Steph Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 I like little things, like cracker jack toys and buttons. My husband knew I'd been thinking about getting some marbles just for fun, so he got me some from Wal-Mart. That got me more interested and I started looking at marbles on ebay. There I found some Jabos in bulk and I liked them bunches. I thought maybe I'd sell them in my antique booth. I didn't think about them not being antique and I wasn't being dishonest. I just didn't know. But the antique store owner did know. And she told me those weren't the ones people liked to buy. So there was the challenge. I had to learn what the "right" marbles were. And that's when I got sucked in ..... (This is not an anti-Jabo story. Just the way things were communicated to me 10 years ago before Jabos came into their own.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeeperman Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 I played marbles as a kid. Then some years later, married to my first wife and having a rough spell, we looked for a common interest to do together. I had always had the collectible and antique hunt in the blood. She wanted to collect Hull and Rosewood pottery. As we searched the antique shops (early 90's} I came across a jar of marbles and then a tray of marbles marked $4.50 each. I said to myself..."really? Marbles?" I went to the collector book section to look in the big book of toys. While searching for that book I happened across a few marble collecting books and while scanning the pages, remembered my early days of playing marbles. I went back to that tray and purchased a few marbles at $4.50 each. This drove the wife nuts! I loved that and my found memories and little did I know had caught the bug. I still have the marbles from that first purchase. Here are a couple of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted January 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 beautiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lstmmrbls Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 Filled up the China cabinet with antique paper weights and was looking for something smaller and less expensive. Ended up with the smaller part(LOL) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winnie Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 I've always liked them,when i was young i use to put them in jars as deco-. Than about 15 years ago i sent a portion to America to Dell Morgan,he had an auction at that time,he sold them for me. I sent him a second portion and regretted it and begged him to sent them back,which he did,from that time i was hooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg11 Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 I remember going to my grandmothers house. My fathers side of the family migrated from Germany. The house was full of old things in Evansville Indiana. Every time I went there my grandmother would get out the tin wind up toys and the big can of marbles. Fast forward about 18 years and I found myself going through flea markets and antique malls as a young 20 something adult. I started finding marbles and that childhood memory came back and I started chasing my memories, that was 1993 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jten Posted January 19, 2014 Report Share Posted January 19, 2014 I was at an estate auction years ago and saw 2 jars with marbles. The marbles were different from any marbles I had ever seen. The antique dealers that were looking at them all commented on the damage they had and thought they were worthless. I decided to bid on them if they were cheap they looked unusual. Had the high bid of 9.00 a jar looked them up and found out they were handmade and worth more than I had payed. I was hooked I was looking for something small to collect. I did not realize at the time I would fill a whole room with them. It was nice to see Del morgan's name in a post above. He had great live auctions and great bidders it felt like a family get together everyone chatting before,during and after the auctions Jten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg11 Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 he had some loose screws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flanco Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 It was a gumball machine for me. It was a gift and I wanted to fill it with marbles. They were cheap and plentiful when I started back in the early 80's. I got it filled then started wondering what some of them were. I bought Bauman's book then one by Marlow Peterson and Larry Castle. I have been hooked ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aleecee Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 I have always liked small colorful things....hooked on Christmas lights, my mom sewed and I used to spend time digging through her tins of old buttons and sequins, sorting-lining them up (mkes me sound a bit like Rain Man!) loved the way new crayons looked in the box..you get the picture. I grew up in NYC, and lived in an apt. There was a "magic room" on each floor (AKA the "porter's closet") where tennants could throw away larger items that did not fit in the incinerator shoot. The porter's closet was amazing for a kid..old clothes, suitcases, shoes, jewelery boxes, empty perfume bottles, books and on an on. My brother and I came home with many a treasure! Sad to day, I never found any marbles there, but my love of little colored things and sifting through junk led me to a life filled wtih flea markets, antique malls, yard sales etc. Found my first colored clay marbles at a flea market in Bloomsburg Pa where I went to school...it's been marbles since then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 I have always liked small colorful things....hooked on Christmas lights, my mom sewed and I used to spend time digging through her tins of old buttons and sequins, sorting-lining them up (mkes me sound a bit like Rain Man!) loved the way new crayons looked in the box..you get the picture. Sounds like me :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aleecee Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Stefan...we are not alone!