitional, albeit with really dull colors. The back is strange, though... there's a clear pontil on both, but I think it's unground. My first thought was Leighton, but as I recall, they all have ground pontils. I don't actually have a Leighton to compare it to, though, so I've run up against the limits of my knowledge. Any thoughts as to what these might be? I think it's been about 7 years since I posted on this forum last, so... hi again!

There's a classic bartering trick where, if you ask an outrageous price to begin with, the buyer will often start with a higher offer than they would have otherwise. You basically knock their sense of proportion off. Given that he'll also accept "best offers," I expect that he's using that tactic. Or this could be a case of a &^***ing idiot. I'm not sure what five-letter word you would substitute in for &^***, but use your imagination.

I was out antiquing today, and ran across two types of marbles that I haven't seen before. I'm hoping that somebody here might be able to give me a basic idea of what I was looking at, and their value. 1- One lot had about two-dozen smallish black Benningtons. These were very clearly Benningtons, and not painted clays. They were also very clearly black; it wasn't a dark blue or a dark brown. I've never seen any that are black before, but the lot was rather expensive (they were just a small part of a larger -and very nice- lot), and I'm not going to drop that sort of money before I know what I'm looking at. Does anybody know just how rare these are, and if they're worth anything? 2- There was a larger marble I found that looked similar to a hybrid cat's eye, except for the very milky glass it was in (insert cataracts joke here). I'm guessing that it was a little over an 1" diameter. Are translucent-based cat's eyes a known phenomenon, and are they worth anything? 3- I've seen several Shoot-A-Loop toys before, but they're always in the $90-120 range. I found one today, in good condition with it's original marbles for $30. I didn't buy it, 'cause I'm not hugely interested in them, but I'm still kind of curious. Does anybody know how much Shoot-A-Loops generally go for? Is $30 a really good deal, or about average? Also, I haven't been on recently, and might go into hibernation again for a bit after I get these answers. But... hi to all of you!

I've seen three or four antique voting boxes in my life– the kind with the black and white marbles– and recently acquired one myself. From what I can tell, they were all made in the 1800s or very early 1900s. What confuses me is that the marbles I've seen in all of them are glass– I thought that glass marbles like this weren't mass-produced until Akro, in 1910. Anyways, the question is: how were these marbles made? Or have all of the marbles I've seen been replacements?

"Don't bet on it" is the best advice in this case, I think. It's a possibility, but it would be very unwise start buying them with the intent of turning a profit. Here are a few factors to consider, though: - As 0clv said, they're being produced in relatively huge numbers... especially given that they're only being distributed to a relatively small amount of people. - The people who want the marbles are going to get them now. You'll have a hard time finding new buyers in the future. - There are only a few people who get the marbles hot off the press right now, so there's kind of some price-gouging going on. - There are lots of runs, some of which are more popular than others. Crystal Orbits might go up, while Joker-IVs might plummet. - Because they're only in the hands of collectors, these marbles aren't going to have the same attrition rate as others (as Catfish pointed out). It's not like they'll all be lost and/or damaged 30 years from now.

The Marble Hall of Fame in Wildwood, NJ might have something: it's located at the Chamber of Commerce on Pacific Avenue. GWTIDA might be the ones to contact about that... you can send them something at http://www.wildwoodsnj.com/contact-the-wildwoods.cfm . They'll have lots of what you want there. Marble King has done some stuff with the media in the past, and my guess is that Jabo has as well. It might be worth it to check with them.

Well-weathered squarbles?

Everybody has that "one marble" that they really wish they had, but know that they'll likely never obtain. What's yours? (You can include a marble that you currently have if it's one you dreamed of for a very long time prior to obtaining it). I've always wanted one of Jane Walker's rainbow dragon marbles. I have an orange dragon which is the prize of my collection, but a rainbow one would put it to shame. I hear there are only three of four of them out there, and I only know the owner of two. One is Jane herself, and the other is the Marble Man. Understandably, neither are selling.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/marbles-vitro-cosmic-rainbow-patch-marble Looks like a pretty good set of colors on that one. There are a few on Ebay that are significantly less colored.

Stone marbles are marbles. I know because I've got a collection of 'em. (Bonus points to anybody who can find at least three logical fallacies in that last sentence).

I would venture to say that that Lutz is the best marble out there. But seeing as that's a one-of-a-kind, it's kinda unrealistic for a collector. In terms of handmades, I'd say that sulphides are generally the highest valued out there. You'd be lucky to find a a half-decent sulphide for under a hundred nowadays, and some go into the thousands. If it's got colored glass or a painted figure, you're sitting on a gold mine. I'm not well-versed enough in sulphides to really say which would be the absolute best. If you run more towards the machine-mades, CACs are generally the best out there. Guineas usually go the highest, usually close to a thousand for a small one. I hear that submarines are worth a fortune too. I have no real experience in either. Overall, though, I'm gonna agree with Griff. There's not any one marble that all marble collectors would agree on as the "most valuable." Everyone would love to have a good expensive marble to brag about, I'm sure, but most collectors will value personal favorites much more than what any price guide will say.

That blue really reminds me of some of those Clam Broth marbles. Looks better on the Lutz, though. Props!