Alan

Someone with little clue of what they were doing torched it into some monstrosity. The punty mark is visible in the 4th picture.

Looks like quite a quantity of ades in there!

Looks like Akro Spirals with some kind of meatballs.

Its un-melted silica. These are referred to as "seeds".

Almost all buyers will find cold rolls and imbedded debris as making the piece less desirable. Consequently it will negatively impact the value.

A "pin prick" is a chip.... just a nice word to describe a very tiny chip and not use the "C" word". A surfaced bubble - like a chip - decreases the marble's condition, and therefore value.

It sounds like a cold roll. Pic?

Photo of the marble?

Size? Condition? Colors? Photo?

Yes - they have been dug at at least one Marble King site.

http://marbleconnection.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=16347

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: