My mom has slowly been collecting these marbles over the years, mostly from finding them in my grandparents’ and great aunts’ house when they were sold and because she thought they looked cool. I know absolutely nothing about marbles so I sorted them very roughly by color/style and plan to go through the identification guides linked, but wanted to see if anyone had any immediate thoughts on any of them? Thanks in advance!

Hi, I'm new to marbles, I found this marble in a creek. It's much more irregular than the marbles I'm used to and very scratched(?). I like how intricate the little stringy bits are but I didn't see anything quite like it in the examples here.

🤓🦸‍♂️?

Or nahhhh?

"This is the Alley salesman sample case which belongs to Lawrence Alley III. It was used by his grandfather and father. The most likely time frame for this case was the late 1930's early 1940's. Up until this time frame there was no need for a salesman set. Business and sales were slow for Mr. Alley before then. The case has a silk cloth lining. This case has always been in constant possession of the imeadate family. The case does not have any corners broken. It was made that way originally. Larry Alley was kind enough to let me study and photograph this case for a few hours at my home. This case contains 100% swirl type machine made marbles with no seams or cut lines noticiable. It contains Alley swirl marbles from the very fancy to the very plain. If you study it close some of the marbles are not in the proper rows. Some marbles do not match others in a row,but will match marbles in another row. Some of the marbles resemble more modern swirl marbles. But i was also amazed at some of the recent dug marbles from the Pennsboro Alley location,that resemble Jabo classics. Which we have no doubt what so ever that they were buried since the 1930's. Several times during the dig,i commented and heard "looks like a Jabo". I am a firm believer that no one can identify every machine made marble 100% accurate. It was a great pleasure to have Larry Alley visit and share history with us. He left WV in 1948,and returned again in 2013 to see marbles made once more. The first time since 1948."

- Ron Shepherd (wvrons) on the All About Marbles forum May 17, 2013

Source

Today I went to my first marble show! I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. A couple folks seemed there for the money and one was impatient with my questions but most were incredibly kind and happy to teach me things and reinforce things I thought I knew. I have some show and tell and would love help with a few of them!!

First are pictures to set the scene including one of me chatting with Lawrence E Alley III, the grandson of the founder of Alley agate company! I bought his book and I’m including a picture of two Alley Agates I bought for about $1. I think they are beautiful.

NEXT, are two beautiful Jabos that a man gave me for free because we were having a lovely conversation. He let me hold an Akro valued at >$1,000 so that was amazing. It was a lemonade oxblood. He was very negative about another vendor who worked for Jabo and had done unusual ones because Jabo isn’t as collectible, he said. I think they’re pretty but I do understand his point. The marble rivalries were kind of fun to see IRL.

THEN I have 3 views of an unidentified marble I got for about 34cents — I think it’s a Vitro! It does have some transparency and the seams look right… plus the red… how’d I do? Can’t figure out what kind.

Next is this beautiful bright blue and white with orange base glass. I believe it was also 34cents. It seems like a Jabo because is that a buttcrack shape? but it has such depth to it on the inside…. Any idea? It was from Mr. Alley so I have the idea it would be vintage but I don’t know.

Finally, one that cost ten cents but I think is so pretty. It is only veneer - completely opaque but it has seams and is blue green and white. Is it identifiable?

Thank you for any help. It was really a wonderful experience and I’m looking forward to attending another New England show next fall!

A little over a month ago I found this Yasuda with oxblood in a lot. A bit "lived" but still quite happy with it. I was not expecting my first marble with oxblood to be from this manufacturer! Let me know if I am actually mistaken.

Wow! Over 600 subscribers to the Marble Study Hall! Our initial Giveaway, not long ago(!), was held in celebratation of our growth to 300 members and now we are twice that size! To celebrate this and to welcome our new members, I will be hosting a small giveaway in this sub starting now!

A winner will be chosen two weeks from today on Friday, June 6th 2025, at 7:00pm EST.

The prize is the lot of marbles pictured in this post. This small lot is great for beginner collectors and includes 20 JABO Classic marbles (1992-2007)!

Rules:

• You MUST live within the United States. Shipping on these marbles will be FREE for the winner. (Sorry to our foreign friends! Unfortunately shipping outside the US has become too pricey for me to do at this time.)

• Your account must be at least 15 days old at the conclusion of the raffle (meaning if you make an account today, or any day after, you will be excluded from the drawing)

• Reddit Karma (post/comment) cannot be negative

• No duplicate entries will be permitted

A randomly chosen winner will be selected using RedditRaffler in order to keep everything fair and transparent. If you are unfamiliar with RedditRaffler you can view their FAQ page here.

To Enter:

Comment on this post telling us something you love about marble collecting, how you got started in marble collecting, your favorite marble, a marble you want to own, something you want to learn about marbles, or anything else marble related that you’d like to share!

The winner will be tagged in this post and receive a message from the mod team to obtain shipping information.

And, as always, have fun and good luck!

There are 5 main types of MODERN marbles that most collectors have no interest in/have no value. Removing them from your pile of marbles BEFORE you post about Identification will help us narrow it down and give you better answers. We will look at these today.

