u/peardr0p

Probably Vacor Spaghetti, so not old or uncommon, but fab glow from the depths!

What looks like a simple caged cats eye gets a lot more exciting under 365nm UV light!

Pair of Striped Transparent Slag marbles, likely made in Germany in the 1950s-60s

Pic 5 taken with 395 (glow was near-impossible to capture but strong irl), and pic 6 is daylight

Probably my strongest cadmium glow so far!

Bit grubby but still to wash...

To add to my amber, clear, blue, and shades of green!

Assuming German, but always appreciate corrections!

UV torches at the ready, we found 35 pieces of uranium glass, 4 with cadmium/selenium, and a load of mango not pictured!

Shown on a 1cm grid - some of the pieces were so small but shone so brightly at night!

Second photo with 395nm - the tiny opalescent pieces had a weaker glow that wasn't picked up so well

Last photo of a piece of coated uranium glass - red on one side, UG on the other!

One of the best I've found so far - the liesengang patterns are so beautiful!

We have whole rock faces of the stuff over here in Fife, Scotland

First trip to the beach in almost 2 months!

Thanks to r/beachcombing for the date confirmation 😊

Nice dark glass, very thick base, and this wee nipple on the outside

Found in Scotland, UK

1970s or older??

Hello! Another lot from me - this time, marbles I initially sorted with Wisplers but closer inspection has me second guessing. Hoping those of you with more Master/Peltier knowledge can help me out!

1. This is too neat to be a Wispler, or at least the majority are a lot more squiggly and thready, whereas this has wider stripes

2. Wondering Master for this, due to the seam top left. Again, much neater than the average Wispler

3. This one is interesting. The base has clear aqua through it, as well as wispy opaque white and what looks like an Oxblood-like smear on the surface of one side 🤔 Maaaybe Seike/Japanese

4. Another possible Master, considering Brushed Patch but unsure if the brown in the patch excludes that

5. Another suspected Brushed Patch, but are they usually so deep/fat??

6. I'd assumed Opaque Wispler but the colours are making me think Master, and some have quite a clear 'fin' seam...

7. The last 2 are what I have previously had identified as 'Mouldy', but I'm still not sure if that's a type, maker, or descriptor for marbles with the weird white 'mouldy' patches

8. As 7

Appreciate any input as to whether any should stay in the Europe box or can migrate to US Classics 😁

Thanks for your time!

Back again with another edition of "Don't Buy That" - based on UK eBay; all anonymized as the goal is to educate not inspire a dog pile!!

I try and subscribe to Hanlons Razor for things like this - sellers aren't (generally) being malicious or intentionally trying to rip us off, they just don't know, and it's easy to assume any misshapen marble or ones with defects are handmade or automatically old!

This batch are all labelled as something older than they are - the titles are vague enough that someone could be fooled, but here's why they are misleading and therefore overpriced.

1. Single pontil marbles tend to be transitional - the design shown is a standard lampwork technique and not antique; price isn't insane but certainly overvalued

2. Machine made caged cats eye that's a bit wonky, not antique, not handmade, and certainly not worth over £100

3. Again, more machine made marbles labelled as antique - these are vintage, and even being **super** generous and pricing them at £5/marble, that's £30, not nearly £130. The marbles shown are mainly Japanese and European from the 1950s onwards, and fairly common

4. Cheeky cheeky - these are modern, mass-produced lampwork marbles you can buy from places like Ali Express (~£30 for 100) and Amazon. Not 'Early' and not worth over £100...

5. Now these could be legit, but I wouldn't pay that price without better photos. They're described as swirls but no swirls visible. Plus the date of c1900 means they would be antique, and therefore handmade or transitional as the first successful machines haven't been made yet.

6. Machine-made - likely Japanese figure-8 marble from Seike or a transitional swirl from Yasuda; fairly common and certainly not worth £130

7. They added all the keywords here! Antique! Handmade! Rare! German! There are maybe 2 marbles I can see that fit that description, and that's not enough to justify the price

As a reminder, antique is defined as over 100 years old, so made before 1926 - this covers classic German hand-mades, many early Transitionals, and some early machine mades. Vintage is generally defined in marbles as pre-1970s, with Modern covering everything since.

