Steph

LOL @ Pee Wee's.

Sorry, I'm on a teeny laptop. No photo enlarging skillz on this one.

. . . but I do have ebay search skillz, and here's a little bigger pic:

. . . uh, I apparently don't have pasting skills. have to rename the photo. brb

*pant pant pant* tada!

that is awesome

After 11 hours of playing . . .

their team made it to the quarterfinal.

Whitney got 2nd in the women's individual division.

Debra got 2nd in the over 50 division.

And Debra got to the overall top players division.

Debra's shooter was "killed". I don't know what that means!

Suhweet!

Schusserland.de has a lot of pix of new mibs, with several showing Czech-style bullet-mold ones.

http://schusserland.de/?Murmeln:Murmelbilder

Okay, that does it!

I followed the advice of many to not get that book, because the editor made the pix too small and it was a big disappointment.

But several people have cited things in the book which I'd really like to see! So that does it. Gonna have to get it now.

:-)

I like zip code evidence myself :-) but in this case it doesn't factor. Bogard took over from Heaton in 1971. Morphed into JABO in 1987.

Weather forecast for the tournament:

49 degrees, 80% chance of rain, 10-20 mph winds !!!

Good news: they're playing on a team with the town mayor and her husband.

And they have gloves to try to keep out the cold.

It is going to be a day to remember in more ways than one. lol

What's your best April Fool's Day joke ever, or best anyday prank?!!

Feel free to embellish! No one is gonna know!

p.s., is Google changing its name to Topeka an April Fool joke?

I'm sorry. Real person. Family treasure. Shouldn't laugh. Good luck to them on that sale.

Good Friday is coming up. That means marbles at Tinsley Green. I just got a great book written by Sam McCarthy-Fox about the games, Good Friday Marbles: Tinsley Green and More. (Thank you Sam!)

I also heard from Debra Stanley-Lapic - National Marbles Champ 1973 and proud mom of Whitney (NMC 2009). They're going to be playing in the games . . . and visiting with Sam. :-) Debra has played there before. She won as part of the American team in 1993. This year it will just be Debra and Whitney from the U.S. so they'll be playing on a British team.

AND they're playing Jabo ambassador. They have a 25 pounds of Jabos to share with teams from other countries. They're having to split them up between the whole family's luggage so they won't be over the weight limit. LOL

Check out this article about Whitney in the Reading Eagle, Marbles champ follows mom's international path. There are 3 pix in the article, one of Whitney and Debra - and two of Jabos - Jabos lying in thick white sand. That appears to be a big difference between marbles here and there - playing in thick sand. Check it out.

I've bid on one before! lol

I had no idea you were into Pelts, much less this close to a complete comic set. Good job!

Whitney Lapic - our reigning national champ - is going to be participating in that. Her mom sent me an article to post about it. (coming soon)

They look so exotic!

Cool!

Drop the marble. That will make it easier to get out.

Don't forget to add info on how much they glow under blacklight. And in what hue.

Not exactly a quarter pressed into clay.

I was confused by the negative relief, but if it was pressed in, the image would come out backwards. right?

I had misread something Alan said earlier. I thought he would be on the side of vintage. Now I'm down to one person I know saying likely vintage in private, and one anonymous vintage voter here.

This one surprised me! Glad I posted!

Interesting votes so far.

6 for definitely modern. 1 for likely modern. 2 for likely vintage. One for no idea. (One of the likely vintage votes is mine.)

What is it which says "definitely modern" to so many?

Is that a 4th red vane? Or is that a string of debris hovering over the center of the 3rd vane?

Discussion of coin sulphides made me hunt this one up. This sold on ebay. I don't know who won it. The feedback I've received makes me lean toward it being old, but not positive.

Actually rereading some old comments on it is making me lean even more toward old. So I probably don't need to post this now. But since I already have it typed, I will go ahead with it! LOL. It's a different looking mib, huh?

Here was the seller's description:

Original 1858 dated Liberty Seated quarter sulfide marble. This is quite a rare subject for a sulfide marble. The marble is made with clear glass. Our photos were taken on a black background thusly making the glass look very dark. There are some tiny insignificant moons & a few insignificant scratches on the surface. There are no chips. The diameter is 1 1/2". The bottom edge shows an area where the pontil was smoothed down in the making.

The center has a fairly accurate white sulfide rendition of an 1858 United States quarter. The "quarter" in the marble is larger than an actual quarter of this period. The "quarter" in the marble has a diameter of 1 5/16". The 1858 date clearly shows on the side with the figure of Liberty Seated. There is a bubble in the glass which is over about 1/2 of Liberty. So, you must hold the marble at an angle to see the details of this part of Liberty under the bubble. The reverse with the eagle can be viewed completely looking straight on.

I just noticed something. I was thinking of the red as being there because maybe Vitro had run out of black that day and were making a substitution. A literal replacement band.

But on some of them at least it appears that the red was in the middle on purpose. Thinking specially of the ones with the black (brown) on the ends and the red in the middle.

That one with the half black band and the black ends suddenly becomes more intriguing. Okay, I'm easily intrigued (lol), but still, that's weird.

George sent several interesting ads, and Al sent another copy of the one he posted which got me wondering about Yellow Jacket dates.

1957 (check out the Blackies - I think this might be earlier than the more famous version of Blackies)

1957

July 1964

August 1964 (handle interpretations of this ad with care)

1965, again

I think the four-finger is the one I've been calling an 8-finger. :-)

Does this come up with Alan's old Vitro page for you?

http://web.archive.org/web/20010818084127/marblealan.com/vitro/

p.s., Have you been to Joemarbles.com?

I'll name a name . . . for the maker of these scenic chinas. Someone named Flessa in Germany.

I've actually heard three spellings of the name. Vlessa and Flesse also.

I welcome correction from someone with more intimate knowledge of the matter. Like Cees or Jeroen perhaps. But this is what I've heard and I choose to state the name because to this point it has seemed like mere rumor that this modern scenic maker might even exist. I think it is time to make it more concrete. But as I said, if I have any facts wrong, I welcome correction.