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I'm glad you got thru it, Rich!

It looks like a Begonia. Or maybe an Impatiens.

I would guess it's an Alley, tho I hardly qualify as an expert on such things. I think I recall that Alan said he would have guessed it to be an Alley too, except that the consignor had it labeled as Alox and had correctly labeled all of his/her other marbles (something like that).

So do you think it's an Alley?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HERON-2005-Very-Rare-Mossman-Mullaney-Murrini-Millefiore-Marble-3-HUGE-/230843273334?pt=Marbles&hash=item35bf54d076

Catfish, is that blue/green flame an Alox and did you buy it from Marblealan a few years ago?

Mon, you were validated by at least two posters (QtheMib and me, maybe others). You didn't know you were expected to rent a table after you did in-room trading, and you didn't like being called a tightass for something you never knew was expected of you. I know I'm not an important marble person, but I don't think you're going to get any of them to have much sympathy for you. Time to let it go.

I hope you're not saying that I'm being part of the problem.

Well, if the show was held in some auditorium, or even out on the street under a tent, it wouldn't cost that much. Isn't the Sistersville show out on the street?

My current favorite marble. Looks way better when it's IN FOCUS and IN HAND!

And cross-country flight expenses too! Well, I guess I just gave away where I fall in the yearly-income bracket. But lest you all think that I don't have ANY nice marbles, take a look at the one I posted in Killermarbles thread (in just a few minutes after I take pictures of it and post it.)

Bring your wife (if you have one) or somebody to run the table at the show, while you go around the show visiting, buying, etc. And make the show two or three days, not just one day.

And I don't understand how people who have spent $135 or more on a room for in-room trading, could be expected to put out even more money on buying a table at the show.

I guess I don't understand what the point of in-room trading is. Why not just rent an auditorium or something somewhere and just have the show.

Why have the show/in-room trading at a place like the Holiday Inn, where it looks like the cheapest room is about $135 a night. Couldn't it be held at a place like the Red Roof Inn, where the rates are much cheaper?

Those are to die for and belong in one of those coffin boxes.

I think the above quote states the core of the problem. Not everyone is that savvy about what is expected of them (myself included). It's the "nice guys" who are often seething underneath, then suddenly explode, leaving the denser ones among us to wonder what the heck happened, who scare me.

Maybe I will later. I'm so tired of taking pictures of flowers all spring and summer. Literally thousands of them. Now I'm ignoring my camera (till fall, when the mums, asters, etc. begin to show their faces.)

A misconception people may have about shows is that they will have to pay higher prices there. Maybe they think they can get better deals on Ebay because of the bidding. If that isn't true, it should be made known in the advertising. I used to think that, and that is (one of the things) that kept me from going to shows. One more idea: Hand out flyers at the marble shows, mainly for the benefit of the newbies and walk-ins, listing the marble forum websites, Alan's Marble Connection ID website, etc., so they will know where to go to learn more about marbles, to help continue any interest they might have in marbles. These don't have to be any expensively-printed flyers, just paper printouts from a computer.

And since so many people buy marbles on Ebay, maybe you could run a banner ad that appears on the marble search pages, if it is possible to do that. It probably wouldn't be cheap, but might be worth it. There is no lack of interest in marbles, from what I've seen of the crazy prices people are paying for them, and things like catseyes too. Maybe it's because there is such slim pickings on Ebay ever since Marblealan left the scene. http://cgi.ebay.com/...cvip=true&rt=nc http://cgi.ebay.com/...cvip=true&rt=nc http://cgi.ebay.com/...cvip=true&rt=nc Not a Popeye, and only NM... http://cgi.ebay.com/...cvip=true&rt=nc And look what this piece of crap is going for: http://www.ebay.com/...=item20c9cb9091 And (most) people like to socialize, and that is at least a part of the fun of having a hobby. And traveling to different places to go to shows can be fun too, and a vacation. So, I think if shows are getting slower, there's a good chance that it is an advertising problem.

After reading some of these threads, I'm so glad that I'm just a marble-nobody. FWIW, I don't think newspapers are the way to reach people anymore. You need to advertise online, or in the online version of the newspapers. I say this because we recently put an ad in the local newspaper to rent a house, and got zero response. Then we put an ad in the same newspaper, but online, and were flooded with responses, and paid alot less for the ad too. It cost $60 for a 2-day, 3- or 4-line ad with no pictures, compared to $15 for a whole month, including five full-color, full-screen photos. (What is a marble ad without pictures of some real eye-catchers. If you're looking to get younger people interested in marbles, you will first have to show them what a marble can look like...some may not even know what a marble is!)

What a wonderful thread! Thanks for sharing it, Edna.

I would like to have that first one. Don't know what either are.

Oh these people would never block you...

And don't post anything on marble forums that sellers might not like (esp about their listings) if you don't want to get blocked.