spara50

Great group! Looks like the week for great finds! Craig

Thanks everybody. I was pretty excited for sure, still am! Anybody have a 100 count CA box thats partially empty or empty? Those black and orange ones are black on the other side. They match the other 4 on the far right side. I think these 10 black and orange made a row in a box. There are 8 to 10 of most of the colors. Someone must have had a 100 count box. Sami, the CA slags are all around 9/16". And yes, I was contacted by email. Good lesson here though. Some other collector had a shot at these and lowballed her. I didn't know that when I gave her my appraisal, found out later. It just doesn't pay to try and screw people. Might as well be fair up front and get a chance at them. If any go up for sale, I will let everyone know. Craig

I have had two of these. One was really beat up, the other was mint. It sold for $150 at the Columbus show. I should have taken pics of it first, because they are really tough to find. I called it a gray christmas tree. They are 6 ribbons, same exact colors as a christmas tree but the base glass is a darkish gray. On both of mine, one side was a bit darker base glass than the other side. Craig

That's an awesome 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair bag. Tough to find these! Thanks for sharing. Craig

One related point. Just like ads today, companies always make products look better than they might actually be by using the very best examples of marbles for the photos. I have seem old Marble King ads for poly bags that are full of oxbloods. What you see and what you get might have been two very different things. Craig

I am not sure about the time line idea unless they just had 1000's of oxbloods, etc. left over in 1935, which may well be. As I mentioned the Imperial boxes from 1935, two years after this ad, still had oxbloods, limeades and popeyes in them. Not trying to argue, just sayin'. Craig

Here's some more from the same group. Masters Corks CA Slags Possibly Akro slags These are larger, almost 1". The big cobalt blue one is a corkscrew. Thanks for looking! Craig

Here's some marbles that just came in Tuesday. Believe it or not, they have been in bags behind the wall in a 100 year old house in South Carolina. The owner just discovered them a few weeks ago. It seems someone had a 100 count CA box and an Akro tin. There was an Akro bag with it. Almost all the marbles are mint. Popeyes, all but one 11/16" plus. These next few pics are of 93 Christensen Agate swirls and flames. Some same run groups of 10. Looks like a box was dumped out. Amazing group. There are some color combos in the swirls I have never seen. Beautiful! Craig

Here's a nice one. All but one are 11/16" plus Craig

Ok, here is another advertisement showing Akro calling moss agates something other than patches. Look at the description of the Popeye box. It shows lemonades, oxbloods, limeades, etc. as being moss agates. However, this ad was very early as you can see by the 250 box. In 1933, the other ads I posted came out showing moss agates as patches. Possibly, the better marbles such as oxbloods were moved into a different category such as Imperials or Special after this point. I have pictures somewhere of 2 Imperial box sets of 25 marbles that contain a mix of oxbloods, limeades and popeyes. These are owned by nephews of an employee that got the boxes in 1935. I will try and track them down. These were what Akro considered the best marbles and only put them in the finest gift sets. More food for thought. LOL... Craig

Looks like they might be sparklers and some are tightly wrapped onyx. Awesome box... Craig

Here are some more ads showing moss agates. These are from 1933. Also, notice the descriptions of the types of marbles. Akro 'Spirals' are what we now call Snakes. (careful, these ads are 3 megs each) Craig

This is a set of ringers I had at one time. They were all 9/16" and came together in a group. Notice the clear, wispy white and one color in most of them. I always believed ringers to be popeye style marbles with one color instead of two. These are true traditional ones IMO and VERY hard to find. (ignore the file names, I called them aces years ago when I found them, but quickly learned they were ringers) Craig

That big Cosmic Rainbo is 1 1/8". I had 10 of them. No confusing it for a Pelt at 1 1/8". Here's the sizes they came in. Smallest is 5/8". A few more angles of the same marble. Craig

When I first registered a domain name it was mibbay.com. Not wanting any legal issues, I also registered mibauctions.com and changed the name. The first name has expired, mibauctions goes until November 15th or so. The only way I think the site may be of use is if I just turn it into a non-auction site and have it be stores only. This way people can just browse stores and not have to worry about auctions. Everything would me fixed price or offers only. Most people just want to browse at there leisure and buy fixed price items on non-eBay websites it seems. Craig

A few boxes and misc. Craig

Here are some group shots of my favorites. Craig

Unfortunately, I am going to be closing the Mibauctions.com website down soon. It was an experiment to see if sellers that complained endlessly about eBay fees would actually switch if they had an option, a 100% FREE option by the way. Turns out not to be the case. Oh well, we tried. Thanks to those sellers that gave it a go. Craig

Wow...another thread hijacked...what are the odds. Craig

Yes, this is the marble I posted a few days ago further up the thread. It is the number 7 coin that Hansel had him make along with the eagle. I had one that was in clear and smaller. The base glass on this one seems a bit more obvious that something is wrong. They ususally have unfinished pontils. The green one I have has a small stub of glass where the pontil should be. Sissy, unless it is an oriental person from Germany, I think the seller is German. Thanks for the chuckle... Craig

All I can say is there sure are alot of naive people in this world. Here is another from the same group of Hansels. eBay item no. 120457398946 The coin and the eagle come in green, amber and clear and in various sizes. Not sure of any other figures. I would be interested in knowing what he was trying to disprove with the fake marble medals. Craig

Hansel de Sousa. I purchased one of these from Germany for big $$$ myself. It was displayed in Kansas City in my room at the marble show last March. He sat next to me and personally told me the story. He had them commissioned by a marble maker in Germany. They come in green and amber glass. I don't know what the other figures are that were made. After they were finished he backed out of the deal with the maker because he didn't want to pay $30 each for them. Now they are being sold as vintage. I am sure Hansel is following these threads and is more than welcome to chime in with more info. My point is, if you do these things, at least let the collecting world know about it so we won't be ripped off. David, he doesn't give a sh@t. If he did, he would have come forward along time ago. Craig

Just a heads up, this is a fake. I know, I own one myself and overpaid for it. Found out later that Hansel had them made in Germany. ebay auction Craig

I held this marble is hand last weekend. It came from an old German family who were not marble collectors. This was one of the marbles in the group they had. All vintage German handmades. Interesting thing about this marble is the construction. The sulphide dog was added during the original production of the marble, and not at a later date. It was added as one of the stages of the marble. From the look of it, the maker started with the solid core portion, added clear, then picked up the figure or pressed it into the clear. When he pressed down to pick up the figure, it made a small indention into the solid core. He then picked up more clear, then picked up his outer bands of color, and then clear. The outer bands are completely undisturbed and perfectly wrap around and over the top of the figure. They are not distorted as would happen if the figure was added later. How did this happen? Who knows. Marble makers are constantly experimenting even today. Maybe he was making something special for a family member, messing around at lunch, had a dare from another maker that he couldn't do it, etc. etc. The funny thing to me is how collectors see something they haven't seen before and immediately claim it to be furnace brick, or a California Sulphide, or that it's fake. No one has seen everything ever made or should act like they have. This is an awesome vintage marble, one of only a few like it. The buyer got it for a steal. Regular common figure sulphides bring more than this marble, and this is up there with a painted figure or colored glass sulphide. Craig

Yeah, got three of these boxes in the mail yesterday. Seller says they are 1950's. No reason to doubt it, the box construction, inserts, etc. all look old. Possibly early Vacor sets. I am checking with Kathy Runyan. She has visited Vacor and has seen there really early stuff. I have attempted to find out what the ICSA is in the logo. Thought it might have been a grocery or dept. store chain. No luck yet. One this is sure, they are really cool! Craig