Spherophile

Taking a look through eBay, even “obviously fake” bags of marbles sell for $10 or more. One man clearly makes a business out of selling them, although who knows where he’s getting all of the marbles. Edit: A number of those bags are extremely racist. It would be one thing if they were re-creations of historic items, but just putting pictures of a black kid eating watermelon and calling it “Jolly Ni**er” is pretty disgusting. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F163870804860

Looks like this lot eventually sold for $127,000.

Zombie thread!

Steph, any idea who manufactured the marbles that are listed in that advertisement? It says the gray ones are American.

Now that I look at the picture you’ve posted and compare it to the one I posted I’m more convinced that it isn’t even a genuine header—the font is wrong, for one thing. On the genuine one it’s Futura Bold, but in the one I posted it looks like a variant of Helvetica. Also look at how perfect the kerning is on the one I posted. All of the letters maintain a visually uniform spacing, even when the letters encroach. If you look at the P and A on the genuine header there’s an obvious gap between the letters created by the open space under the loop on the P, but on the reproduction that is tightened up to make it look uniform. Computers do that. I also see that the black border is different. On the fake, in the upper left corner where the two sides meet it cuts off in a funky way. That’s what old computer programs used to do (modern ones have gotten better, depending on the program). That means someone went to the trouble of actually having those two-color printed on an offset printer. Color me surprised! Al though I guess I shouldn’t be, since they’re worth so much money compared to the cost to produce them.

A local store has a huge collection of marbles scattered about, and I frequently go in and look at them with the owner trying to identify them. We found what appeared to be a vintage bag (header was offset printed, staples looked appropriate) for PAL BOTTLING which, but were confused when we found this modern bag of Vitro Agates which appears to contain some of the same marbles. What do you think? Is the PAL bag a fake? It is missing the seam, but from what I saw online for a genuine bag it didn’t have a seam either.

Thank you. To put that into perspective, here’s what things cost in 1870: - Lard 6 cents a pound - Rice 5 cents a pound - Sugar 10 cents a pound - Coffee 12 cents a pound The average hourly wage in 1870 for a laborer was around 15 cents an hour. A skilled worker such as a blacksmith would make about 30 cents.

Maybe a left handed?

There was title text about UV Lighting I believe.

I thought it might be interesting to compile a list of marbles to watch out for when digging through piles. Similar to how coin collectors will watch out for a 1944 Steel Wheat Cent (worth in excess of $100,000 so I hear). So what are some marbles that might seem ordinary but are actually worth get excited about? Here’s a few that some people are saying are hard to find but might not look too special: - Ravenswood brown-based swirls with brown or red - Red glass mica - Akro corkscrews larger than 1” - Peltier with green pearlized patch

This is excellent and very helpful for us newbies. You might check your text, though, I know I saw the word “lightning” instead of “lighting” in one section. I hope you do more of these! Thank you!

I hope it’s OK to post this here (I searched for forum rules but didn’t find them). I’ve created a replica Akro Agates No. 16 box from an original and made it available on Etsy. Before anyone panics, it is CLEARLY MARKED “Reproduction” on the inside so no one can be duped. I’ve made replicas for museums and re-enactors in the past, but this was one I wanted for myself. If I can source more originals I may make those available as well. If there’s anything in particular someone is looking for, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. The originals are stupidly expensive—I paid almost $70 for the No. 16 box and it was in sad shape, but it did come with “wet mint” Akros, so that took some of the sting out of it. https://etsy.me/32W23dj

Thank you for your replies. I’m not as interested in current values as I am in their values when new. Let me be more specific: What was the cost for a handmade German latticino Shooter? I’m hoping to go to a marble show when I can but I have some issues that limit my ability to travel, so hopefully it won’t be far form home. I searched for anything nearby and didn’t have much luck, but maybe next year. As far as I can tell there aren’t even any marble clubs in my area (and the Marble Collecting Society website appears to be broken, as every page says “below you can find” and then there’s nothing below. A sad state of affairs all around. 😔

I had some onionskins polished by Dave Bliss (djbliss1 on eBay) and was extremely satisfied with the results. The before marbles were so ugly that they didn’t have much value, and now I can really appreciate them. He was extremely communicative and bent over backwards to make sure I was satisfied with the results. I’m going to send him more now that I know what it can do! https://imgur.com/gallery/acrbDSr I should note that the before photos actually make those marbles look better than they did—in normal lighting they were just gray blobs. I am not in any way connected or compensated by Dave, I am just a very satisfied customer who wants to get him more business.

I’m baffled by the number of types of marbles. One of the threads I read recently was discussing how to tell the difference between an Akro “ade” and and “ace.” I can’t even tell the difference between an Akro and a Vitro at this point. Are there any good books to help me learn to tell the differences? I’ve already gone through Marble Alan’s website. I’ve been focusing on old German handmade marbles, but I’m curious how much they cost when new. I imagine they were fairly expensive, but they had to be cheap enough doe a child to buy it and then use it to the point of it being “destroyed.” Any references that give an idea on price?

Thanks for the help. I did some research into JABO classics and determined that there are too many to identify. I saw some called Tie Dye that looked similar, but maybe not quite.

Thanks, Steph! I’m really looking forward to it. For what it’s worth, Imgur is a great (and free) hosting service.

I picked up this boxed set from a collector who wasn’t sure what the marbles were. As you can tell, the box isn’t much help. Any ideas? I love the colors on them. Edit: Oof. The website really botched the colors. Here’s a better link: https://imgur.com/a/MGe7S7X

Such a shame that all these images are gone.

This is absolutely amazing technology. Thanks for sharing!

It’s really funny that you would post this, as I just saw my first ever marble vending machine the other day and posted about it. There were marble vending machines back in the day, but the one you saw is a home modified Acorn gum ball machine for sure. Here’s a real one: I wouldn’t buy the one you saw, particularly if it’s expensive. Gumball vending machines can be had for a song, and I would think it should be able to dispense marbles with minimum modification (maybe none at all depending on what it was dispensing before).

I saw this marble vending machine at an antique shop in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Looked like it had a mix of cheap cats eyes and some oldies. I saw at least one German latticino and a couple Benningtons in it. Looked like it had a black light in the machine and there were a few hot Vaseline glass marbles in there. Has anyone seen any of these anywhere else?

Done. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dog? Tiger? Polar bear? A giraffe named Louis in the French Revolution?

Thank you, Steph! The finish on that one was throwing me off. It it looks like my friend and I happened across a few of those wirepulls in a very nice dark amber color. Pardon the poor photos.