Damaged marbles

[fentonacres]

Chad mentioned in another of my posts that marbles can be polished. I have, basically, a gallon sized ziplock with my "lessers" and damaged marbles. Which is not to say many in my other collection show damage - they are not all pristine. I guess that is the point of well-played marbles. 

So.... if polishing is a solution, how do you do that? And I ASSUME that, should the polished ones "go to market" that you can clearly identify that and do people still want them? 

[Steph]

Yes, they should be clearly identified.

I'm not aware of how well they would sell.   Most sentiment that I know of is against polishing except for one's personal collection, and even then many times people are against polishing.  Most of the positive feedback about polishing that I've been aware of in the past has been because there was one much-loved man who was doing polishing and people wouldn't want to hurt his feelings.  That was Leroy.

But Leroy has passed away, and that brings up the question of who might still be available to polish?  And would they be anywhere near as affordable as Leroy was?

So that's one other thing to consider -- if you were polishing marbles in order to sell them, would the cost of polishing be more than the marble could bring at market?  


As you can see, I have more questions than answers.  But I think I've given a pretty good summary of issues involved, if not resolutions of the issues.

[Chad G.]

I just stated the brick's, most of the other marbles don't have color that carries clear through like a brick, also polishing greatly reduces the worth of the marble, anyone w/ a good loupe or a little experience will be able to tell a polished marble in a second, a polishing machine leaves tiny micro semi circular abrasions on the glass, some people hand polish or buff after getting it out of the machine trying to fool you, a seasoned collector as I said can tell a polished mib a mile off. Most people don't have their own machine. There are other's who have link's to people who will polish them for a fee. Generally $25.00 and up, One need's to outweigh the other, and the price after polishing will be cut in half or less in most cases. If you could even sell it. Just stating from a collectors point of view, (Class a 67) does polishing @ $25.00 and up, generally old German mibs, When you see him sell on Ebay 99% of his mibs are polished by him, some rare one's fetch a good price. I personally don't have any polished marble's, and wouldn't have one polished unless rare and an increase of value or a beat up favorite like a sulphide for example. Polishing a $10.00 cork screw for $20.00 w/ an end result of - $10.00 make's no sense.

 Just some alternatives for those beat on brick's if you desired to keep them !!

31 minutes ago, Steph said:

Yes, they should be clearly identified.

I'm not aware of how well they would sell.   Most sentiment that I know of is against polishing except for one's personal collection, and even then many times people are against polishing.  Most of the positive feedback about polishing that I've been aware of in the past has been because there was one much-loved man who was doing polishing and people wouldn't want to hurt his feelings.  That was Leroy.

But Leroy has passed away, and that brings up the question of who might still be available to polish?  And would they be anywhere near as affordable as Leroy was?

So that's one other thing to consider -- if you were polishing marbles in order to sell them, would the cost of polishing be more than the marble could bring at market?  


As you can see, I have more questions than answers.  But I think I've given a pretty good summary of issues involved, if not resolutions of the issues.

 

[Chad G.]

30 minutes ago, Steph said:

Yes, they should be clearly identified.

I'm not aware of how well they would sell.   Most sentiment that I know of is against polishing except for one's personal collection, and even then many times people are against polishing.  Most of the positive feedback about polishing that I've been aware of in the past has been because there was one much-loved man who was doing polishing and people wouldn't want to hurt his feelings.  That was Leroy.

But Leroy has passed away, and that brings up the question of who might still be available to polish?  And would they be anywhere near as affordable as Leroy was?

So that's one other thing to consider -- if you were polishing marbles in order to sell them, would the cost of polishing be more than the marble could bring at market?  


As you can see, I have more questions than answers.  But I think I've given a pretty good summary of issues involved, if not resolutions of the issues.

classa67 sell's on Ebay all the time, 99% of his are polished. He has some for sale right now, I will try and get some pics. He's been doing it for year's, gonna see if I can find some of his work. Found one of His, link, https://www.ebay.com/itm/124377617751 He only has 1 on there right now, but generally around 10https://www.ebay.com/sch/classa67/m.html?item=124377617751&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

[Chad G.]

I'll have the his name later, escapes me right now, as you can see from his sale post he does an excellent job on some otherwise worthless mibs. You can't even see the inside of some of these before polishing, some damage goes to deep and will still reman. They even have people who fix fractures. I've messaged him on Ebay, should be a return in my Email shortly, I hope ??

[Chad G.]

Well, that end's that, he's been polishing for almost v20 yrs.' no longer for anyone else, here's the mess I received back from Ebay. I no longer know of any good polishers, maybe one couple in Olympia Wash. but have to call, in their 80's now, also mostly old German hand mades but their polisher would do any size, they had many rare old hand mades well worth polishing @ the Seattle show where I met them, some extremely rare sulphide marbles that fetched between $500.00 & $1000.00 even polished, some angel figures, a few fish, inc. a double and love bird's w/ a doughnut hole between the two head's are among some I seen that they had, I purchased my largest onion skin mica marble from them, not polished !! A pic. of it in digital's

 

 

[I'llhavethat1]

Solution: With handmades, polishing typically opens up the "ends/pontils".  A titanium pen to scribe a P in that area would identify it as polished. 

And as far as Stephs comment re: "Most of the positive feedback about polishing that I've been aware of in the past has been because there was one much-loved man who was doing polishing and people wouldn't want to hurt his feelings...." I don't quite agree with that. 

Leroy did a fantastic job and I can't imagine it was an easy one.  I know he took pride in his work for good reason.  I'm not a huge fan of polished marbles but if you had an example that was beat up and wanted to let the beauty shine through (and say you'd been collecting for ~40 years and never seen another one like it), he would be the guy you could trust to get it right.  At least in my experience anyway. 

[Chad G.]

Agreed , I've seen some German mibs before polishing that you couldn't tell what was inside. After polishing quite the surprise awaits, the people in Olympia I know purchased all kind's of old German mibs for a mere pittance and came out with some of the rarest one's I've ever seen, and made a pretty penny @ the same time, I messaged  another digger and polisher from Clarksburg W. Va., same no longer polishing for other's, Very seldom you come upon one you wat polished, either for sentimental or monetary reason's but the good polisher's seem to have all passed or quit. Kolieclify has always had a huge amount of Akro, with several one of a kind dug examples, never bought from him but enjoyed looking @ his mibs. I've seen 3 or 4 machines for sale over the past few years, getting one is one thing, getting good @ polishing it is another !!