Black Benningtons And Milky Cat's Eyes

[Chordus]

I was out antiquing today, and ran across two types of marbles that I haven't seen before. I'm hoping that somebody here might be able to give me a basic idea of what I was looking at, and their value.

1- One lot had about two-dozen smallish black Benningtons. These were very clearly Benningtons, and not painted clays. They were also very clearly black; it wasn't a dark blue or a dark brown. I've never seen any that are black before, but the lot was rather expensive (they were just a small part of a larger -and very nice- lot), and I'm not going to drop that sort of money before I know what I'm looking at. Does anybody know just how rare these are, and if they're worth anything?

2- There was a larger marble I found that looked similar to a hybrid cat's eye, except for the very milky glass it was in (insert cataracts joke here). I'm guessing that it was a little over an 1" diameter. Are translucent-based cat's eyes a known phenomenon, and are they worth anything?

3- I've seen several Shoot-A-Loop toys before, but they're always in the $90-120 range. I found one today, in good condition with it's original marbles for $30. I didn't buy it, 'cause I'm not hugely interested in them, but I'm still kind of curious. Does anybody know how much Shoot-A-Loops generally go for? Is $30 a really good deal, or about average?

Also, I haven't been on recently, and might go into hibernation again for a bit after I get these answers. But... hi to all of you!

[Steph]

Hiya.

I'll tackle #1.

Can't be sure from a description but sounds like they might be ballot marbles. Did they look anything like this? Not sure how rare they are but my guess is that they wouldn't be especially valuable monetarily. Even uncommon ceramics usually don't have values to match their rarity - coz they don't have the eye appeal.