Steph

Bingo! Er, I mean, here's a follow-up on the ever so important sparkler question. I know you were holding your breath. Looking at a jobbers price list for 1933-1934 . . . sparklers are listed. They were part of the Special Assortment. From the flyer: The price on the No. 0 size was $2.40 for 1000 marbles. So Sparklers cost less than Moss Agates - the price on the No. 0 size for Moss Agates was $3.00 per 1000. The most expensive marbles in the list were "the brand new and exclusive Akro Carnelian" at $4.00 per 1000. "Conceded to be the best glass marbles manufactured." :-) Wonder who "conceded" that. :-) (Thanks to George S. for a copy of the ad.)

Do you mean Guinea? (with a hard "g" sound?)

they weren't called yo-yos. Apparently 'flying disks' (sp?). which I would have guessed meant frisbees if someone had asked me before today.

Thanks Dani. And John. Yes, I was trying to sort out the patches - or at least see if there was any chance for me to do it! - so I sidestepped the swirly or corky moss agates. p.s., did you know that to Master their Meteors were translucent? Some mibs I've been calling Cloudies I shouldn't have. I made an edit about that above. Master included "Moss Agate" style mibs under both names in their ads. Also, the ads have at least one pic of what I thought were Cloudies but they called 'em Meteors.

do ya'll collect Alox yo-yo's too? they're not fancy. but they're marble-relatable! edit: actually I don't know how fancy they are. there was a "4 jewel" model - just saw a ref to it at a yo-yo site.

Congratulations Ron! Hope your addiction is strong enough that you'll find a way to get back to us very soon!

Happy Alan Day, wherever you are!

Here's one of those topics I think I once was on my way to understanding but instead of getting more focussed it has gotten more fuzzy. I could try to recreate the info - in order to ask the question "intelligently" - but I've decided to just toss it out on the table and see what happens. The U.S. has exported marble-making technology, right? Some individuals or companies may have done it, but also the U.S. government in an official foreign relations way? Frank Sellers is cited in AMMM (p. 38) as saying his grandfather Lawrence Alley was invited by the government to go to Japan to help them set up marble factories but his health prevented him from going. And I think I also heard about this in connection with marbles made in South America. But I'm not sure. Anyone know the scoop on this?

Greg: Way to wake us up! Ann: I'm guessing that box is at least partially backfilled / mis-filled. By someone who thought the ox meant Akro? maybe? Or maybe those were just their very favorite marbles and they put them in their favorite marble box without worrying about maker? (lol) or something like that . . . Here's a horsehair ox thread. Horsehair Examples? Kevin: how much do you miss that box!?

Thanks David for commenting on the green base! Isn't in funny how we can distracted by terminology! Love the mib!

You misread Edna's meaning. IMHO. Why would you assume she was saying that anyone was speaking an opinion for the whole? Of course she meant that each person is stating their own opinion. Hence it is redundant to couch one's remarks in the IMHO ending. Or something along those lines. Why does "every comment" lead to chaos? Well possibly partly because of the tendency of people to overgeneralize. More definitely because of people misreading. It becomes exponentially worse when people make harsh criticisms based on their misreading. Regardless of Edna's meaning, or your reading of it, and regardless of whether my reading of her post was correct, your post was hostile. It was in direct opposition to the tolerance you seemed possibly to be calling for.

The "pinched pontil" misnomer is probably exacerbated by what some call "Japanese pinchers". Purely machine made but with odd pinched looking poles. Fun stuff, huh?

Everyone's opinion is okay EXCEPT Edna's? Don't knock them or mock them UNLESS they're Edna?

Is it That1's pic you copied in Post #62? I need to check that out. Are any of those "Vitro ox"? Yes, it's That1's. Originally from Post #49. The one in the center and the one just to the right of it (at 3-ish o'clock?) . . . are those Vitro ox?

haha, Kevin, you quoted my question before I was done hashing it out in my mind. LOL. I think I've seen some which people called Vitro ox which wasn't on green, but I can't remember for sure. Uh, okay, Edna is saying so. I'll have to go hunt down the examples she's referring to.

I thought that "everybody" knew about Champ and Alley ox. Vitro ox isn't even surprising anymore. Pelt ox quit being surprising some time back. But did any of them have ox which wasn't an accidental byproduct of the coloring agents involved? For example, I've been noticing a lot of ox floating around near aqua shades. This seems likely accidental. To me. At present. IMHO. etc. etc. I'm figuring copper was used to make the aqua shade (just a guess - looking for confirmation or correction someday). With regard to "Vitro ox", there is some which doesn't hover around near aqua or green, right? But that kind doesn't look so much like Akro ox?

One more. Just one. LOLOL. I love solids. Coz (a) I like to sort colors and (b ) sometimes they surprise ya! These aren't mine but I can't find the pic of mine. I have one which might fit in this box. If the ones in this box are hand-gathered and light up like an a-bomb test site under blacklight. I think I asked once if they were hand-gathered but didn't hear back on that. Alrighty, someone else's turn.

LOL. Bill's commons are fancier than most of my fanciest but here are a few more of my commons anyway. Albert's marbles are about as plain and common as marbles can get, huh.

Here's an old fave: Just an ordinary blackline all-red. Just your average vitro all-red. It has one proper seam, and then ... it corks on the other side. I don't want to slight well-behaved all-reds tho'. I like them also.

(pronounced OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH)

my vote is Vacor. Style name possibly Orca. http://emarbles.com/mega_loose.htm

Who has room to talk? . . . a lotta people can dish it out but not take even a taste of what they hand out.