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German agates are getting popular again...darn!


bumblebee

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I was enjoying sniping some nice agates at low prices on eBay during the past couple of years, but clearly there are some new old kids in town with deeper pockets and just as sharp eyes. ;)

This first one was a premium agate with an unusual bullseye to boot. At shooter size for they really do not get better than in this color in my experience, so I should have bid higher than $51. (I recall a newspaper article from early 20th century saying jewelry shops would purchase the highest grade agates like this for use in their creations. Will have to look that up.)

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While this is a premium agate at an usually larger size with uncommon chocolately shades, I have not seen one go for this much in a very long time. I attribute that more to this being from a popular seller, so lots of competition. I personally would trade this one below for the one above if given the chance, but not if I spent $138 on it!

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I have noticed the same thing not only with agates but with German handmades as well. The hobby is getting a boost from Covid no doubt--I try to stay positive--lol.

It may be time for a nice "Hand Faceted Agate" post. I really dig at the ones with multiple hits, how many Akros did those things destroy?

Bring it on and Marble--On As well!!!

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  • 4 months later...

Here's another example of agates fetching higher prices than I am used to, although I think this went higher because some bidders failed to read the fine print which said the blue agate lacked facets.

That being said that black one on the right had some very nice rings on it.

 

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Love the handmade agates, my grandfather gave me his 50 years ago and it stayed in my jewelry box for 30 years and then it got me interested in collecting and learning about marbles. It has a family of about three dozen now, mostly picked up several years ago but still love seeing new ones come along. 

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On 9/25/2021 at 1:22 PM, bumblebee said:

I was enjoying sniping some nice agates at low prices on eBay during the past couple of years, but clearly there are some new old kids in town with deeper pockets and just as sharp eyes. ;)

This first one was a premium agate with an unusual bullseye to boot. At shooter size for they really do not get better than in this color in my experience, so I should have bid higher than $51. (I recall a newspaper article from early 20th century saying jewelry shops would purchase the highest grade agates like this for use in their creations. Will have to look that up.)

image.png

While this is a premium agate at an usually larger size with uncommon chocolately shades, I have not seen one go for this much in a very long time. I attribute that more to this being from a popular seller, so lots of competition. I personally would trade this one below for the one above if given the chance, but not if I spent $138 on it!

image.png

 

Yes, some of the best agates were made into jewelry.  Here's a necklace of matched hand ground (faceted) agate marbles turned into beads.  Sometime ago, in a bead forum, someone took offense when I mentioned that beads were just marbles which had lost their virginity, so I won't say that here.  image.thumb.png.40a9bab4d95a1aeb057cbadb659b5d09.png

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2 hours ago, hdesousa said:

Yes, some of the best agates were made into jewelry.  Here's a necklace of matched hand ground (faceted) agate marbles turned into beads.  Sometime ago, in a bead forum, someone took offense when I mentioned that beads were just marbles which had lost their virginity, so I won't say that here.  image.thumb.png.40a9bab4d95a1aeb057cbadb659b5d09.png

🤣🤣🤣🤣😯🤣🤣🤣

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