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbobam Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Pat reminded me of something. Way before I'd thought about marbles, there were psychedelic 'super-balls' in gumball machines at the grocery store. I thought they were the 'coolest', and used a lot of 'allowance' as a young boy collecting them. So just maybe if I were 'Sybil' and Joanne Woodward was my psychiatrist, she'd suggest that this was a better marble collector reason than the one I've given previously. In spite of my rolling smiley, it's probably true. ( : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocci Posted August 26, 2014 Report Share Posted August 26, 2014 Bob, I am still patiently waiting for a photograph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnesota Marble Posted August 26, 2014 Report Share Posted August 26, 2014 (edited) Well where do I start.....beginning would be best. I grew up...well got older anyway on a north central town in Illinois. I can distinctly remember that as a kid of about 7 or 8 we used to play marbles every recess and lunch. I loved these little round things!! We couldn't afford a marble bag so I was content just carrying a couple handfuls around for the chance to challenge a fellow marbler to a game. I played EVERY chace I could and soon became a force on the playground to the point where I had to put 2 to 3 mibs up against another kid's one to get them to play with me. Back then...."steelies" were power and cat eyes ruled!!!......they re my all time favorite. I was not a very serious student those early years so report card day was a dreaded time for me but......that was THE day I challenged a tom-girl to a hi stakes game of marbles because she had the HUGEST clearie ever and I wanted it!!! No sooner had I asked to play did she reming me that older kids played during school amongst themselves and if a younger challenger wanted to play he or she would have to stay after school. I did stay,won that clearie and ran the whole 8 blocks home as fast as I could! I can still see my Dad sitting there in his chair on the porch as my strides slowed to a walk of dread. He asked.."where have you been? " for a second I thought about lieing but remembered the report card in my back pocket so I fessed up and told the truth and then stood there for the worst to happen. "Where is your report card", he asked and I slowly handed it to him. "Let's go inside" he said and I knew there was a whuppin coming my way real fast and fast it was,,,....crack,crack,crack with the belt and then he said......."this one is for playing marbles"....so I asked(big mistake)...."what were all those others for?" and he gave me one more!!!.... That didn't stop me from playing nor diminish my love for these curious round things but when we moved all my marbles got left behind...... 8-[.......untill I read the local paper one day and saw the most glorious marbles ever!!! The article was about a local collector named "Beano".....I called him and we quickly became friends spending hours at his home looking at numerous handmades and some machines that were his life long passion all kept neatly arranged inside a large antique carpenter's tool box made out of oak. Our friendship was special and I made wedding rings for him and Sue. He had I believe 2 bouts with cancer previously but this time there was no more lucky rabbit's foot for him. He died and the last time we were together(he was laying in a hospital be in the living room) I asked if I could put a sulphide I had of a baby lamb in his pocket on "that" day.......he asked me why I was giving him such a nice one!!! Figured he came into this world innocent and wanted to leave the same way with the lamb. Of God beside him. Almost forgot,that last visit he asked Meir Iwouldeverbei treated in his collection andIsaid "yes" shoe told Sue that if the collection ever came available I was the first person to call. He passed away and I believe 7 years later Suecalled me and his entire collection resides in my shop......carpenter's oak tool box and all!!! Well that's my story andI am sticking to it! BernieMMinnesota Marble Edited August 26, 2014 by Minnesota Marble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted August 26, 2014 Report Share Posted August 26, 2014 Sammy Hogue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mibcapper Posted August 26, 2014 Report Share Posted August 26, 2014 .... a young fella in topeka kansas, with more patches on his britches than me, running off with my favorite shooter ... .... after he gave me a black eye ... .... bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joesmarbles Posted August 26, 2014 Report Share Posted August 26, 2014 Pretty simple really, needed to make money, broken marriage, three kids to take care of, marbles were cheap and I did quite well buying and selling them. "Little Joey" Christmas 1997 "Now I play with Marbles and other shiny toys I fill my nights with daydreams the stuff of little boys!".....Joseph Patrick McDonough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I'llhavethat1 Posted August 27, 2014 Report Share Posted August 27, 2014 Minnesota Marble that's a touching story, friends and marbles. My interest started on the school playground, playing for keeps. The first sunny days of spring I remember looking out the class window and once enough snow melted to expose some dirt, that's where my friends and I spent recess. There were a lot of catseyes and stuff but even back then I liked the older patterns of vintage marbles which wasn't common at my school. Some got dinged pretty bad in the process of a victory but back then it was 'a battle scar' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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