4 comments about Marbles: Identification and Price Guide.

1. I really have absolutely nothing against this wonderful work and in fact have nothing by praise. Of the many marble books out there, and there are many you will note, this one is at the top of the list for shear teaching power. It is also the one book (if you are silly enough to just carry one) that you should take with you to auctions and sales. I say this because of the ease of finding what you are looking for. At an auction or sale you simply do not have several hours to ponder and research...you need information and you need it fast. This work allows you to do that due to its wonderful organization.
   
   Now, if you are interested in marbles, old marbles, and who isn't, then this is what I would term as a keystone or base book. It gives you a wonderful starting point to further your research. All the various machine marbles are covered; or at least most of them and the author has given us a good start at understanding, identification and source of the old clay marbles. I will state at this time though, that if you are interested in specialty marbles, such as clay, then you probably will need supplemental books to go along with this work. No one book can cover ever aspect of this fascinating subject...it would be impossible.
   
   Also, let me warn you as to the pricing provided here. This is a good starting point and gives good information as to how to evaluate any given marble or category of marble, but DO NOT come under the impression that value is static. The cost or value of any given piece can vary greatly and change almost from day to day. Also geography has a lot to do with it. I know from personal experience that prices for any given item can swing tremendously from the East Coast to the Midwest. If you pay say one hundred dollars and think you are getting a bargain at the time, don't expect to triple your money in some other state or some other time. Like any antique or collectable, any given item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it or is willing to part with it for.
   
   All in all though, this is one of the best and if you interests lie in this direction, then you certainly should have a copy of this one in your possession. I have been particularly impressed with the quality of photographs provided in this volume.
   
   Don Blankenship
   The Ozarks



2. I got this book for my husband who had just bought seveal clay marbles. Although the book is very encompassing on differnt marbles and the photos are of top quality, my husband was disappointed in that there was very little on clay marbles but he would recomment it for an all-around book on marbles.



3. Great Marble book. Informative with detailed photos. This book is for collectors old and new.



4. Easier to use than some of the other marble "standards." It is well organized and the values, based on the condition of the marble, are with the marbles. Some of the other books have you constantly flipping from back to front to find a value. The different types of antique handmade marbles are logically grouped for the most part and the machine made marbles are divided by manufacturer.There is even a section with examples from contemporary marble artists. My one complaint would be that there should be an index to make finding of the great many types of machine made marbles easier. Until something better comes along, I carry this with me to auctions, flea markets, antique shows or anywhere else I think there might be an opportunity to buy, sell or trade marbles.

2 comments about Marble Collectors Handbook.

1. this is an awesome guide to marbles. i have a lot of marbles that i would like to sell, but would also like to know exactly what i am offering before i offer it for sale. this is a very intense book, so don't think that you can just sit down, pick out 'your' marble and know what you have. it will definitely take some time and research, but the book is very thorough in its information.



2. Marble identification is complicated. This book has excellent photos to assist in identification. The narrative pertaining to each type of marble is informative, quick, and to the point. This is a book to be used.

2 comments about Aggies, Immies, Shooters, and Swirls: The Magical World of Marbles.

1. There are some very minor inaccuracies, nothing major but overall this is beautiful, true, coffee table book. The reason that I know about it is that my neighbor is one of the featured artists in the book (Jeffrey Grey). It's quite an amazing book and if you find the last pic in the book that is attributed to Jeffrey, what you're seeing there are hand made marbles made of fiberglass and wood that he made himself. I couldn't believe it when I first looked at them but he gave me one of the marbles shown in the picture and I have to say it's an absolutely amazing bit of craftsmanship. For an offbeat conversation starter, this is really a fun, whimsical book.



2. There are several things that make this book a stand-out. The first is the basic information about the types of marbles (antique, machine-made, modern) and the makers of the marbles. If you're looking for extensive historical information, this may not be the book for you. But if you collect marbles and are interested in good, basic information as well as tons of photos (most enlarged so you can see every detail) of a wide variety of marbles, this book fills the bill. While I'm no marble expert, I learned a grat deal from reading this one!

5 comments about Everett Grist's Big Book of Marbles.

1. I didn't find this book very helpful, you have to have a pretty good knowledge about your marbles and where they are made and stuff. Not a good reference book unless you already know what you have.



2. This is a great, glossy reference for identifying marbles. Copyright 2006, the Big Book of Marbles gives a great overview of the history of the game and of the manufacture of marbles, both antique and machine-made.There are several hundred very sharp photos of the many, many kinds of marbles one can collect, and equally sharp and knowledgeable technical discriptions.



3. Great pictures, and lots of them, with information on go-alongs and on manufacturers, but not a great an ID guide as I had hoped it would be. I still can't tell who made my vintage marbles.



4. Everett Grist's Big Book of Marbles is very comprehensive and extremely well illustrated. It will be a great reference for both hand-made and machine-made marbles. The price estimates given for the illustrations are realistic in my opinion and will be helpful in valuing my collection.



