Books Re: Marble

[Nancyfor heavenssake]

If you could only buy one book to help newbies identify marbles, what would it be?

[Alan]

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.

[lstmmrbls]

http://joemarbles.com/ much better than any book