Speed Racer

Hit it with the UV and tell me what you see Ric. Thanks.

Thanks Winnie, they are even better under a penlight, my favorite way to check out a mib. Glad you like them. More of the Master. I figured it was uncommon when I first laid eyes on it. Thanks for sharing. I appreciate it.

Again, I had a wonderful time at the show and managed to pick up a few goodies to take home. Ok, I can't sleep. These Masters are keeping me entertained all night! A cool Pelt in there also. The Spidermen are shown to have a differing hues. Two have oxblood. The two green shooters could be Marble King but I'd love to hear more about them. I've never seen them before.

I drove up Sat and brought some paperweights and lots of contemp handmades. I spiced it up a bit with some nice Tiffany, Steuben, art glass and even a nice piece of Meissen. Really enjoyed seeing everyone. (Bet ya didn't know Sam Houston played marbles!)

You always show some nice ones Ric. I have a shooter similar to your salmon mib tho your pics are much better. Check out the roll in the ribbons appearing as a seam.You can see the clear in it at about 10 o'clock in the 2nd p[ic. Ruby Slippers huh. Bet that one's from Kansas! lol

Some recent finds. A few nice ones in there.

I see yellow blue green and white with some clear in there too.

That gray color could be just a washed out blue, as the other white bands are lacking it. Or at least that is what I am seeing on my monitor. Very nice Liberty regardless. It does have an American flag thing going on. Cool.

Happy Birthday Steph!! Hope it is the best Birthday EVER!!! XXXOOO

I think that is the 2nd marble from the left and it looks like a CAC Swirl. The 4th from the left in bottom row is what I think they are talking about. It does look Vitro. The blue base with reddish swirls (between these two mibs) looks like Peltier colors.

No Winnie, altough there is an S looking thingy there on your mibs, Galen specified that it had to start at one side of the first seam and then make it around to the opposite side of the second seam. Those you show resemble more or less what a Vitro might look like to form a V pattern.

Mon, it's cool. We are all on the same team here. Even Galen has a right to come in and take his hat off. You don't have to like what he says but he has a lot to offer on CAC's and everything helps, big or small, as far as opinions, guesses, and or feelings. Remember it takes every kind of people. I personally feel you are backing him into a corner somehow, and this is how he is reacting to that. Normal for him. In other words, don't read too much into it. JMO He is just tired of the whole mess as far as the real truth behind the discovery. And if he didn't care he wouldn't be here. I do not think he is dissing them. He stated earlier (in so many words) that it is the whole picture that is hard to swallow and not as much as the individual mibs themselves. You have to admit that the sellers went about this in a very peculiar way and are continuing to do so. The problem seems not to be so much about the authenticity but rather everyone just wants to know who all the players are. And their response is NOYB. Nothing different there. And so what? I've even tried to help in that area. And no I don't think you are being nasty, I think you are just being yourself, just as Galen is being himself, and some people can ruffle feathers more quickly than others. And yes, that is how wars get started but we can stop being antagonized if we let ourselves, if that is what it takes. As far as no flames? Just wait, I don't think we've seen all of this cache just yet. Might be saving the best for last, right? As in flames? As if these Exotic's don't look amazing enough already compared to the average CAC's, the flames might just blow even these out of the water. And I would bet the bank that there are a few. It just figures, right? There were too many hurt feelings and the wrong words exchanged in the beginning between some creating a hatred that will take a long time to dissolve, if ever. So we all must come together here to try to smooth things out, right? No harsh words, only teamwork. That is how you will get your answers. It sounds to me like they are still waaaay underpriced. they belong in a museum. I think if the right person came forward, a large premium would instantly be added to the actual value of one. This heavily guarded secret is only hurting the sellers and not the buyers, right?

