manylittle

Thanks so much for the information. Did they use to have more value? The reason that I ask is that I got this from an auction lot from an auction that sold off a very old collection from someone who not only collected but sold marbles also and he had a price of $10 each on these. I do understand that they have little or no value now, but did they have more value in the past?

I had always thought that they only had one pontil mark?

In my huge auction purchase, I came across two zip lock bags of white marbles with pontil marks on both ends. Some of the marbles are opaque, some are translucent and some of the translucent ones have a slight blue tinge to them. They do not fluoresce under a black light. One of the pontil ends is sort of pointy and is more smooth than the other one. It juts out from the marble. They measure in the 17/32 to 5/8 range. Any ideas as to maker or values? Most of mine are mint although some have some tiny cracks...not the type caused by a hard hit or pressure, but the type caused by temperature changes. Here are some pictures.

Oh gosh, lol

A separate section for information and questions on handmades? I'm not sure. In one way, I think that ebay has them separate for practical reasons, to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for, bot on the other hand, here it might be counter productive. Steph, I know you are out here somewhere, what do you think about it? I think when everything is all lumped together, that people who would not normally seek out information on hand mades, reads the thread anyway, just because it is there and perhaps learns something or gets a greater appreciation for hand mades. There are more people who collect machine mades because they are more available and in many cases, more affordable. I don't think it would hurt to start another thread and ask people what they think about the concept. Yes, I'll do that right now. Thanks again Jeroen for another good idea. !!!

You can thank Jeroen for giving me the idea for this thread. It was because of something that he said in another thread that gave me the idea to ask the question in a new thread. At the time, I had no idea that it would take off like it did but thank you Jeroen. Because of you, I don't think that 'you know who' will ever accuse 'me' of not being a contributing member of this forum.!!! ......and for that, I'm extremely grateful.

Hi, I just had to open this topic because I just got complimented on Ebay for saying that a marble that I listed, a MF Christianson 5 color brick that I showed to all of you in the marble id section to verify that it was MF and not Akro,.....was not in very good condition. The guy, his name is Mike and his ebay handle is hannchan 1 , actually sent two separate 'questions' telling me how refreshing it was that I was 'honest and accurate in my discriptions'. It has made me feel good all over. I'm bringing this up because it seems to me that honesty in marble discriptions is not something that is very prevalent. People hide behind things like saying that they aren't experts and so the potential buyer should look at the pictures and yet the pictures, conviently? don't show all of the sides of the marbles. I had one person get very mad at me because he always displayed his marbles loaded onto a glass flower frog and he would show many pictures, but all he would do is turn the flower frog a bit, he would never turn the marbles and so no matter how many pictures he had, you only got to see one side of the marbles. I suggested that he might sell more if he turned the marbles instead of the frog. How dare I question his methods!!!! Have you been complimented on your honesty? Has it ever helped you sell something that you might not have sold? Have you run into people who are deliberate in their cover up of the condition of marbles they are selling? What did you do? How did you respond and what was the result? I'm thinking that if we all became marble police and sent ebay some sort of a petition asking them to do better in backing up their own policies when it comes to marbles. There is just way too much word spamming and dishonesty there and it is hurting and confusing beginning collectors. Tell me what you think?

I agree, I have seen the butterfly types taking premier places in peoples collections as well as selling very high. I have only seen a few in 26 years.

Wow, those are fantastic marbles, the second one reminds me of a paperweight I once had. lol

That Lutz is absolutely fantastic !!!!!!

MarbleDawg86, honestly, try the soaking the mibs in the sugar water syrup and take before and afters. I think you will find a big difference in being able to show the interior and cover a lot of the stuff on the outside.

Do you think it helps? It is a pretty marble.

You did a good job with it. In one of the topics that I read, we found that one trick to make it easier to photograph these damaged handmades so that they look much better is to immerse them in a syrup made of sugar water. and then photograph it wet, of course. It works !!!!!

I see that you are showing a white and yellow alternating latticino core. Is the other one two or three layers? Vicki Is that a divided ribbon core?

What desiginates rare in the Hand Made German Antique marbles? What criteria is important in judgeing the rareity? I think that we talk so much about the machine mades, its time to give equal time to the hand mades. Any help and input would be appreciated because as much as I love the handmades, I am 20 times less educated than I am in machine mades and I'm sorta dumb there too !!! lol Still learning after 26 years.

