budwas Posted July 5, 2016 Report Share Posted July 5, 2016 Hi all I'm wondering who does appraisals and certifications on marbles and what qualifies a person to do this? What do they check for, mohs hardness of different glass? Chemical makeup of different additives for colors and glass? Do they take samples? Or is it nothing more then visual comparison? What does a marble have to go thru to be certified? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lstmmrbls Posted July 6, 2016 Report Share Posted July 6, 2016 No one I know of. And grading on marbles is so varied and subjective I would really question anyone that says they can give a fair accurate and honest appraisal on a varied collection. I would imagine there are some folks that could give a fair estimation on what a marble may sell for at auction but even the top marble auction estimates are always way under or over on their guesses , Just my opinion, I figure most of my marbles are worth at least what I paid for them or have been offered for them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted July 6, 2016 Report Share Posted July 6, 2016 Marbles are generally not "certified". At least not in the way that vintage coins have been. There are (at least) two people who have done formal appraisals of a large collection for an insurance claim, followed by a lawsuit that went to court. It can be done. Its a lot of work and documentation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobBlock Posted July 6, 2016 Report Share Posted July 6, 2016 A number of us have talked in the past about trying to do appraisals similar to coins or baseball cards, but there a number of logistical problems with that, not the least of which is that you can't hold the marble after it's encased in a holder, and also that marbles come in a larger variety of sizes than coins or cards. I have done written appraisals of collections in the past. But I charge $100 an hour for a written appraisal and can work through about 20 or so marbles an hour, so it's usually a pretty high-end collection. I've offered online identification via text or email since early 2014 via my website. I've responded to just under 15,000 texts since then. I would say 95% of the images I am sent are of Vacor de Mexico or Imperial Manufacturing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budwas Posted July 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2016 Thank you all for your input on that question. I appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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