The Nickel Guy

Perhaps I have two Vitro Elite Trilites from Vienna WV The dark greenish blue color is not common in Stephen Bahr's YT Vitro video or the website I posted just above at Joes website among the Aquamarines but I think these are twins, made at the same time. A Trilite can have 3 or more colors and now I know white is a color so I see 4 colors pretty much in three fairly equal sized defined patch sections. To quote Joes Marbles There are many other attractive Tri-lite sub-groups that are not named. That is OK. Many of us love these marbles and we may even have our personal names for them; but, we are also perfectly happy just calling them Tri-lites or Elites. They were not separated at birth and I think they should always stay together. I am going to call them my Vitro Trilite Elite Twins Thank you all for the opinions, attention and info given to this pair.

Found Vitro Elite https://marbleconnection.com/joemarbles/3Marble Articles/Chuck Brandstetter/0002 Older Vitro Marbles (Tri-Lites).html

All right, if it's not too late, COUNT me IN. I'll try to pick some pretty marbles I like. US mailing addy only please. ( Alright, I just packed up my mailing, just need an address ) Ho Ho Ho

I was lost at wispy. Just when does wispy begin and white end, lol. Just kidding.

Two of three colors appear to match this Vitro "Yellow Jacket" marble I found on Marble Alan's pages. But not the same pattern and no yellow of course. Looking at mine again, does white count as a color? If so, I might have 4 colors anyway. Ughhh.

Merry Christmas to all but I have to pass. I'm sure I have the marbles but I don't know enough about them. I would really not want to disappoint anyone with a lot of 5 marbles that wouldn't be exciting on one hand and on the other, I don't want to give away the farm. So maybe next year. Maybe I'll know more to be fair. I hope you guys and gals follow up and post pictures of what Santa brings you in the exchange. Anonymously of course, but it would be nice if first timers could have an idea of how things work out for everyone. LATE EDIT: I decided to join in after all. See below

I think you have some super marbles but I have a suggestion. Please crop them. If I want to get a closer look my slow satelite internet takes forever to open up each image in a new tab. I imagine your images are giant in file size too. So I really don't mess with looking for a bigger size. I will make an exception here though and work up a picture of yours to show what I mean.

Fresh in yesterdays score, some worthwhile slags and swirls.

The colors look unusual to me, I am glad to have found two in superb condition but what these are exactly and who made them is not apparent to me. Believe me, I looked and watched a bunch of Stephen B. youtubes again but no luck. ( I learn more every time I do of course ) Please help and thank you! Aren't they neat?

Oh my! This is good news. AND thanks so much for all the comments. I had a feeling maybe the white base and black base could also be in the mix. Here I placed them on the game board. There are some patches and corkscrews up top that I haven;t assigned yet. I am mainly focused on the CAC swirls. I might have more in other places from long ago in my original collection. I have all the time in the world to play with these.

Nice story and advice Fire! Thanks

Went to the YMCA pool today, ( like I do every day ) same guy I bought from last week brought a small box today and I bought them. There are some nice ones in the bunch. I washed them and sorted them and they are safe and sound but they'll be getting a further review real soon and relocated with their like kinds. I feel I paid a fair price both last week and today. In this box I pulled out an early 1900's Zack Wheat Brooklyn Dodger Baseball pin in very nice condition and gave it back to him. It was worth more than I paid for all the marbles but I like sleeping with a good clean conscience at night. He was thrilled with the button. Hope he finds more marbles for me. Got em like this They look like this now.

These seem to be old. They look as though they were made the same way basically by a same company at the same era but just using t colors. They are very pretty, at least to me and appear to be good quality. They are a fair portion of a buy I made today. They were dirty and mixed in with others. I sorted them and I could just picture this bunch coming in the same bag many years ago. Thank you!

Some corks from last weeks score I didn't get to post.

