Alan

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/world-priciest-marbles-160110204.html

Take a well-focused photo in groups of ~15-20 and post them here.

Along that line....

You can find vintage and contemporary marbles ranging from $5 - to a few thousand dollars. I recommend that as you begin - you disregard the expensive marbles and focus on reasonably priced, affordable pieces. Collect what you like - and try to look for "sleepers".... marbles that haven't yet risen to the level of "the cool thing". You can buy pretty nice vintage and contemporary marbles at the $5 level. You just have to look around. The good deals are at shows - not on Ebay.

I would skip the book and go to a marble show. Trying to learn marble identification from a book usually ends up with the vast majority of marbles misidentified. The reason is that a book cannot hope to show more than about 30% of a marble's surface pattern - and cannot begin to illustrate the variances in pattern, color etc. over that types production life. IMO it would take a huge series of books chock full of expensive color plates to attempt to break this paradigm. Beginning collectors/people trying to self-appraise tend to match by color - and the result is usually wobbly with a tendency to misidentify to a high-value variety. The diversity of marble varieties and manufacturers is a challenge for novices to appreciate - its huge. There is no substitute for holding a marble in hand and turning it in good light to appreciate the nuances that affect identification. Once the ID is accurately made - then grading comes in and has a large effect on value. Grading is also something that IMO cannot be learned from a book. If you are trying to identify a group of marbles - you can bring them to a show or post clear, well-focused photos here for accurate feedback.

The photos aren't good enough to read and the piece itself is of fairly unremarkable design that doesn't point to any maker I know.

Like a 30-second bull ride!

I think that is a function of your browser - not the forum.... unless the forum isn't setting a persistent cookie.

A certain person has used this method for 15 years that I know of. You should know that the material doesn't have the slick feel of glass. Once brand that I know of yellows over time and exposure to sunlight (UV).

Possibly a punty with off-color glass on it. Or they burned the glass as they were necking it down. I suspect the former given the era it was made.

A couple more of mine:

I have a fair group. The Tie Dyes are the only ones I have a pic of at the moment.

Killer!

Years ago - "as made" became a weak-kneed, weasel-word excuse by some trying to sell a marble with a flaw.... as if it made the flaw somehow more acceptable.

They look like they are from a game ..... like mancala. Sort of that sea glass texture - probably from tumbling.

Cooked, lots of missing glass... possibly polished before it was (over)heated and worked. In its original form it was probably a very nice piece.

Less of a snake and more of an oxblood pigtail. The spinner cup was having a fit, I think:

Colorant is sold is various physical forms - but the form that I am personally most aware of is in solid rods, bars or ingots. The hallmark of colorant is that it is a consistent color throughout AND it is generally uniformly formed. Cullet as you are probably are aware - is whatever excess they had in the factory - dumped on the floor to cool. It is rarely uniform in color (Akro brick cullet is a known exception) and is usually in broken chunks. Cullet usually has multiple glass types randomly distributed through it - being the product of dumped pots. The other indicator that your piece (which seems from what I can tell from the photo to be of exceptionally uniform color and shape - as if manufactured that way) is that the colorant seem over-rich with metal flake. This seems to me to be an intentional over-saturation of the metal salts that give the glass its color. If you would like me to examine a tiny piece of it for other observations - I would be pleased to do it. Regards, Alan

Of course I don't have it in hand - but that looks like colorant to me - not cullet.

Based on that view alone - I don't think that would be a Sparkler.

I covet your wirepulls.

Osama Bin Laden literally sleeps with the fishes.