Marvelous Mibs Marbles Collectors Zone

Doogle · Joined: 25 Aug 2009 Posts: 200 Location: Bishop, California

This is going to be a long ramble with a question that I need answered. It concerns MFC bricks. Now, it seems to me that there are more valuable and sought after marbles out in the world, but the bricks are marbles that all serious collectors seek out and obtain whenever it is possible or the price is right. Please, I don't mean ALL collectors, just making a general observation.
I don't have any bricks, and have been salivating over all the great photos I have seen. I actively watch Ebay for them, and they hardly never come up for auction......until this week.

I found a listing, #250513150912, that contained 9 of them. The woman didn't know what she had, and thought they might even be clay. It had 1 bid of $20.00 on it for the whole length of the auction, right up until the end. I was going to put a high bid of $500.00 in at the last minute and really try to grab these for considerably less. I didn't do that....I put a bid of $250.00 instead, and had the auction, but watched helplessly as two other bidders rapidly bid up to my max and then one of them won with $255.00. He/she probably did what I had planned on doing. Part of the story is my beloved bride didn't want me to even think about putting a $500.00 high bid, as she doesn't understand why I would want those marbles. That is another issue, and personal, but it did loose the bid for me and I am angry at myself for not forcing the issue.

Now, last night, there was another auction #190341280983, which contained 8 bricks in mint condition, that finally went for $292.85 in a flurry of bidding in the last minutes. My wife was going to bid $500.00 on this lot, after seeing my disappointment in losing the first auction. Out of pride and the fact that by this time I had no idea what the value of bricks might be, and I had probably over-estimated their value, I told her no way.

So...besides a personal issue with my bride about spending money on marbles, I now am completely without confidence in how I valued bricks. The big question is: how much are bricks worth? I am talking about the normal types without the greens, blues and other wild colors. And all of the above bricks were different sizes. Can anyone out there give me a rough idea of how to value these marbles? I might have made a costly mistake if I had placed a $500.00 high bid and someone else bid to just below my high bid. I am very confused at the moment. The fact that the last auction went for just a little bit more, and with mint marbles, really casts doubt on how I had valued bricks.

I hope this makes sense to those who have bravely read this entire post. And forgive me if I have offended anyone for such a long post. But this is an important issue that I need to put to rest.
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lstmmrbls · Site Admin Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 696

Size coloring pattern and especially condition are very important when putting a value to bricks, I have spent from 20-300 on mint bricks. At recent shows 40-60 is a good range for plain bricks(mint) It is also a marble that is damaged fairly easily and finding true mint ones can be tough.

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Peace,Galen

crappie_man_7 · Joined: 02 Sep 2007 Posts: 91 Location: Quincy, IL

the first auction you mentioned all look to have condition problems. The second looks better but the marbles are all small. You did well by not bidding. JMHO.
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~Reach for the moon and if you miss you'll still be among the stars~

Doogle · Joined: 25 Aug 2009 Posts: 200 Location: Bishop, California

Thanks gentlemen, you have eased my mind. Now I will tell my bride that she had good sense in questioning my wanting to bid that high.
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brian graham · Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 91 Location: Akron, Ohio.

Here's some tasty ones.....
A few of these I have already parted ways with...sad day indeed!

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browse4antiques · Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 552

Hi Doogle,
It is interesting to see a new collector trying to come to grips with the same issues that we (now) more experienced collectors confronted many years ago. Your questions and concerns are reasonable. It is really a fallicy that a particular type of marble has a particular value. The "standard" values are really just a very rough starting point. Condition and size are important factors that are fairly easy to calculate in to the equation, but the way they influence price is not uniform, and it takes time and experience to learn how they influence each of the types of marbles that you collect. But the most difficult aspect of evaluating marbles is the desireability of the pattern. Advanced collectors (the ones that have deeper pockets) have likely had many opportunities to purchase mint examples that have the usual type of pattern. Those very typical ones, are sought after by a much smaller pool of collectors, but the ones with some sort of very special pattern can sometimes drive the advanced collectors into a spending frenzy. Some marbles do not have a great variety in the "strength" of their pattern - for example Vitro Tigereyes don't have much variation. Others, like particularly Bricks, NLRs, and Transitionals, have enormous variation. If that wasn't enough, the preference for particular variations in pattern usually becomes a very personal thing for advanced collectors. Take, for example, the Brick shown below. It is a "plain" Brick in that it only has black with the oxblood. But I like it very much, and value it highly. That's probably because I am prone to collect Transitionals, and I see the "9-and-tails" pattern as an indication of the strong relation between Bricks and Transitionals. Someone else might observe that the black is not interspersed with the oxblood the way it is "supposed to be", and so they might believe it's not so desireable as a representative Brick. My best advice is to decide for yourself what constitutes an interesting pattern, and you will find that sometimes you can grab a marble that you consider to be spectacular at a very reasonable price, and maybe five years from now the entire marble community will be drooling over it, wondering how on earth you got it. Always remember, that as your collecting progresses, there will be lots of plain, and common examples of everything that will come along in the lots that you buy to get that special one for your collection. ... Roger

