honeybern

What do ya do to them if they try?

Exactly! And I would never break out a microscope just to enhance some color-challenged lame's viewing pleasure of one of my mibs.

Tellmeabout it. I was checkin out one of my best mibs - paid over two hunnert dolla fer it - dang near mint golden reb shooter w/aventurine n everything then got a hot hair to check it out under my new microscope like an idjit ...... O the humanity!

I'm working on putting together a 3 day virtual excursion into an as made bubble pop on a Vitro Cosmic Galaxy. Have room for 6 more, want to sign up? In the meantime, this is the beast it's plug and play and user friendly and you can do whatever after about 5 minutes from opening the box. Let's say you have this mib: and you say to someone, "Hey, check out my new red and blue oxblood limeade glowy mib!" But the response you get is, "Alls I see is red oxblood, there ain't no blue in it." Well, you can show them this 35x mag shot of the oxblood and say, "There, you see?! Red and blue!" But they still say, "I still don't see no blue... how much you pay for this, you get gypped or what?" KAZAAAM!!! 400 x mag! "Ha! Kiss my grits you no-blue-oxblood-sein'-mutha-so-n-so! Now what?!?!" Veho USB Microscope. About $60 through Amazon and others.

what show?

another couple of shots at 30x and 400x

30x at surface 30x subsurface 30x bubble pop 400x surface detail

Oh man I missed this - well that's sounds exactly right - 2 hours! Yikes! After 2 hours you should need a welder's visor just to look at it without going blind and have forearms like PopEye!

Idk I bought eight: 70, 120, 220, 400, 600, 800, 1,800 & 3,500 idk if there are more but those were an assorted pre-pack from somewhere - I think through Amazon.

Yeah but how long would it take to polish big BLUE Jabos until they look just like AKRO red slags????

Nice! What's a "Cas"?

If reducing size you should be resampling with "Bicubic Sharper", "Bicubic Smoother" if enlarging, though I'm not sure why the distortion is occurring.

What? No listing fees? You mean they switched all their fees to where they aren't tallied until shipping? Based on what - sale price? I heard they also get a cut of shipping fees. In My eBay under the Account tab, at the top of the page it still says: "How to Sell Items on eBay Sign up for PayPal (optional) If you want to use PayPal to accept buyers' credit card and electronic check payments online, we recommend signing up before you list your first item for sale. Register for PayPal." (red added by me) I know more than just a few sellers who'd like to know that PayPal is optional! Phyllis: I was, literally, strong-armed into registering for PayPal and then, again, into getting verified, though I refused to be "verified", at the time.

Speaking of Agates, does anyone have examples of natural carnelian marbles? I heard the ones of US origin are from South Dakota and (I think) Nebraska? Cool boxes.

The cerium oxide needs to be mixed with water to make a slurry - kind of like what oozes through your fingers when throwing a clay pot on a potters wheel. If it drys out too fast and heats up after only a couple of seconds, you're running the Dremel too fast. Using the small diameter, thick Dremel polish pads (about 1/2" in diameter and about 1/2" thick white, wool-like material for the threaded mandrel) are better than the thin polish pads because they can be soaked in water first and wont dry out so fast. You might want to add an old sewing machine electric foot pedal to your Dremel (the foot pedal plugs into the wall receptacle and the Dremel into the foot pedal) to have variable speed from zero rpm to whatever your tool's max is. Let me know how all this works since I haven't actually tried it out yet but I've laid it all out on a flow chart and I think I got it pretty well figured out. That marble looks great. Do you have the 3500 grit pad? I forget who makes the ones I'm getting but they're made in Canada and there's 8 grits from 70 - 3500. There are also cerium oxide impregnated hand pads I considered but at the point where the abrasion is so low for polishing I don't think I want to make 500,000 - 1,000,000 revolutions by hand when I can use a Dremel. I figured out the difference: 500,000 circles by hand @ 180* rpm = 46 minutes (brutal!) vs (approx) 35 seconds by Dremel at 20,000 rpm though I'm not sure if either is sufficient to polish to a wet finish. If it winds up taking 1,000,000 or more revolutions, its a no-brainer (like it wasn't already! lol) * One could hand polish much faster than 180 rpm but for how long? I sorta did a medium speed test and came up with 3 rps which I multiplied out to the minute/hour.

To the current upswing in the appearance of marbles in jar listings on eBay, I have penned the following as, what I hope, sends a clear message to sellers of my views on this issue. I would urge you to copy and paste the following as a question for sellers whenever one comes across similar listings or at least compose something in your own words with the same end, in mind: Question for seller: "Why are you displaying marbles in a jar? If I were interested in old jars wouldn't I be browsing the eBay old jar listings? That said, I'd only be interested in alternate views of your marbles whereby the jar only acts as an obstruction so I can only assume that there are details regarding the marbles which you prefer to obscure. So I guess I've answered my own question, haven't I? I expect that this listing will be added to the list of all of the other, unsold marbles-in-jars lots which I recently happened to peruse in the completed listings view of your other offerings. Thanks."

