Steph

Thanks Al. Heatons in an advertising bag are new to me. It would be almost as cool to find a cross-thru St. Marys cat in a bag as it would be to find a buttermilk. Almost! Hehe Ron. Maybe I dreamed it.

It's hard to separate the seller from the marble, knowing what I do about his past sales. However, I think I would suspect that this particular example was a Mark Christensen even if I didn't know the seller was Pavcraz. Here's my contribution to the discussion. A pic of the marble in question, and one of Mark's for comparison:

In case I was being too subtle, I think this one Pavcraz was selling could very well have been signed, but it could be NM+ from where the tiny signature was buffed off. The marble is the right size for Mark Christensen's and the seller is known from the past to buy Mark Christensen marbles and present them as antique. Of course he has also sold Fisher marbles in "vintage" lots so maybe, but this one looks like Mark C's recent offerings to me. Are Kelly Schmidt marbles still available? Pavcraz does a pretty quick turn around business. Buys dug Akros one week and has them in his forged packaging the next. Not saying he wouldn't use older contemps if he could get his hands on them, but just thinking of availability. Next question: who makes guineas? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130350655669

Um, yeah, my money is on Mark Christensen: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120495552125 Mark's marbles are signed now but Pavcraz's offering was NM+. Coincidence?

My main question is who made it. I know Pavcraz buys contemps. Question is from where. For example, he's salted his lots with Mark Christensens and implied they were vintage Christensens. It might be educational simply to list who makes somewhat vintage-looking "striped opaques" and "guineas" and such these days. And maybe show examples of their craftsmanship. Could even be fun in its own right if we didn't have to think of Pav&@#! while we were doing it. While I was thinking of it I googled it and here's a link to some Mark C's: Mark has a site, but his "Tribute" marbles are out of stock right now. http://www.mcmarbles.com/

Motion carried by acclamation. But I still need a pic of Ron in a fedora. :-)

Green snowflakes!

Man, there are times when I seriously wish I had Photoshop. This is one of those moments. Raiders of the Lost Mibs! Can you see it?

Might relocate this thread to the Study Hall but figured I could start it here in case there was wider interest. Anyone have any cool storebrand marble packaging? The kind which might fly under the radar because it doesn't have a marble company name on it? Been specially thinking of the Woolworth packaging containing Cairo Novelties but anything would be interesting to me. Thanks!

Have a good one. Where do you fish in December?

Here are some American-made stone marbles. From the California Onyx Co., AKA the California Agate Co. (click to enlarge) That's one of the pix Doug Mitchell sent me. He's the grandson of the company founder, George Douglas Mitchell, shown in the photo.

Here's a pic of that blue-based jasper I used to have. Pic leaves much to be desired but people can get the idea.

Thanks Steve! Jaspers are one of my favorites among the seldom seen earthenware. I had a great one - white lines on blue. Alas, it's also one of the first mibs I ever sold, because it was one of the first I could identify! (lol) I have a large marble from the American Marble & Toy Mfg. Co. I also picked up a very inexpensive digital camera. Might be a good time to see if I can get it to work on mibs. Of course BJ already has some great pix of those. I don't think he'd mind if I posted them.

Bumping with a Ketchup & Mustard posted recently by Jeeperman at LOM. I believe it to be an NLR, but it seems to be approaching the boundary line between NLR's and Rainbos. It would mingle well with this boundary-pushing group of Tracers and Bloodies which Joeager found at auction: Here are some more tracers, I think from one of Lloyd's auctions. Still near the boundary I think. But I'm fairly sure these would be considered Rainbos by most. I'm putting a mental bookmark on these pix for when the subject of "tweeners" comes up. These mibs are dancing around that line so nicely.

By 'shooter', are we talking 3/4" range?

Coming soon.

great snag!

LOL. I thought of Nerf! But actually I didn't notice the spelling until like the third time I saw it. No problem! LOL

I moved it when I saw it going unanswered. It's sort of a specialized question so eneeeeway ...

p.s., as far as information my best guess on source and era is Japan, 1960's. That's all I got. Won't feel bad is someone corrects me. I know there were modern peewee cats, but were they cross-throughs? It might be educational to get a pic of the colors the modern cats came in. Does anyone have a pic handy? No matter what, that's one cool cat.

Oh man, I saw the title and thought I was in trouble again! Whew! what a relief. Jack, don't be frustrated. Feel Special! That is a very cool marble. The lack of information in this case seems like evidence of how cool it is. Put it in a plastic baggie and mark it "RARE". Then every year or two bring it out again to show it off! Maybe one of these years someone will be able to add more information about it. Maybe someone will someday find a lot of them. But for right now you get a prize for Cool Cat. well, that's my take on it. Sorry I can't give you more information.

Happy Birthday, and many more.

Ditto and Ditto! Here's to warmth and safety for everyone!

Vacor also makes marbles which are sometimes taken for older slags: Source: Schusserland.de Online Shop

Here are some more Vacors patches which I think could be taken for old. Sometimes the cutlines are v-shaped and it's easy to guess that they're modern. But when the cutlines are straighter they start to look more like Akros and Vitros. Interesting-looking variations exist but we don't often see them on the boards, so I don't know how common they are. That's one of the downfalls of vintage collecting - we collect VINTAGE. We don't know all that much about the modern ones. Always a surprise coming forward. (Schmoozer posted. I think he found them on the web.) Here's another set. I'm not sure if these are Vacor. However, they are foreign. Chris posted them.