marblemansion

NIFTY SCHNICKS!

ball and chain come with that too?

If you are running Microsoft windows right click the image and then use the drop down screen to "file save" or you can copy and paste into a folder - or you can go to the properties and capture the URL and post it that way too...

Yeah cool - I have that book too - I thought I had seen them before - just have so many books I wasn't sure where to look! thanks for posting that!

well, based on that - maybe this type of box is more on the rare side than other Akro boxes - and thats why the price went so high - I have never collected such expensive boxes - yet

Hey Pete - welcome to the hobby. If you want - I can send you some marbles for helping you with ID's - thats how I got my start from a fellow collector, and I am more than willing to do the same for you - just send me a IM and we can discuss it.

so you do think the box was actually Akro? I was wondering about the missing interior label - Akro usually had this imprinted on the inner box top - no?

I have no idea if its an actual original box from Akro and I wondered about the price too...but I put it down to that "type" of box is even more rare than the blue Akro tins....a box similar to that one is pictured in Hardy's book - the "art deco" look - I am not at home right now so I can't look it up - but I know I have seen one very similar ... the marbles certainly don't look mint and they don't fit very well - it may not be original huh. Maybe someone knows more.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270473588928&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT somebody shore got happy mail.... even with the ripped top - and chigged marbles that is real nice set.

I certainly hope Enza is okay....flying through open windows can be hazardous.

That was a wild thread - I hope we are not going there again....cuz... I think I saw Alan after he made bail from Podunk County - he was busy shootin immies on a street corner with some cubscouts - but I am sure it was him, well, pretty sure.

Here is one:

from what I understand the Victory is like a Phantom Conqueror only it has a clear base. It has nothing to do with the "V" pattern on them - those just make them way cool.... but having a "V" pattern would almost eliminate it from being a Victory.

American Machine Made Marbles by Dean Six, Susie Metzler, and Michael Johnson lists Popeyes as part of the Tri-Onyx family and has a clear base - but it may have only a very small amount of clear showing with wispy white OR a majority of clear showing with wispy white in the clear....either way its still a Tri-Onyx - Popeye. They would not be opaque though - if you put a light to them - the light would show through the clear and make them translucent.

Okay - I have been doing some further research. I got out all of my books Galen asked if I thought Hansel had backfilled all of his boxes - and I would say no. There are a few collectors that I trust because they have performed research either at the factory site and have collected literature, boxes, advertising and interviewed employees from the time to get a very accurate historical perspective. Most of the boxes displayed by these owners are nearly MINT and have been kept that way from the factory....which is why I trust them. That said - Roger and Claudia Hardy's book entitled the Complete Line of The Akro Agate Company has a photo on page 34 that is a box of Moss Agates that contains marbles with a translucent base and what looks like one or two colored swirls....so that kinda seals the deal. My marble would fit right into that box - a red and white swirl with a translucent base. So Moss Agate corks and swirls are very much possible - I am convinced.

Its interesting - you can see the resemblence to the later Jabo Vitro's that came out in the late 1990's and early 2000. Same machines - same formulas - etc.

Oh boy - with the level of swine flu going around - that looks like a really bad idea

Yep them Mega Marbles are fun to collect - I have all the original bags back to 1998 and forward to present - and a complete set of 25mm shooters labeled in boxes from 1998. The ones from 1998 to 2000 were really hard to get.

I dont think we know enough about what Akro called a Popeye to say yes or no for sure - most collectors would say its not a Popeye because it doesn't have clear and wispy white in the clear - or not enough clear - but others would call it a Popeye. Either way its a nice Akro corkscrew. If I were ID-ing it - I would apply these standards: If the white is opaque its a Akro Prizename tricolored corkscrew If the white is translucent it a Akro Ace tricolored corkscrew. There are other opinions here I am sure.

Looks like a Master Marble promo bag - nice.

First off consider what a "boxed set" entails when the box is obviously used and has been played with....that means the marbles were dumped out of the box and the children played with all their marbles - the day ended with a very differnt set of marbles and maybe were put back or not...eventually Mom or Dad came along and cleaned up the room and re-filled the box and stuck it in the toy closet for next time to play. Finally this box was found years later and was donated to charity some collector bought it, sold it and resold it, traded it, ...and you want to believe these boxes contain the original marbles???? >>>WOW....<<< I see some boxed sets where I read the description and the history of the set - where maybe the sellers grandfather was a Akro salesman and the box was a new from the factory - has been carefully stored for years - I see the way the marbles fit into the box and I can put some reliance on such a set for ID purposes - but those sets are extremely rare and usually sell for hundred sometimes going into the thousand range. But that in no way takes away my envy of Steph for owning such a nice set - its still way cool and belongs in any collection - I just cannot believe those are original - NO - way. No - not mad - just very practical when it comes to IDs - you might call me stubborn - I don't like speculations. There is a reason that historically collectors have used the terms they used for ID-ing marbles - because that was handed down from previous generations who knew what the marbles were called when they were kids. To me throwing that history out based on a photo of a most likely back filled box is a tradgedy. I am glad you allow me to express my concerns without feeling like I am getting mad. thanks. Yeah Popeye is funner to say than "tri-onyx" and collectors have come to know popeyes as 2 color corks with wispy white and clear...even though they might be wrong.

Uhhhh - gosh, do you think there might be a cracked one in there because Popeyes are kinda rare and hard to find in mint condition and a cracked one was better than none??? Such a possibility is not hard to imagine - therefore solid IDs from such boxes are not possible.

OOOO that black one is cool - NICE

It seems that most think there must be clear and wispy white - which is the traditional definition.

well based on the Akro ad we just saw in the "Its buggin me" thread - that box is probably backfilled with what collectors thought Akro would have put in a Popeye boxed set - when in reality Akro filled the Popeye boxes with all sorts of swirls - maybe even Moss Agate swirls