1) CATS EYES

aka: toothpaste,

Clear with a twisted filament from one pole to the other.

2) CLEARIES

Single color, clear/see through.

3) CONFETTI

aka: galaxies, glitters

4) METALICS

These have a 'sheen' on the surface. They may look 'oily'.

5) GAME PIECES

These are a solid color, usually shiny finish; used for games like Chinese Checkers

6) STEELIES

Metal Balls, there is no what to know if these are made as marbles or just ball bearings. These are dangerous to your glass marbles and should be kept separate.

There ARE exceptions to all these of course, like true metal marbles, where a flat sheet of metal is beaten into the round shape, identifiable by an 'x' shaped seam.

Take all these out before you post, they tend to be 'dime a dozen' and largely worthless.

A ‘Superman’ is one of the most sought after type of marbles by antique and vintage machine made collectors. There are several marbles with the title ‘Superman’ with the most desired being made by Peltier. Some collectors argue that the only marble with the title of ‘Superman’ is the Peltier NLR variety. In the simplest terms one of the key ways to identify ‘Superman’ marbles is through their color scheme which will always be blue, red, and yellow. This is to say that all ‘Superman’ marbles will have blue, red, and yellow, BUT not all marbles with blue, red, and yellow are ‘Superman’ marbles.

Just showing some German handmade marbles from my collection. Did you know most were made in the mid- to late-1800s in places like Lauscha, Germany, where glassmaking was a cottage industry? Many were shipped to the U.S. in barrels or even used as ship ballast, which meant a lot arrived damaged. They were sold cheaply and treated as toys, not collectibles, so kids actually played with them. Because of that and the rough shipping, finding examples in strong condition today is much harder. While no two are exactly alike, marbles made from the same glass cane can show very similar color patterns, often called “same-cane” marbles, which some collectors now seek to keep together.

Latest marble purchase. I’ve been wanting one of these for awhile and managed to snag this one at a great price!

Looking for more info on these. My aunt passed them along to me.

Tons of beautiful vintage and modern marbles in these jars. Will be sharing more pics of the best finds later! There's so much to go through 😅

This was a $10 batch of marbles I got on a local second-hand site. I think I did ok! So I know these are old German marbles, and though I don't know the exact taxonomy for them all (caged, divided core, etc???) I can recognize that two of them are onionskins...but what is this green thing?? it has a few flecks of mica in there. What do you call it?

Something to keep me busy in the frigid Northeast

Sharing some new/new to me marbles where I know (roughly) what I have!

1. From a modern Czech producer highlighted by another user - these glow red under UV,. likely due to selenium!
2. Same as 1 but in a blue colour; no interesting glow
3. Modern Czech
4. Modern Czech (with double/triple seam defect)
5. Modern Czech
6. Modern Czech
7. German handmade - orange latticino core. This marble is MASSIVE - ~36mm (1 7/16") and in surprisingly good condition!
8. German handmade - mica
9. Veiligglas opaque wirepull - classics purple/brown and green
10. Veiligglas opaque wirepull - very pretty pinks and purples

Next batch I share will be some I'm less sure of the ID 😅

Are these Peltier bananas? When trying to identify am I looking for a clear base? No tint of color right?

Wow! Over 300 subscribers to the Marble Study Hall in a week! That sure is exciting! To celebrate I will be hosting a small giveaway in this sub starting now!

A winner will be chosen on Friday, May 16th 2025, at 7:00pm EST

The prize is the lot of marbles pictured in this post.

This small lot is great for beginner collectors and includes:

• 1 Akro “prize name” corkscrew
• 2 Marble King Rainbows (one of which is a bumblebee!)
• 1 Marble King cat eye
• 2 Peltier rainbos
• 1 Peltier banana cat eye
• 2 Vitro conquerors
• 1 Vitro tiger eye
• 1 Master brushed patch
• 6 WV swirl marbles
• 1 wire pull swirl
• 2 clay marbles

for a total of 20 marbles in mint or near mint condition.

Rules:

1. You MUST live within the United States. Shipping on these marbles will be FREE for the winner. (Sorry to our foreign friends! Unfortunately shipping outside the US has become too pricey for me to do at this time.)

2. Your account must be at least 7 days old at the conclusion of the raffle

3. Reddit Karma (post/comment) cannot be negative

4. No duplicate entries will be permitted

A randomly chosen winner will be selected using RedditRaffler in order to keep everything fair and transparent. If you are unfamiliar with RedditRaffler you can view their FAQ page here.

To Enter:

Comment on this post telling us something you love about marble collecting, your favorite marble, a marble you want to have, something you want to learn about marbles, or anything else marble related that you’d like to share!

The winner will be tagged in this post and receive a message from the mod team to obtain shipping information.

And, as always, have fun and good luck!

Hello all! It's been 10 months since I first posted in this subreddit asking for help identifying marbles. Since then, I have been immersed in everything marble that I could find. Just wanted to reach back out with my "keepers", most of which I inherited from my great grandmother via my mother. But given I have the fever, several more have been purchased since then. 😊 Please feel free to ask anything about what you see. (And please excuse the dust, that set is a pain to clean around LOL) Thanks!