I think sometimes people lurk because they just don't know what to ask or where to begin. Marbles is not an easy study but we all start someplace. I have very little knowledge compared to the old timers. In antiques and coins, I can say I'm advanced in knowledge but the marbles are quite a jungle at first. People here are very patient and helpful. Thanks to that, I have come a long way but I have a lot to learn. This is a fun hobby and I don't think how much a marble is worth is the point. There are so many cool looking marbles out there. Also what one person thinks is a real beauty, the next person might not see it the same. Just like when I was a kid, I thought cats eyes were the neatest marbles of all. Turns out most all of them are quite common and have little monetary value. There are some better cats but they are usually far from top shelf. Yet . . . I still like them, just like when I was a kid. Right now I am learning about Jabo marbles. I am taking the learning seriously I suppose, and it still hasn't quite clicked for me but I am enjoying the education. They are beautiful, and often very affordable so I am having a blast. Lurkers please post. You'll find a nice welcome and don't worry about what to ask or write. There are no dumb questions.

I sure do appreciate that well written response Alan. It will be read several times by me for sure but I can see the obvious effort you put into writing this to help me understand these better. Thank you and thanks to all who took the time to read and think about this and for your added posts too.

Not to worry. Oh, I think I'm familiar with the handful of links. It would cost a fortune to collect small batches of all the runs that might be available, Fun yes, but awful expensive. My point is that the samplings are just that and really don't always represent the bigger picture.

Marbles in soup

First off, I just think they are cool bean marbles. However, I am totally lost when it comes to identifying them by run. For one thing, they seem to start out as one kind of marble and thousands later they have morphed into something completely different. The first marbles in the making look absolutely nothing like those at the end. ( At least quite often ) So they get a name for the day, not so much for what they look like I suppose. We see a group of perhaps 15, 16, 20 or 25 of a run packaged together from a particular run and are identified but another box from the same run could look like a completely different assortment. Here's my issue, I wish somehow, I could just put them all in a bag, all mixed up, regardless of the runs and years etc and say here's my Jabo collection. And over here, these are my Sammy's, and these are Dave's in this box. But . . . it seems taboo to mix them up. They must reside together forever in their little pigeon holes, identified and boxed up forever as such and such. If I ever did let them loose, and then herd them up together they would be free and actually, I would not know the difference anyhow. To me they all look pretty neat and different than the next. I would actually rather collect these individually, rather than by a small sampling from a run. It was just my thoughts.

Sortitallout You sure have some nice marbles.

I could never sell those personally. Funny, I just bought some marbles and there were some jacks in the mix. I often see dice amidst marble collections. I have a small lot of those too.

Thank you Alan. Excellent pictures and info. You're a rock star!

Probably found in Pennsylvania. I could just see a little kid picking it up with some better rocks that were in the balast along the tracks. ( I did get a few other rocks with it) I do think it might be Ferrosilicon after reading a thread on a rock tumbler thread. In PA we have had steel mills and foundries and that particular alloy is used in the making of diverse steels. Just a guess as pictures are pictures. It is quite light as the silicons are. These were found by others along RR tracks in that forum and we have many RR tracks going to mills with hopper cars. I am Sgt. Shultz, I know nothing. But I bet that it is a silicon now. Wish it were platinum.

Maybe it's graphite or silicon. Just tried that image search thing on google and it is showing similar stuff. I have loose graphite which would make a mess just touching it but this does not make my fingers black. Thanks for your response. Don't work too hard on pictures Alan just for this thread unless you want to.

I have never seen pieces of this mineral and have no idea if it is common but I did get a small rock collection mixed in the marbles. I got a nice pieces of turquoise too and some huge prehistoric jacks and a no longer bouncing ball that probably went with the jacks. But here are 4 substantial size minerals that are shiny and have little facets all over the surface as if they were crystals. It very much resembles aluminum foil that is crinkled up and crushed or pyrite but this is very silvery. My best guess is they are Mica and this might be the stuff makers use that we see in handmade marbles.