I only mentioned cerium oxide as both aquarium manufacturers and shower door companies recommend it as the final finish after using more abrasive steps for scratch and chip removal - mixed into a slurry with water. I got a jar of it through Amazon and showerdoordirect.com to try with my dremel on newer marbles or basket case marbles that I'd throw out, otherwise, from large lots. I've tried diamond foam pads from 60 - 3200 grit but the marbles can come out square if your not able to remove glass evenly all round. Wow a "three headed machine" no less! I'm calling Kingsley just in hopes of seeing what one of those looks like! Im thinking with three heads its a hands off deal? Otherwise you must have some shiny knuckles.

is it a true blue or a turquoise as in the OP? nice marble

HOO ha! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beautiful-JABO-JOKER-CRYSTAL-ORBIT-Mint-Marble-/130567221105?pt=Marbles&hash=item1e6669af71

Sounds great! And if it's as dramatic as you say, wouldn't Jabo like to achieve the same effect off the line without the necessity of hand finishing! lol! Aside from melting, can you comment on the best polishing medium for polishing undamaged marbles? I'm thinking for use with a variable speed Dremel tool with a sewing machine foot controller. I have heard cerium oxide slurry is the primary choice of compounds for finish polishing glass. Waiting for a jar of the stuff to be delivered now! Looking forward to your work being posted.

You are absolutely right! But right or wrong, the noise made by the forces that drive the ebb and flow of market demand will drown out the naysayers, as is always the case, the truth be damned! While "the owners" continue to promote and trade in these marbles, the "non-owners" won't be able to afford the time away from the trade they do have to mount an offensive substantial enough to have any lasting effect in their favor.. Expect this same debate to repeat, over and over, at regular intervals, similar to those before it.

No I don't know who Craig is. I don't need to know who Craig is, as far as this topic is concerned. I know who Brian Estepp is. I know who Alan Bassinet is. And I know that a dozen low level, big shot marble wannabes packed into the same thread don't have the combined expertise or authority that either Mr Estepp or Mr Bassinet possess to lend any credence or have any lasting effect on the trade in CAC exotics. Maybe I don't know why Craig said what he said. It sounded like envy but it could just as well have been for economic, competitive reasons. If I was wrong, I apologize. I hear a lot of grumbling about who has and who has not been given access to the purchase of these marbles at the wholesale level. But since exclusivity happens in every branch of commerce and trade, along with the same kind of grumbling from those who feel they have been left out, hearing it now only further supports my position . I'm sure there are myriad reasons why different people would want to discredit the authenticity of these marbles but with every post as lacking in evidence as the one before it the notion grows more and more incredulous. After re-reading this entire thread, the opponents have, other than wild accusations and absurd conspiracy theories, no substantial case and, collectively, sound like bunch of whiners and crybabies. Furthermore, if you read the OP, I don't see how anyone get's "Attack CAC exotics!" from "What does a CAC Exotic look like? How are they different from regular CAC's?" so why those who have gone on the offensive in this matter are thanking Steph for this thread, as if she's "with you", is beyond me.

You have no clue what you're talking about or who you're even talking to, do you? lol! I was clowning you. ("you" meaning all of you). When I said I'm attending Harvard Law school, I meant that I was attending sometime after I finish Jr high and high school. Oh yeah, and college. Don't you ever read someone's profile before engaging? Or even their previous posts within the thread you're participating in? I'm only 12 and gram's, here, my great grandma, honeybern, is 94 and registered here so I could post cuz I can't register anywhere til I'm 13 (can't post anything either unless she gives me the nod, post by post, and if she's snoring it could be a while) It's all in our profile. I mainly just wanted access here for help with marble IDing, but its so crazy here sometimes I can't resist jumping in the mix. Peace, clyde!

Let me see the adults act like adults, then get back to me. (I assume you were referring to me, maybe just forgot to click "quote" first?) And I didn't go after ANYONE - I was just defending myself. If anyone can't handle it, maybe they shouldn't click the quote button in my posts with bad intent if they don't want their nose bloodied. I have never attacked another member or talked trash about anyone's post, first, but I'm not taking crap from anyone, either. Specially not from someone I don't know from Adam, have never met, never exchanged any words with, who introduces themselves by quoting my post then proceeds to try and dismantle my position, statement by statement, with BS, spewed from the side of their unwashed neck.

I have a gang of Jabos and suspected Jabos. These are the more recent Jabos around 3/4" average. I have no idea which runs they are other than they fall within the manufacture dates you are looking for. Hold on to all of them as long as you like. I can send them tomorrow. PS I know there are Joker FINALEs in there but don't know which. All of my Jabos are MINT.