I stayed up all night thinking about this and to answer your question, Steph, I don't think there were 'exotic runs' but rather there might have been only a few from an entire run that were this nice, and they must have been picked out and taken home. I think the secrecy today might be leaning more toward the tax man theory. "Let me tell you how it will be; There's one for you, nineteen for me." Wow, the answer is simple when you just relax and clear your mind and try to remember that we could be dealing with any marble company from day one that had a few exotic 'outcomes' during a run. Akro for example had the five color Specials/Popeyes. What if these were (mostly) all taken home by employees on a regular basis? Imagine if not one really outstanding Akro hybrid ever made it into a box for sale! Now forward to present day...Then all of a sudden a large cache of em hit the Vegas showroom floor from out of nowhere.. Yep......lots a head scratchin... what are these?...too good looking...but they are corkscrews... sooo...never seen five or six colors before on a single mib...are they real?...too perfect... hmm... I'm not comfortable spending a lot... So is it just a matter of time before we see an outstanding-never-seen-before-exotic-type-collection from a retired Akro Agate employee connection? Not really, since these CAC's are just better examples of known examples. Does that make sense? The five+ color Akros made it out for sale just fine it seems. Someone said it earlier, there is no telling what might show up eventually but some of our eyes are closed to this simple hypothesis. This goes for ANY marble company! So maybe CAC employees cherry picked the runs to death. Wouldn't necessarily be the hot-glass workers, but rather the employees in charge of the final boxing. Even then the mibs were sorta hot, but not too hot to swipe a few here and there. Now we might be dealing with a couple of female employees. (No harm, no foul, please gals!) lol This type of thing is frowned upon by all industry standards to this day and is referred to as 'death by a thousand cuts'. In other words, the owners likely had a 'no free marbles' rule in those days. Every mib went into a box or other packaging for sale. Of course, maybe it was all fair and square and any employee was allowed to make up a box of cherry picked favorites that week to buy and then take home. So eventually they saved all the best looking hybrids (Exotics) from ever being sold way back then?

It is approaching the midnight hour here in the fiery-hot hell-pit called Austin, TX. Time to give up the names that go with the Mexico plates. BTW, I was never told not to repeat this information so I think it is ok to 'let it all hang out', as they say. You know I was letting it all hang out that night during a cool conversation between friends about mibs, when I happened to mention the Exotics. Someone in the room seemed to know all about it. Won't say who that was, but here is the name of the couple and pardon me if the name is misspelled. Has anyone ever heard of Joe and Ann Ealand? (eee-land) Hope this helps. Now will someone sell me one on the cheap? I'm guessing the prices just went north!

They are not dug marbles IMO. If anything the dirt and wear issues on a few of them could be from the aformentioned CAC worker shooting a few of them with his kids. And why not? That is what they did with them back then. This story also explains why so many were found together at one time and place. C'mon, just look at them. They are beyond beautiful, so why would they have ever been dumped or hidden undergound like that? That is a crazy notion in anyone's book who have ever laid eyes on them. Think about it. This guy amassed quite a few during his apparent tenure. The dug story was likely made up to cover the real truth, harmless as it is.

OK, here it is. The story goes...a couple with Mexico license plates named Joe and Ann (still leaving the last name out for now) dealt out these mibs claiming they were from a deceased CAC worker who resided in California. Not sure if either Joe or Ann (Anne?) was the housekeeper or if one was actually related. There you go. If they were the 'housekeepers' it might explain a lot. If 'related' to the deceased CAC worker in some way it might explain even more. Either way, a cache such as this was certainly just cause for all the hush hush at the time. Not sure how the Mexico plates fit in since the mibs were gotten out of an estate in California. My guess is that they held on to the mibs in Mexico for some time (perhaps several years?) before returning to the states to deal them out. They are gorgeous CAC's you have to admit that, right? Why hasn't this story already been told somewhere? Or has it? Hope I didn't just open a big can of...worms.

How was I to know that it was totally off-topic? I've read so many scenarios and taken in so many characters in this thread that I had to ask. Sorry.