Tl;Dr - not all old marbles are antique, and handmade marbles have specific characteristics you can look for. Being familiar with types of machine-made marbles will help you spot where a seller thinks they have something more valuable than it is!!

What do you think? Any you would have happily paid for?

Hope this post helps folks think critically when they see words like 'antique' and 'handmade' attached to high price lots!

First time poster, long time rock collector! East coast Scotland - all beach rocks shown.

The last, tho it may not show, was hand polished by my partner (I will share some more of those in another post)

Slowly learning the proper names - some epidote, some amygdaloid basalts... The coast around here is really exciting!

I've been buying random lots of marbles from eBay for over a year - I see comments on how there are no good lots, and how many are overpriced, so I wanted to share some examples of what not to buy so folks can be more informed and not waste money on items that are worth less.

This first batch are wildly overpriced but not making crazy claims beyond dubious use of the word 'Vintage' - I'd be shocked if anyone paid the prices they are asking.

I try and calculate a rough 'per marble' price to understand if something is worth buying - <30p/marble is my goal. If it's getting closer to £1/marble, there had better be something worth my time! In general, I try and keep my spend under £30/lot, unless there's something special that can justify spending more (like a handmade in good condition or a machine made type I've not seen before).

- Pic 3 does show a lot of 695 marbles with a ppm of 26p, which isn't *terrible*, however you can also get a similar amount of marbles for half the price, and I couldn't spot anything interesting from the photos (modern & cats eyes); it also breaks my 'Less than 30 quid' rule!

All screenshots anonymized - this isn't a name and shame. UK eBay only.

Did I get any wrong? Can you spot anything in these lots that would justify the prices? What has your experience been buying online?

Would love to hear if others around the world see the same/better/worse!

Eryngium planum - my second year growing and first year seeing the flowers! 🤩

Latest arrival - pretty sure it's Marble King from the seams but not a standard Rainbow and I can't find any similar examples...

Or am I off with MK?

Would love any input! Thank you!

June in Scotland 🤷

I've been trying to find ways to better identify transitional marbles based on seams

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It can be tricky to see them sometimes, so today I used bluetack to make an impression! And it worked really well!

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The green marble has a simple line, suggesting pinch pontil, which is associated with some of the early US makers

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The brown marble leaves a very spidery mark, which is indicative of a crease pontil, commonly associated with Japanese transitionals, like those from Yasuda and Seike (tho don't ask me how to tell those 2 apart 🫣)

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Would love to see impressions from any identified US makers for comparison with the pinches I have found so far!

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Two that seemed odd ones out in my WV Swirl box

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The first looks to be an Akro Corkscrew! Slipped by during an early sort

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The second is probably a WV swirl, maybe Alley, but there's something about the red that seems more similar to the red of some Rainbos I have than the other WV swirls I have with a blue base 🤔

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Thanks for taking a look - appreciate all input?

I have a cheap USB microscope, so decided to take some photos of adventurine marbles!

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The first is a 3 vane cats eye - I have over a dozen of these! 🤩

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The second is a recent DAS (?) with black aventurine - better photo as the aventurine is on the surface

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The last is an Oxblood sparkler I have - was curious how it would look, but it's a lot harder to get good close-ups! You can see how opaque and flat it looks, but not enough magnification to see anything more definitive

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I might do some photos of creases & pontils next

Hello!

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A few recent marbles I'd love to get confirmed IDs for - appreciate any and all input!

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All fairly standard size - no shooters or peewees

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1. I think this is a Peltier 6 Finger/Ribbon marble - first one I've found!

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2. Assuming Peltier Rainbo due to the distinctive seam (tho I can't find the link - it might be Imgur, but I think I remember Peltier being one that has this type of close-together seam

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3. Leaning Asian but wondering if it could be Vitro

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4. Another where Vitro crossed my mind, but I think this is JABO due to the fact the white contains uranium glass, and I think there are also some swirls of green uranium in the middle; can post photos in the comments if anyone is interested

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5. Probably Asian, maybe Seike - the 2 different types of white glass is interesting

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6. A load of Wisplers from the same lot 🥰

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Thank you for your time!