Hot Button Topic -- Do you believe in Kokomo ID's?

[Steph]

What percentage of the Kokomo ID's that you see do you actually believe in?

There are some very standard Kokos.  And then there are all the rest.  I see people seeking Koko ID's and often getting them based on as little as a shade of red as it appears on a  computer screen, for example.  And I wonder how much people on both sides of the ID really believe it.   The hopeful people with the marble or the helpful people with the ID. 

 

My thought is that I don't feel at all comfortable putting a "might be Koko" marble in the same container as my "pretty darn sure these are Koko" marbles.   I don't feel so strongly any more about, say,  Marble Kings which look like Vitro All-Reds.  They can go together.  But Kokos I still feel strongly about. 

 

I get the feeling that a lot of people take "might be Koko" as "good chance Koko" and then feel comfortable putting it in their pretty-darn-sure Koko cabinet without any explanatory notes.  

This seems to be a shift from when I started collecting, when for example I got praise from Chuck Brandstetter for biting my tongue whenever I kinda sorta wanted to bring up "might be Koko" in an ID.   The lesson I got from him was that "might be" should be translated as "probably not" and then the marble should be put in some other cabinet and the K-word should never be uttered again.  


There are few people whose Koko ID's I trust, and even with those people I'd feel better if they were able to say they got their similar marbles from a Kokomo dumpsite or the estate of a Kokomo employee, or something as nice as that.  

[cheese]

I agree Steph. Kokomo didn't make marbles that long and many marbles that people say might be Kokos are Pelts IMO. Some types are well known to be kokomo but the majority of rainbo looking marbles with sooty bubbles and dirty base glass are probably still rainbos IMO. I'm not an authority on them, but I feel like you do when I see the "might be kokomo" comment so much, especially on facebook. And if it looks like one of the types that Kokomo and Peltier both made, then maybe it could be Kokomo, but chances are very likely it's not just because of the numbers. But it does depend on who said it when judging how much weight the comment carries.

[akroorka]

Regarding Kokomo marbles. 
Anyone making an ID on these would have to have multiple bags or boxes. Similar to making an ID on a Master Glass cats-eye, not very consitant.
The Kokomo company made marbles for what—three years? The only one that I would attempt at making an ID on are the ones with the almost electric red with blue---just not Pelt imho.
I get a kick out of the seedy/dirty glass ID on these---as opposed to what, Pelts? Have they ever seen a “Muddy”. The gray on some of the Kokomo marbles does look different—but not that different.
Have there ever been any Digs?
Show your Kokomos and let’s see what you have everyone. Boxes and bags will help a lot. Still, a hard marble to ID.
Marble—On!!
 

[Fire1981]

This is my Kokomo collection. I don’t remember a topic about what names they might go by. I a Pelthead and Cocco for Kokomos. 

[Fire1981]

[Fire1981]

No named Kokomos 

[Ric]

I think this is called a Kokomo Christmas . . .

[Ric]

Back in the mid-2000s, there was a digger who occasionally showed up at the marble show in Kokomo Indiana so I have seen plenty of examples of Kokomo Glass. Back then, Ken H. would also bring out bags and boxes of Kokomo marbles, and Chuck B. (RIP) always had plenty of nice ones too. Here are some pics of Chuck's marbles, which he included in an article he published in the WVMCC Newsletter more than a few years ago . . .

I am forever grateful to Chuck for sharing his knowledge and collection of Kokomo marbles with me. I was very fortunate to have access to his collection so I could compare marbles I found in the wild to his known examples - it's just one of the many reasons I miss him dearly.

[Ric]

4 hours ago, Steph said:

What percentage of the Kokomo ID's that you see do you actually believe in?

I don't pay a lot of attention to most Kokomo IDs unless I already recognize the marble as Kokomo based on personal experience and comparison to known examples. Some Kokomo's and Peltiers are so near identical that I wouldn't even try to sort them. So unless those types are from the ground or original packaging, I default to Peltier just because of statistics. Having said that, there are many Kokomo marbles that can be positively identified. For example . . .

[Ric]

Or . . .

Kokomo marbles are not exactly known for being pretty. In fact, I think the marble on the left here is probably one of the prettiest types they ever made, at least to me.

[Berryb]

Rats, I was all set to post another Kokomo question. I have a mib I thought was possible kokomo but I expect from reading the above the answer lies somewhere between "nope" and "prob'ly not". I picked this mib out of the pile because of the bright colors (it is far brighter in hand). I guess the odds of me finding a kokomo in the wilds of NW Montana are pretty slim, about like the odds of finding a furnace, but I have two of them. Anyway here are the photos. Thanks

Bruce