Buy American Marbles

November 17th, 2009,

When American inventor Martin F. Christensen created the world's first glass sphere-making machine in the early 1900s, he faced stiff competition from overseas. Germany had long dominated the world's toy marble market with their handmade glass, crockery and agate marbles.

Martin's toughest challenge was not found in making a better product. American children adored the new fantastically round and smooth "glassies" he had so ingeniously created. Rather, like so many American manufacturers before and after him, his challenge was labor cost.

To illustrate the problem, in 1913, Horace Hill of M.F. Christensen & Son Co. reported to congress that his company's labor cost for one adult male was "$4 per day of 8 hours, $24 per week." In Germany, on the other hand, a day-shift adult male marble maker was paid "$4.76 to...$7.14 per week by the job of 12 hours per day."

How could they competitively sell toy marbles when the Germans could make them at a fraction of the cost?

The answer was simple: They could not compete. They could only appeal to the government to level the playing field by increasing the tariff, the duty tax on the imported products. And that's just what Martin F. Christensen himself did at tariff hearings before the Committee on Ways and Means.

In 1909 he made the following appeal, which reads in part:

Gentlemen: We respectfully submit our views in the matter of manufacturing glass marbles and caster balls.

In October, 1904, we started a small factory here in Akron, Ohio, for the exclusive purpose of manufacturing this product. From that time on we have labored along, but to great disadvantage with our foreign competitors, it being possible to put imported glass marbles on our American market; for example, No. 0 imported glass marbles are offered to the trade in this country at $1.57 per thousand against our No. 0 glass marbles, with an actual cost of manufacturing here of $2.80 per thousand. The principal element in our problem being labor, at which we labor to great disadvantage with our foreign competitors in the price we are compelled to pay for it; we have, however, maintained our unequal struggle with manufacturers from abroad in such a way as to keep our industry alive, but scarcely more; we are, however, capable of survival of almost indefinite extension if, during the crucial period the principle of giving adequate protection to our industry during the time it is actually needed it applies to our case. We feel that this industry is one which fulfills all the conditions required for the free and generous application of the protective principle; it is literally an infant industry; the protection which it absolutely requires is a protection against foreign poorly paid hand labor, and in favor of domestic high class skilled labor.

The M.F. Christensen & Son Co. survived for several more years until World War One. German imports were banned at the war's outbreak. Later in 1918, Martin F. Christensen's son, Charles, decided to retire and sold the company's remaining stock to the Akro Agate Company.

The "infant" American machine made marble industry thrived another 10 or so years, then struggled through the Great Depression and World War II. But America was changing. Plastic and television had been invented and the demand for toy marbles waned while the labor and material costs to manufacture them rose.

Despite this, in defiance of the odds, there are still two American toy marble manufacturers in operation today: Marble King and Jabo, Inc. That, to me, is something of a miracle in today's global economy. No doubt they too struggle against cheap foreign labor, high material costs, and the facts of a changing society.

These companies represent the legacy of M.F. Christensen, his invention and the struggles he faced to make and sell those wonderful little glass spheres we adore.

In honor of that history, I'm going to buy some new American machine made marbles while I still can.

Storing Vintage Marbles

October 17th, 2009,

I'm still trying to discover the best way to store and display marbles.

As a kid I was happy storing them in a long tube sock, a coffee can, or a velvet Crown Royal bag. But today these precious round works of art need more delicate digs.

Here are some examples of what I've been using to store my collection.

Cigar boxes - For $4 bucks or so they look cool, smell good, and you can partition them using dividers. But they don't shut very securely.

Bead craft storage cases - My local Michael's craft store sells the one on the top right for $2 with a secure snap lid. I added mini cupcake liners to cushion the ride. Below that is a smaller thin version that holds a single layer of 5/8" marbles perfectly for the same price.

Trays and plastic baggies - For your common or unsorted marbles these will do fine. I've got a basket of Vitro Phantom Conquerors patch marbles shown here, and a baggy of  West Virginia swirls that I probably won't identify for at least another ten years.