CATFISH · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 488 Location: Montana

I love bricks! Brian, I wish the economy was better! Wink

Here is a really small sampling of some of my collection.

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Post up some of your killer mibs!

Doogle · Joined: 25 Aug 2009 Posts: 200 Location: Bishop, California

Thanks for all the great replies. Roger, you have pretty much hit the nail on the head...I have collected many different objects during my life. I am attracted to the older, handmade utilitarian as well as objects du art items that our ancestors utilized as everyday utensils, vessels, weapons, decoration, art and toys. The real strong attraction is that they are handmade--I have a small collection of western blown glass whiskey bottles, and comparing them to machine made bottles is like night and day. I also used to collect Native American artifacts, until the laws have made it illegal. All of this collecting centers around the beauty of these manmade, handmade objects. Marbles are now my new passion. Bottles are almost impossible to find anymore, and the ones that interest me are skyhigh in price. That made me shift my attention to my fathers collection of marbles, and after just a little bit of research and actually looking at them with a magnifying glass, it is apparent that they have all the same traits that I find desirable in manmade and in this case, machine made items.
I would have chased those bricks and probably would have them now, if not for my wife reigning me in with some sanity, thankfully. But I would not feel badly if I had won them. Even those first 9 bricks that were in poor condition would have made me extremely happy to own. That is the danger of collecting. I sometimes have paid more than the true value of a bottle because it appealed to me and I don't have regrets for paying more. I like to hold them and marvel at their beauty. The same thing is happening with marbles. In one of my first posts, I could not get over how fascinating that little pee wee marble was. So much beauty in such a small package! I suppose that I will calm down and come to my senses....I still buy marbles that are common or new, just because I like them or want to have them in hand for study. But having the wrong sense of monatary value of those bricks, versus my desire to own some, almost cost me a lot of money, and at some point I would have realized I had overspent. But I would still have them in my collection.
It was an interesting experience for me to step away from myself and actually look at other peoples reactions to what I was doing. I learned a lot. But I will still get excited and will probably overpay for something that I truly want. That is part of the collecting bug. I will be posting new marbles on this site, thinking they are old marbles, and might even post some that will absolutely intrigue others, but I wouldn't spend money on. The myth of the brick and all the history behind it got to me. I won't be happy until I have a few in my collection, but now I know that it takes more experience than I currently have to really make the right choices in my beginning stages of marble collecting. I can already feel that this is a collecting area that will keep my fascinated for quite some time.
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santa12345 · Joined: 08 Sep 2007 Posts: 4

dear doogle if you woul really like to expeience the thrill of a greatmarble show plan on joining us at the vegas marble show on nov 7th i believe you will be able to see a great variety of m f c products including bricks slags and opaques the beauty of mfc marbles are hard to do justice in a photograph the block book collecting early machie made marbles attempts to do justice to the marbles but the people who have seen some of the pictured marbles in hand all agree that the real item is unbelievably better the hotel rooms will be open wed thurs & friday for room trading bring the wife bring any marbles you have questions about any marbles you would like to sell and join us at the plaza hotel on freemont street in las vegas unfortunately you will probably be able to see other marble makers as well including akro cac vitro jabo alley peltier ravenswood cairo marbleking master ie basically every known maker plus contemperary marbles and even oldhandmades what more could you ask for for a short drive down to vegas plus you will get to put faces to names that you see on the boards come and fill your christmas stocking santa12345

David Chamberlain · Joined: 18 May 2009 Posts: 214

I might add that always when buying be sure to buy condition and that which you like so if later it occurs to you that you did pay too much it is still a marble in very good condition and you actually like it. I prefer to deal in marbles that I like; it is so much easier. And I try my damnedest to avoid condition problems. David