Steph

Good observation.

Subliminal messages? Bob is sweet and funny and nice. Why would you think that? Bob is sweet and funny and nice. I don't understand. Bob is sweet and funny and nice. Don't worry about that. Really don't worry. Bob is sweet and funny and nice. You're not missing anything.

It's a scary good copy, and the forger's next copy is going to be even better now that they see some of the things they need to fix. Someone is going to get burned. But I'm still glad I got to learn about the real deal. And hopefully the forger will still make some other mistakes so we can catch them again.

Look at the bar on the Ebay box. And that is not the only difference in the print. I don't like giving people lessons on how to improve the details of their reproductions. But the Ebay box does not match the Hardy box. And that is in addition to the marbles being wrong and the box structure sending up warning flags. Ebay: Hardy:

Well, since we're only talking about this one box here, I'll change the title of the thread. We can start a different thread for other boxes.

Good question!

Hardy's box is incomplete. However, Hardy's box does look like the blue marbles are the correct size. The inner box was for the smaller marbles. The larger marbles went on the edge. The box on ebay got the marble sizes wrong and I suspect if I saw them closely I would confirm the marble structures were also wrong.

The picture in Hardy's book is 23-years-old. I suspect the lighting skewed the colors. The one "like" this on eBay recently only matched the colors in the Hardy book. It had one significant difference on the label. If I'm correct about my take on the coloring, this could be a case of bad lighting in an old photo tricking the box copier and saving the day for collectors.

such an insightful show that was

Let's start things off with this seldom seen beauty.

Now I've seen a good photo of a legit G.A.R. box. Big difference.

Wild!

But aren't they called Indians because they were thought to come from India? If that's so, then that should be okay.

Yeah, the private listing also set off an alarm. Didn't mean to say anything about your gut ... myself mostly ... wanting to give someone the benefit of the doubt but so many red flags have now been waved.

The seller actually specializes in repro fireworks items and openly boasts about them being indistinguishable from the old. http://greatamericanfirecrackers.com/ AUTHENTIC REPLICA FIRECRACKER, SALUTE & CHERRY BOMB BOX REPRINTS. PAINSTAKINGLY TAKEN FROM ORIGINALS AND MADE TO LOOK OLD. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DISTINGUISH THESE FROM RARE ORIGINALS. The boxes in question look "off". Trust your gut. Buyer beware, and all that.

No, don't go! Unless you're going to pick up more marbles.

Gosh I wish I felt more comfortable with the names of German handmades. I'm inclined to think you have at least one Indian in the mix but I don't for sure, especially about the ones with the faintest color bands. Looking forward to hearing the answers myself.

I wanna start a thread for posts showing bottoms and insides of legit boxes so that we can know what to look for. .... but that'd give forgers more information to help them be even more convincing.

This is called The Stephanie. Not every JABO Ace with this color combo is called The Stephanie though. Probably just mine. Unless there has been a vote I don't know about. Another name for this combo is "Pink Champagne on Ice".

neato poteeto

Not this year! (yellow, red, orange, pink, black)

Somebody pick!

By the way, the Halloween link does refer to that seller. The seller's ebay name changed after the Halloween link was published. Interestingly enough, both sellers whose auctions we're looking at in this thread are mentioned at that link. I will continue to try to have an open mind. However, when something is so rare that it appears to be one-of-a-kind, sunlight is good. It is beneficial to both seller and collector. If the seller wants a rare item to sell for what it should be worth, buyers need to be confident. More information would be better for all. Thanks.