Steph

If I had them in hand, I would try to get a grip (lol) on the structure of the swirl. In the 2nd pic, the 1st marble looks like it might be showing a vacor-like cutline. Maybe I'm imagining it, or maybe CAC's could have that kind of cut too. But those are the features I'd be focusing on for now.

Nifty!

What do the others it came with look like? I think the first could be Vacor also. Some Vacors Albert posted at LOM:

Not old? Approximately how new do you have in mind? I would have guessed relatively old even if it did turn out to be from China.

First picture, top left, probably has a name. But it's one I wouldn't want to try to give. Reddish ribbons on whitish bases shouldn't be too intimidating, but there seem to be quite a few pelt names for mibs with that general description.

I'd like our current glass artists to try to replicate those. ... just to figure out how it could have been done ..... But then that would mess with the market. So maybe it's best for it to remain a mystery.

That half red / half blue fingers-type cat is different. (lol - don't mean to just focus on your cats. Thanks for all the eye candy! )

Wow!!! What a beaut! Awesome movement in the ribbons.

Hi glas. Thanks for putting your 2 bits in! ( :

This is what I came up with awhile back. Quoting straight from an old post. (Jill is the Jill Spencer, the Marble Queen.) The copperhead name seems to have stuck on a marble with purple in it. Here's one from Alan's site and a pair from Jill's. Jill says they have a band of transparent copper glass but it's usually missing. And if it's present it's going to be fractured. They couldn't be marketed because they couldn't take a hit.

Another option is sending them to Marblealan if he's still taking new consignments. Then you don't have to worry about pix or grading or nuthin'. But since you asked ... I used to grade super safe. Few of my marbles made it to mint when I listed them. But then I got feedback from a respected buyer and learned that what I was calling NM+ he called "wet mint with a couple of subsurface sparkles". I got a little more feedback from a couple of other people who thought the marbles they received were mint. So I felt okay to upgrade a little. Then I ran out of marbles to sell.

Very interesting! $28 per lot. $4000 + the joy of frustrating the marble community. (They've made it pretty clear from board posts and some of their item descriptions that that's part of their motivation.) Now let's factor in the cost of materials and the price of ethics.

Pretty sharp. Is it wood?

Wow. Gorgeous effect.

Happy Birthday Windy!

Yep, probably the same one. I'm 100% confident they make their own fancies. I think they might average about a buck apiece on them in the auctions. Not making a fortune, but if they have the kilns handy, maybe they find those few bucks good supplemental income. Reason I wondered about these was the lack of more obvious globs, plus the fact that back in 2007 when they first came to my attention they used to mix up new ones and old ones in their lots. So, since these browns look a little better than usual, I wondered if the seller might have been using real brown ones to help the fake chinas seem more legit.

That type has been dug at the Sistersville Alley site. Question is how they got there? Were they cullet from somewhere else? Did Alley even have patch making machines? Last I heard, that was in doubt. From Sistersville, Ron's photo:

Last year I would have said Alley. But now it's in question whether Alley made patches. How close is the gold part of the glass to that in your avatar?

Here is one of the recent offerings of a seller who has sold some clearly dubious bennies in the past. What do you think about these?

Updating with some of their February 2011 offerings: It's hard to choose which ones to pick. I've pared it down to these. Focusing on the greens because those have improved quite a bit but other colors have improved also. They don't get anything like the money they got for the eagle bennies. One of the lots of 3 greens sold for $17.50, including shipping. Quick check of the final bids for their current completed auctions show a lot go unbidded upon. When they make the sale, some of the lots go for almost $2 per mib, while some go for less than $1 per mib. So, not a high dollar racket. Let's have one more. Are these browns real?

Enjoy one of their recent lots: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250778788486 They really have improved remarkably since 2007.

Any benningtons they're selling, assume they're fake. They've been improving their art over the last few years. Two years ago we noticed they seemed to be dabbling with a lined china type of marble. Looks like they're still working on that. (This is the person who brought us the eagle bennies in 2007.)

Not a bad idea. I understand wanting all green. But the others colors could provide interesting accents.

That's a nice response. Well done.

we're sneaky like that.