Marble suitcase - Actually a pistol case, these were purchased at Landofmarbles.com and work perfectly for standard sized marbles. The marbles fit snugly and the case closes very tightly. Once it's closed you can feel safe that no bumps or movements will distress your precious mibs.

What I don't have yet are those custom hardwood brag boxes with the felt lined marble holders. Those are the ones you put your top shelf marbles in. At the last marble show I attended a guy pulled one of these out from behind a table, popped it open and proceeded to give me a 10-second show of 12 or 15 extremely rare machine made marbles worth about $6,000.

Then there are the antique solitaire boards, Chinese checker boards, egg cartons and so much more. My next project is to try to create my own custom marble holders to fit inside cigar boxes, made of several layers of children's craft foam.

Diving into a Master Marble Sunburst

September 21st, 2009,

Even when you think you've seen everything there is to see in one marble, a closer look reveals a burst of beauty like a treasure hidden away until now.

I discovered this underwater paradise today inside a Master Marble Sunburst marble, made sometime between 1930 and 1941. Upon closer inspection it seems Seaburst would be the more appropriate name.

This was taken with my humble Canon PowerShot A630 using flash and macro focused to an inch away.

Here is the original, very large version [1mb] so you can really appreciate it.

When Your Seller Loses Their Marbles

September 18th, 2009,

When bidding on marbles on eBay, watch carefully for any changes to the auction description. Sellers can add important information that may give you a rude surprise.

Recently I won another lot of marbles, only to discover upon opening them that quite a few were missing. What's worse, the missing ones were the most interesting ones based on the seller's photos.

I immediately contacted the seller and realized that at some point late in the auction he updated his auction description, saying his grandson had played with and lost four or five of the marbles.

Apparently his grandson has a unique gift for choosing and losing the best and oldest looking marbles.

Thankfully I got a refund. Next time I'll remember to re-read the auction description before I increase my bid.

Update: I never got the refund. The seller actually quit eBay even though he had 500+ positive feedback since 2007. I wonder what happened? Anyway, this will be my first time using PayPal dispute resolution.

Buying Good Marbles without Good Pictures

September 5th, 2009,

It is a fact that in a blurry photo, fair condition marbles look nearly as good as a mint condition ones. It's also a fact that some eBay sellers offering marbles neither know about marbles nor how to take good pictures of them. This combination of factors give you, the buyer, an opportunity to score a nice batch of marbles at a better price than you could if the pictures were sharp.

Or not.

It takes a bit of detective work and lot of gambler's luck, but if you're lucky the payoff is a return to your childhood on Christmas morning. It's all relative to what sort of marble collection you already have, of course, and what types you like to collect. But it's a great way to build up your collection if you're still new to the game, not to mention it's just a lot of fun.

I recently won this batch of about 175 marbles for just under $50. Here is how they appeared on the auction listing:

The only thing I knew for sure from the pictures was that the marbles were vintage and the seller said some looked like they had never been played with. That's an important point. If he had said they all looked in played-with condition I would not have bid so high. If you look carefully you can see a nice colorful Akro Agate corkscrew near the top middle, in unknown condition.

Soon the box of marbles arrived all wrapped carefully in several bunches of bubble wrap.  It was the moment of truth. As I unwrapped the first bunch I felt relief and greater excitement after a couple of mint-condition slag marbles rolled into my hands. These moments are savored by marble collectors and all collectors--knowing you have done well, and that you may do even better. I would pay a $20 admission price just to have that feeling for 20 minutes. So already that $50 was looking more like $30 to me, and the nice marbles kept rolling out.

By the time I'd finished unwrapping the marbles I was a happy camper. Below is a nice sharp photo of the best ones. The left group includes 35 beautiful wet mint condition slags, and the top right group starts from the left with a mint Akro Agate Superman corkscrew, followed by a near mint Alley Agate flame swirl. There is also a nice mint Champion coral pink swirl and two more Akro Agate swirls. The middle right and bottom groups are in good to near mint but still some interesting marbles. Not pictured are about 70 more nice marbles in good to near-mint condition, about half of them slags.

This can be addicting. I'd better go now while I'm on a roll. There's a couple of lots of old blurry marbles ending soon that I have to bid on.