Alan

The vast majority is ballast. The handmade pic is out of focus, so I can't estimate condition. All the same - its a common. Anything over $20 is charity.

The sacrifices are significant and pretty much every day. All gave some. Some gave all. Proud to have served and sacrificed.

Modern MK.

The concept of "same run" for machine mades is a red herring. Marble types were intended to match a desired design. In almost all cases that design ran for a very long time (think in terms of a year or years. Rebuilding a pot doesn't mean that a design dies out. Relative consistency was a goal. Retailers ordered what they wanted. There is no reason for two marbles made a year apart to look significantly different, small variances aside.

As you are no doubt noticing - the problem with maglighting is getting the camera to actually focus on the structure of the marble without blowing out the details and causing them to end up blurry.

The first and third pic cases have been backfilled in some of the compartments. My full size Salesman's case looks just like the second pic - which is original. I would be an interested buyer on the small yellow case at the end.

Technically its a "punty" mark.

Very new weight. High speed, low cost mass-produced type.

If a marble is not fully annealed, or if glass compatibility was an issue - then stresses in the glass can remain. Those stresses may be minor - or a borderline problem. For the latter case - it may just need a physical shock or temperature shock to push those stresses to the point where a fracture occurs. I once had a newly-purchased 7/8" Akro Vaseline auger pop in half in my hand as I washed label adhesive off it with warm (not hot) water. I've heard of mailed marbles fracturing when shipped in winter.

Internal stresses from oven brick and air interfacing with glass as they cool at different rates. With different coefficients of expansion - that stress can fracture glass.

Can you provide a link to whatever it is?

Looks Jabo.

Recommend you move away from taking pictures on marbles on a black background with full-frame exposure averaging. You can see how it blows out the color of the first marble. Recommend something neutral.

I'd recommend reading a few paperweight books. Look for used books. There are many styles both vintage and modern. I takes building a visual memory from thousands of photos with attribution over time. Even some of the finest modern weights (e.g. Paul Stankard: ) can run $2,500 - $25,000). Paperweight collecting is generally several steps up the cost ladder from marble collecting. There are huge number of modern, low-cost weights made for gift shops etc. Some more Paul Stankard eye candy: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/06/artistic-glass-paperweights-paul-stankard/

Its a reasonably modern paperweight. The canes are mass-produced types. It was made in a bit of a hurry by a person with limited experience doing so. I'd consider it a low-cost, mass produced weight intended to retail inexpensively in the last 3-4 decades.

I think there is as much (or more) to learn about marble-making from marbles that experienced some challenge during their manufacture. They make us look at the glass and appreciate it, see the motion and think about what was going on. For me - those "flaws" made me more interested in the machines, the pots, the cullet, the sand, chemicals, how the weather can affect color striking, glass compatability, machine component wear.... the list goes on. Those issues get us out of the constant drone of "What is the name?" and "Is it rare?" and deeper into the history, process and reality of the fact that these were kid's toys made for fractions of a cent. I see the first photo and start thinking about what was going on in the glass.

1&2: That looks like soot or debris on the fringe of the air bubbles. 3: That is an annealing fracture.

The board those marbles are on is worth more than the marbles.

Not really, no.

The 'Star..' and 'Dom/Dan/DOW' doesn't ring any bells for me.

The first two appear to be flop-over ingots. The third is an egg.

A 1988 article in the Washington Post on marble collecting. Seemed a bizarre hobby to me. I went to a bookstore, found a book on marble collecting and the pics hooked me. Boom.

They look right. There were a lot of them available 20+ years ago.