Steph

Yes, the bag would be modern compared to handmades, but still maybe vintage. The beach ball style is a lovely German variation of the cat's eye family. I have no idea what they typically go for though. I don't know if if I have a single one, much less a bag. They're on my "would be nice" list.

A related historical tidbit is that Cracker Jack also had individually wrapped Akros as prizes inside the Cracker Jack box. Larry White's book Cracker Jack Toys gave 1928 as the date for the prize. White said that the marble was a red and blue swirl but I can't think of which Akro production item that would have been in the 1920s. The wrapper is the most valuable part to Cracker Jack collectors since the marble itself would be hard be sure was original. This is a picture I just snapped with my phone from Ravi Piña's book Cracker Jack Collectibles. The marble looks more red and white to me, which would be easier to place as a 1920s Akro. [Edit: The marble in my photo isn't looking red and white to me. Maybe blue and white? My phone camera does often turn things blue, but looking back at the original page in the book I'm not sure what color I'm seeing there either. Might be blue. Now I'm wondering if someone meant that the marble would be red or it would be blue. Not that it would be both. That would make much more sense as far as 1920's Akro production goes.]

My go-to marble packaging guy has confirmed that those would be the original marbles. I am pretty sure I have seen a photo of the box before. I looked through some marble books and did a search here at Marble Connection. Didn't find the box (yet). However, I did find copies of some of the advertising for it that I had posted way back in 2009. Not sure were I got the photos from, probably a Cracker Jack site, and I don't have the exact age of those. However, the scans are dated 1929. The scans look like George Sourlis' work. I bet I have some of the actual ads among my own magazine collection. George gifted me many magazines from that time period containing early Akro advertisement. But for now here are the pictures I found.

Oh gosh. Very nice. Handle with care! No matter what, I would not change out those marbles. It is possible they are original. If not, still no harm in leaving them. Maybe some kid kept his favorite marbles in that box, which would be cool in its own way. But those could very well be early Akros. Much historical information has been lost or blurred by people removing contents that they mistakenly believed did not belong in a box, and sometimes even go so far as to backfill the boxes with what they thought was more accurate contents.

displays amazingly with the underlighting

Welcome. Marble to me. Contemporary art glass sphere

Welcome. Sweet display.

A nicely colored pair of hybrids at 3/4". I saw when the bid was $700 and I wasn't shocked by the bid. I guess I'm not shocked at $1500 either, but I don't have any idea what they "should" go for since I've never been in the market for one. When I think a hard-to-find marble is out of my reach I don't pay much attention to pricing.

Sorry that happened. Thanks for sharing.

P.s. I like clearies a whole lot and in the 1950s clearies helped the Vitro Agate company stay open during tough times for American marble manufacturers. So though they are "commons" I gotta say a good word about them. 🙂

Hello. Welcome. You have a mix of ages. Some modern. Some going back at least to the 1940s. The three decorated ones aren't actually marbles. They are part of a hoax that started in the 1990s. Someone procured used industrial ball mill balls, the kind used to crush chemicals in factories. Then they decorated them and took them around to unsuspecting antique dealers. In the rest you have some game marbles and clearies and catseyes which usually have little value, but you also have some more interesting ones which could have a little more value though nothing jumped out to me as high dollar. But I am on my phone typing with one finger with a purring cat in my lap so I will leave it to others for now to give you more input.

No. Might have some other name like weak milk or some such, but I don't know those names. Just that it's not a buttermilk.

Superiors have yellow surrounded by a pair of red ribbons. Chuck B's pic:

Tri-Lite.

Hello. Welcome. More photos could help. The orange and black one near the top could be from the 1930's. The cat's eye underneath it is quite a bit later. The clearies and the small solid-colored marble at the top (that's called a game marble) could be oldish or could be newer. They've been made by many companies for many decades, so it is practically impossible to pin those down.

Yes, I am under the impression that there are different rules for the big ones.

Based on the packaging I've seen them in, I would think of the pinchers/Wales style as being from the 1960's. As to which ones might not be Japanese, the first I feel strongly about is the middle marble on the left side. Also I'm not sure what to think about the red-based ones with white surface color.

I'm leaning Akro on both

Wow, Ric. #keeperthread ^^ #keeprthread is my way of telling myself that a thread needs to go into the archives after it has run its course. It gives me something unusual to put in the search engine.

Many are Japanese, of the Wales or Pincher variety. I don't think all though.

Could the first one be a Vitro Conqueror that got hung up in the machinery?

Trying to remember if that's Akro or Master. Now it's coming to me. They were sold by Ravenswood under the label Paul Bunyans, but bought from Master I think. Some Paul Bunyan bags were given an extra tag post-production saying the marbles came from Akro, but I am pretty sure it's Master.

It sure is trying ... the blue and red wanna be there .... Chuck Brandstetter's:

My first Bogard Halloween is in the mail ....