5. I decided after attending a national collector-run marble show in my area to get this updated Third Edition of Grist's book, because it looked like it would have enough new pictures to make identifying all those troublesome common marbles a possibility. And the pictures in the book are nice, being clear and color-accurate, and showing multiple marbles so one can see the range of designs/colors that fall within a category. However, I've always considered Grist to be a lazy author, and this just confirms it. Yes, it takes some work to get the pictures of so many marbles, but that is something almost anyone could eventually do. This is sub-titled a 'comprehensive' ID book, so I expected Grist to deliver. He does not even come close to delivering on that promise! First of all, many marbles are left out and many more poorly dealt with. As new as I am to marbles, even I know that there are subtle differences that help one to differentiate between marble companies. Yet Grist has virtually NO TEXT explaining how to ID various types of marbles. It is simply pictures and an occassional comment, and as we all know, pictures of certain marbles, such as cateyes, do not do justice in showing the differences. Those need to be EXPLAINED (how many vanes, shape, etc) because the differences usually do not show well in pictures. None of this happens. Many of the Peltier marbles are simply lumped together as 'Champion Jrs.' with none of the common names used in the trade included. And as far as being a comprehensive value guide, only ranges are given with no differention for size or condition given. That is hardly a comprehensive price guide! On top of that, most prices on common marbles (under $10 each) appear to be grossly inflated over what is actually happening in the marketplace today. I wish I could get those prices for my commons - I'd be rich! The final insult is the poor editing done in the book. "Peltier" is spelled "Pelitier" half the time. There are pictures where the heading states "row 1" when it means "column 1." Just plain sloppy. Most pictures of the rarities have no prices at all and only general category IDs for the entire group shown. In general, a nice picture book but nothing about it is 'comprehensive' - just more false advertising. Why can't anyone put out a book with the quality and extent of pictures Grist does and the helpful, detailed text and variety listings such as Block attempts? Then we would be approaching a 'comprehensive ID and value guide.' So far, I've found nothing close.

No comments about Everett Grist's Big Book of Marbles 4th Edition.

1 comments about American Machine-Made Marbles: Marble Bags, Boxes, and History (A Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. If you enjoy marbles and history you will like this book. The photos are great. Every conceivable set of machine made marbles is in here. It will make you want to start your own collection. As a historic archeologist, this book has been essential to interpreting what is found in the field and what people were, well, buying at the store in the past. Very good book. I highly recommend it.

2 comments about Antique Glass Swirl Marbles (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. I liked the book because it had pictures and pricing together. There were lots and lots of beautiful color pictures. Easy to check.



2. I bought this book for my girl friend as a xmas gift,and it was a big hit
   she loved it.

2 comments about Collecting Early Machine-Made Marbles: The M. F. Christensen & Son Company and Christensen Agate Company.

1. This is my great great Grandfather's Marble Company! I had no idea folks were collecting his marbles.
   And a book with price guide, I am in total amazement.



2. All illustrations are exceptional and discriptions perfect. A must have for marble collectors.

2 comments about Popular American Marbles.

1. I just started collecting marbles and I found this book very helpful and taugt me to reconize different marbles.



2. The book is great if you like looking at alot of blurry pictures of marbles. I bought the book to help me clarify different types of marbles, but the pictures are useless. for me this book is a waste of money.

5 comments about Making Marble-Action Games, Gadgets, Mazes & Contraptions: Designs for 10 Outlandish, Ingenious and Intricate Woodworking Projects.

1. While depicting interesting marble-action games, the lack of dimensioned drawings and detailed construction instructions make the book pretty much useless for the casual woodworker interested in constructing the toys.



2. In today's world not many woodworkers make things by hand. The book is hard to work with, difficult to find basic stock requirements and measurements. I would not buy again.



3. This book contains 10 ideas for games which seem to be what every child would enjoy. The problem is that most of the figures used in the book to give construction details leave a lot to be desired. Most of the photos are black and white and difficult to see any detail. The drawings are also in black and white and are also very difficault to follow.



4. I was disappointed as well. I expected projects I could build, but nothing struck me as worth the time. The basic ideas are OK, marble rollers, and so on. But I would only use this stuff as a departure point for my own designs.



5. This book was a terrible disappointment. I wanted to give it no stars but that didn't seem to be an option. For most of these gadgets he begins the chapter by explaining that they don't actually work very well, they tend to jam and clog up requiring a certain amount of tilting and tapping to clear the device. Many of the mazes and such are non-functional - they are there to make the contraption look complicated. It's clear to me from looking at it that the dice substitute will never generate a 1, 2, or 6, and the thing is definitely not uniform like dice would be. The spirit of Rube Goldberg is represented by contraptions that do a lot but accomplish very little. The mechanisms in this book just don't do anything. I didn't find a single satisfying project in here and felt like it was a waste of twenty bucks. And what are metric conversion tables doing in here? An embarrassment if you ask me. If you like this kind of stuff get Making Wooden Mechanical Models by Alan and Gill Bridgewater. It is far superior.