ManofKent

These looked good to my eyes and are purchased (it's probably the only way I'll ever be able to identify the maker of clearies ). Late 50's early 60's?

I didn't need any help with identifying this one as pure fantasy - I suspect the marbles are modern Chinese - they look pretty much like the standard marbles you pick up in UK toyshops today:

One that didn't look right (and again kindly confirmed as 'fantasy') The tear off perforations on the bag suggest a fairly modern bag. The graphics are reasonably convincing, but I've had it confirmed that along with the Navy and Air Force these are someone's 'fantasy' and never existed. Were Alox Agates ever sold in poly bags? I'd be interested in seeing a photo of a genuine one.

My first purchase, and one I was fairly happy with (Al kindly confirmed I made the right call). My gut impression is there are less faked Vitro bags (or at least more genuine ones available) than with many brands. I don't know much about marbles but oddly I know a little bit about plastic bags and a folded seam on the rear of a bag is a good (but not infallible) indicator of an older bag (most modern ones are sealed along the edges).

I'm a newcomer to marble collecting and my knowledge is very limited. Marbles in my youth (70's UK) were pretty much always Chinese made cat's-eyes. I soon realised that the shipping costs from the US to the UK for a single marble weren't significantly different to shipping a packet. Then the doubts started... Some of the packets sold on ebay didn't look right even to my untrained eyes, and other members confirmed it. The more I looked, the more I realised there were more bags of marbles that didn't look right than did. Whilst I'm sure many of them are sold in good faith by people who've picked them up somewhere not realising the bags are fakes, fantasy or more kindly reproductions possibly some are sold to deceive. I won't make that judgement call, just whether what is listed is what it purports to be. Hopefully this thread will be useful or at least an interesting perspective to other newcomers. Please do chip in with thoughts.

Once there's a bit more to show I'll update the photos. At the moment they'd mainly be of failed attempts to evenly coil copper tubing and copper wiring, and lot's of pieces of distorted brass tooling foil! On the positive side I've filed out the join on a miniature funnel (the sort designed for filling bottles/hipflasks etc.)and found a wooden bowl from a child's tea set that will make a decent spinner.

Thanks - any special thread? I think the cinema 'promotion' bags aren't even worth discussing (actually most of the promotional bags look dodgy even to a newcomer).

The more I look the more dubious most of the bagged marbles look. What's the site etiquette in posting ebay links for other opinions?

Cute packaging!

Hi Bud, Welcome. It's a friendly place.

These are wonderful. Keep them coming!

Thanks. I shall continue to experiment. Building it in a box whilst helpful in terms of providing support for the tracks is now presenting the problem that I can't simply build bottom up, I've got to work out accessibility at the rear. It's a fun learning curve!

My wife calls them "Richard-Help-Richard-Richard!!!" , or at least that's what she shouts when she see's one

The bud does look a bit like a wasp

Thanks - I can hear the wallet screaming though

Thanks Hoody. I tried both 4mm copper pipe and some 3mm copper wire - I could form coils that looked okay, but couldn't get the precision. I might try thinner diameter wire and make some kind of track spacer. I hadn't realised the precision needed for the small balls. I've got some thin brass sheeting that might be an easier option - curved ramps won't need the same level of precision. Ice-lolly sticks for the switches is a good idea - they should be shape able by knife (I'm not precise enough with a saw). I was thinking carved balsa wood soaked in superglue to strengthen might work too. I'll probably use a mixture of switches and simple split paths - I didn't want to just rely on a split path, as my gut-feeling is that the route taken is likely to be far from random - however central I get the split. I think I'm going to have to with either two or four main paths if I want to evenly split them - 1 switch will give 2 paths, 3 will give 4 paths, but 2 switches would favour 1 path twice as much as the others!

From the garden this weekend. Herb Robert is incredibly invasive, but has such cute little flowers:

Thanks both. I know a fair bit about optical glass, but as you'll have realised not a lot about marble glass! I find it amazing how casually heavy metals were used in glass making.

Thanks. I noticed that listings for marbles are frequently highly dubious even with my limited knowledge. Ebay looks like a minefield.

Not a lot of progress this weekend. The pipes are all fixed in place, but I hit stumbling blocks... The size of the balls makes things tricky - I can't hand wind coils from copper tubing that are smooth enough for the balls not to jump off - I can see why most marble runs use 15mm or larger balls, the slightest kink really effects the small diameter balls and making the switches out of plywood using a hand saw seems to be a non-starter. Brass ramps and balsa wood switches will hopefully work...

Thanks. I cracked and started the collection. An unopened packet of Vitro Catseyes. The seller was in the UK so no international postage (I know marbles aren't light but the postage some sellers were charging ).. There's another bag listed from the same seller, and one in the US so at least I know I won't be opening anything rare.

It's highly refractive and was used in camera lenses to reduce chromatic aberration (colour separation). It turns glass brownish/yellow after a while but if left exposed to a strong UV source will revert to clear. Like lead it makes glass appear brighter and clearer, and wondered whether it was used in marble production.

Thanks. I noticed that you can buy unopened bags for reasonable sums on ebay and it would be a way of being able to be reasonably sure what I was looking at was what it purported to be and get some familiarity. Looking at photos is great, but handling something is different.

Thanks - there's a lot to learn!