All modern shooters

[Marian]

Any distinctions in these shooters?

For example, the three on left, the vanes seem to fill up the marbles, where as the others are slimmer?

[Steph]

Not sure.  The fuller the vanes the more likely I am to wonder if they could be Marble King.  But I'm not seeing enough detail to have a feel for that.  

 

So, early Asian (likely Japanese) ... or Marble King.  

 

Hard to tell age on Marble Kings.  Could be early. Could be modern.  

[wvrons]

The three on the left are older Marble King. The others are foreign. 

[Marian]

So do most Marble King do that? Fill the marble more?

[Steph]

yes

[Steph]

Ron, why do you think older MK?  Any clues to look for between newer and older?

[wvrons]

By older I mean the 1970's to mid 1980's. Nothing to look for. I think that is the last time MK made any large 7/8 and one inch clear base cat eyes.  These and the same smaller sizes were dug in the creek at Paden City. Everything there was discarded in that time frame or earlier. 

[Marian]

That is interesting though!

So these other yellows are 7/8 MK, too?

[Steph]

2 hours ago, wvrons said:

By older I mean the 1970's to mid 1980's. Nothing to look for. I think that is the last time MK made any large 7/8 and one inch clear base cat eyes.  These and the same smaller sizes were dug in the creek at Paden City. Everything there was discarded in that time frame or earlier. 

 

I have big ones which I bought in bulk around 2004 or 2005, including big four-color ones, 15/16" to 1".   But I didn't keep good track of them since I was just starting my serious collecting then.  I got rid of most of them because I hadn't yet learned to value modern marbles and can't swear there was no cross-contamination with old lots.  But the four-color ones have to be modern and I'm pretty sure some of the single-color ones are also.  

[Steph]

Also, a 7/8" one with almost-black amethyst vanes.   Came with a lot of other amethysts which I really really really wish I had saved.

 

[Steph]

2 hours ago, Marian said:

That is interesting though!

So these other yellows are 7/8 MK, too?

 

 

I think that's safe to say, yes.

[Steph]

Also ... just checked ... the Marble King site has 1" and 7/8" cat's eyes listed.  I guess I could have checked that first.  But I did enjoy taking my pictures.

[wvrons]

I need to keep more up to date on the newer marbles. Your newer ones look like thin color. Which is common with all companies. The more years go by and more competition require cost cutting. So the quality and color suffer with mass production.  Maybe the older ones have better or thicker more color ? I think production has been very slow the last two years for Marble King. 

[Steph]

1 hour ago, wvrons said:

Your newer ones look like thin color. Which is common with all companies. The more years go by and more competition require cost cutting. So the quality and color suffer with mass production.  Maybe the older ones have better or thicker more color ?

That sounds  right.