What are the values of the European sparklers we have seen here. I think I have a few but no absolutely nothing about pricing them. Does anyone have a rule of thumb? Are there things that make some sparklers more valuable than others?

Unless you use a light box, it is hard, even with a great camera. I read a really good tutorial once that said to use a tripod and a remote to actually take the pictures, then open up the camera to the smallest number after you have put it on manual and focus it to look as sharp as you can, and set the timer to be on for at least a minute, this guy set his for three. By that, I mean that the aperature that lets the light in would be open for that long...I wish I knew the language, the proper wording for this, but I don't...Just think of the opposite of action shots where you would want the fastest shot to stop the motion. In this one you would do the same thing you would if you were taking a picture of rapids in the water and you wanted everything to look flowing rather than capturing tiny instant of time. I have not tried it yet as I don't have a remote, but I've got one on order and I am going to try it. Right now, I just use a tripod and I use a flashlight and train it on the marble from different angles especially if I am taking pictures inside at night. I use a lot of trial and error to get the best picture that I can and I still mess things up. After a while my eyes get tired and I have trouble making sure that my pictures are a sharp as they can be.

Thanks for the link to the other thread. I learned a lot. What, in your opinion is Peltier's rarest? And by the way, you don't have to sell on ebay, but if you have bought on ebay and sold what you bought for a profit, then that counts.

Now I've learned something new for the day !!!! Before I chanced on this thread I had never even heard of a Pelt 'flip flop' and now not only have I heard of one, I have been given a demonstration of what it is and am extremely grateful for the knowledge and for your openness in sharing what you know. I started in the 'general antiques' line when I became an antiques dealer and no one shared their knowledge. If you did not know something, no one was going to tell you even if you asked.......and back when I started, before the time of the internet, it was not as easy to learn on your own as it is now. I am extremely grateful for sites like this where the experts share their knowledge and do it in a way that even us beginners can understand, and yes, even after 26 years, I still consider myself a beginner !!!!

I have bought many hand mades on ebay and sold them for a good profit, sometimes 5 to even 10 times what I paid, in my bricks and morter store. I look for the larger ones with damage that someone will buy with the idea that they can have it polished. The ones that are in the 2 inch range. I have done well there. But I do agree with you that it is easier with the machine mades because so many can be bought at once.

Now that I know how very rare and how desirable the blue galaxies are, I won't be satisfied until I find one out there somewhere in the 'wild' !!!!!! Thanks for your input and teaching me about this rare marble and super find on Ebay. I guess as much as we complain about the site, its good for something !!!! I keep thinking that that one find that everyone else has somehow missed, will turn up in my post office box !!!!!

I started this thread for one reason and one reason only, and that was to get other peoples opinions as to whether ebay could be a wholesale market. I never said that it had to be a wholesale market in all instances, and believe it or not, but it had much more to do with learning and also coming up with a fun topic, talking about the best buys we have made and the highest profits, and very little to do with my dispute with you....... and it has been fun, hasn't it guys? This has been a nice and fun thread. Why do you have to come on and try to turn it negative? I refused to sell you my marbles....you're pissed....get over it...... learn by your own mantra

Galen and Jerone, you both have a choice as to how you react to each other. Neither of you 'have' to take what the other says as if it were aimed directly at you. (Most of the times, it is not, but just catches the other at a vulnerable time on a bad day when everything else is going wrong) It is a choice that you make. Why not try simply not reacting? It just might work....lol

It is probably a question that needs to be asked and answered. What makes a machine made marble 'rare' and is a 'rare' marble more desireable because it is 'rare'? I would think if it had an ugly color combination it could be terribly 'rare' and no one would want it. How rare is the 'Blue Galaxy' as compared to other 'rare' pelts? Which pelts are more 'rare' than other pelts?

Unfortunately I have found that I have a marble theif coming into my walk in store. I had kept these mibs in their own zip loc bag until I could get them individually priced and photographed and when someone on this site expressed interest in several, I went to the bag only to find many missing. I only have one of the clear based yellow spirals left, and one of the mint green and deep reds. I have not double checked every mib but at least I have the photos so that I can find out exactly what has been taken. I am absolutely sick as I have also lost two plastic tubs of marked mibs. The mibs were in what I call translucent plastic egg carten type covered cases. I got the cases at Michaels, in their beads section of the store. I lost some killer mibs, many hand mades including two lutz. and others.