The New *popular American Marbles* Book Is Out

[david Chamberlain]

Re. the enquire about the text(Popular American Marbles).....I'm afraid that the information is scant.

Re. the comment about the first book and it's photographs and assuming this refers to AMMM unfortunately Schiffer reduced many photographs to chapter heading insets thereby making them useless for serious IDing. Schiffer would probably tell you that this was done to accomodate more text but in conversations with the authors they were appalled at the extent of text deletions. Still, this is a great book .

David

[ann]

Yep, as David said the info is scant -- at best. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 1 -- and only because 0 isn't on that scale!

The first book is worth the price, however, if only for the lists and descriptions of the types of marbles produced by each company. It would have been invaluable if there had been a decent photograph of each listed type . . . There are very few marble photos, but they're sharp and the color is good. Most of the photos are of packaging and the old factories (interesting) and the majority of the text is devoted to factory history. But it's still the best book available on machine-made marbles, IMO.

There's a new edition of Marble Mania (Block) coming out in January. Am wondering what that will be like . . .

[Al Oregon]

OK, I'm confused. This was an old topic from 2007 that was suddenly revived. Why? Was there a 2nd Edition/update of the original Popular American Marbles? That was the one with the poor pics. This is not to be confused with American Machine Marbles by the same authors around the same time. That one is a great book. Please enlighten me as to whether there is a new or updated book (Aug 2010). Thanks.

[lstmmrbls]

I may be the one confused. Looks like this was all about the first publication. I believe Ann dredged up a 3 year old post. I am guessing she missed the reviews and just got the book. Thats enough to upset anyone as this book was a great big disappointment. Really enjoyed AMMM.

[ann]

I believe Ann dredged up a 3 year old post. I am guessing she missed the reviews and just got the book. Thats enough to upset anyone as this book was a great big disappointment. Really enjoyed AMMM.

LOL. Got Popular American Marbles when it came out (unfortunately) but just stumbled across this post while I was looking for something else in the way-back threads . . . the thread seemed to leave the impression the book was OK, and I just couldn't let that stand!

And yes, the first one, American Machine Made Marbles, was a revelation when it came out and is still the best book on vintage marbles.

I had hoped that Popular American Marbles would address what I saw as the only serious flaw in AMMM -- the lack of photographs to accompany the described marble types. That would still be a worthwhile project -- although maybe with another publisher!

Just didn't want any newbies or anyone interested in aquiring some decent marble books to waste their money on Popular American Marbles!

[david Chamberlain]

There is activity afoot by numerous marble people to provide better individual marble company photographs. Jabo, Alox and Cairo forsure. I doubt though that anyone in their right mind will trust to Schiffer to treat them decently re. photographs and/or text. Maybe Collector Books is the next route to take for a marble book. Self-publishing can be disappointing at times. David

[ann]

I'd beg the folks who did Paul Baumann's last book to do mine . . .

[Hipocritter]

The BIG BOOK OF MARBLES 4th EDITION

is Now Available:

http://www.collector...p?item_num=8226

I worked with Everett for a year and a half to revise this Great Old Book.

http://www.collector...rs/?page=7#a555

There are lots of new pictures and information in almost every chapter.

D.C. wrote:

Maybe Collector Books is the next route to take for a marble book.

It may be a little too late for that. Collector Books has closed it's offices. Schroeder's Price Guide will be in it's last year too.

The computer has replaced hard copy in many areas.

I hope everybody enjoys the new book. Thanks to all of you that helped with this project.

Good morning,

Lloyd Huffer

[n2marbles]

I may be the one confused. Looks like this was all about the first publication. I believe Ann dredged up a 3 year old post. I am guessing she missed the reviews and just got the book. Thats enough to upset anyone as this book was a great big disappointment. Really enjoyed AMMM.