I dunno, the more I look at them the more they are looking good to me and that is just from a picture. After much thought about the parties who felt uncomfortable buying, I think the prices were out of their reach, or just more than they were willing to pay at the time. Better to say they felt uncomfortable about them than to admit they were too cheap or too broke to go after them. As far as the Mexico license plates, that is another story that likely will not help much except to add another couple's name to the list of original sellers. They should come forward themselves. If not I will give up the names soon. Not that it will matter, since it is pretty obvious that they look too good not to be factory made CAC's. You might have a worker at CAC now retired and or deceased and he and/or the family who do not want it known publicly that workers with otherwise unblemished reputations were taking the best of the best on a daily basis home with them from the runs. It might just be as simple as that. It would also explain the mostly mint condition examples as well as the hush hush surrounding the 'amazing discovery' before they went to market. Does anyone have a complete CAC employee name list? Could start there. Not sure what would be discovered from busting one open. The surface is the best as far as discovery and testing. The question should be are they re-melted CAC cullet or not. They kinda look like they might be with the half swirl half Guinea and half etc in some of them. They are obviously machine made but by which machine and by whom and when. Is there an original CAC machine floating around out there somewhere in someone's basement? I wouldn't bet on it. An original CAC petty-thief/employee makes more sense than anything I've heard so far. That makes them real but with too many strings attached. Unless someone can prove it was ok with the CAC owners at the time for anyone to just take a mib w/o paying for it, then it would explain the secrecy today. Someone's hand is gonna get caught in this cookie jar soon.

Hey VT, what gives? Handmades? Dug? Seller ID's? GB? Please enlighten me. Is this all mysteriously tied into the original Exotic's question?

Yes, really nice!! I see mostly Pelt MCS and a few Pelt slags, and a nice CAC in there as well. Are we allowed to discuss an ongoing auction? I forget.

I have to take back what I said before. Starting to sound like they are not real. What about the couple named J... and A... with Mexico license plates on their car? I heard they were the first to deal out the original collection. A friend of mine personally saw and handled them and said they were not real CAC's. Now I can see why Galen and several others might be upset about these. I don't have a license number but I do have the names. Don't spill your popcorn anyone... I just can't believe Galen can't tell the difference.

Hilarious!! Thanks!!!

It is better to think of them as genuinely old. If any of you including myself had discovered these, what exactly would we have done in the same situation? I might have confided in a small group first before exposing them to everyone. No differently than any good collection that I come across. It boils down to 'It's who you know...' and it is sad for the ones who got left out. Even ebay lets you choose your selling partners. It's a good thing. If Galen can't tell the difference at 45X, or whatever, then certainly they are real. THEY ARE REAL! Get over it. Get on with it. Someone sell me one cheap.

Wow!! ReEEEEEEEEEEeally love the new look Lou!!! Thank you for all the cool improvements fer sure!!! Great topic Steph. All I can say is that I can see a difference in the pics and the mibs aren't even in my hand. Check out the seams everyone. Seems to me that the seams seem more obvious in the newbies. The real CAC's have a more perfect seam, tho I have a few that you can feel the seams with your fingernail, but overall you can't. That is the first clue. Now the color, there is another clue. The newbies (Shamrock's) have a more colorful, near electric, overall appearance compared to the real CAC's. I'd swear that some of those are sporting Peltier colors. That is clue #2. One last clue, for me anyway. This one is important if you can feel my vibes here. The Shams look more deliberate compared to the unmitigated randomness of the pattern in the true Chrissie's. You may have to have an eye for art in this case, sorry. But then again, these are the Shamrock examples that went explicitly into boxes with no ambiguity or secrecy. Is there another (better) maker causing a true alarm? A true forger that even the likes of Galen is afraid of? Is that what this is all about? So far I am not fooled by the examples shown. I'll ask Willie if he has an exotic I can look at in hand.

Unusual project and easy to see how it won first prize. Anything is possible if you use your marbles. At first I thought that was a three eyed longhorn, then realized it was a marble bag! LOVE IT!!! Which side are you facing out? Don't forget a screen door to help protect that beauty.