|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Marbles in the News
|
Doc Marble Curing a Severe Collecting Habit
|
|
|
Original Publication Date: August 11, 2006. From the "Gazette," an Augusta, Kansas newspaper
|
|
|
Dr. Dale Anderson and marbles in a mesh bag. The background boxes contained his collection carefully identified and packed for moving.
This light-hearted approach by Dale Anderson has led him to many marbles - some of little value and some of more value than one might think.
It's an innocent pastime of this retired family doctor - the "A" member of the former Anderson & Barber medical practice which saw and treatedmany townspeople during the latter half of the last century.
"Doc" Anderson can size up an exposed marble collection in jars, coffee cans, bags, boxes or other containers rather quickly.
More than 20 years ago, Dale attended an estate sale in his boyhood neighborhood at El Dorado. It was a trip down memory lane when he thought about the good times he had playing marbles with other neighbor kids. He ocassionally lost some of his game marbles in those games.
"When I learned about marbles in the sale, I thought some of those are mine! he says, figuring he could easily buy them back at the sale.
"They looked all the same to me," recalls Dale, "but I didn't get to buy my marbles back."
Much to his surprise, three jars of marbles brought $300, $350, and $800 from buyers.
During a later vacation trip, Dale searched out and bought a book about marbles and began to learn more about their history, their design, and their value. He discovered why those jars sold so well.
Today, Dale has his own library all about marbles.
"My book collection is greater than that of the Wichita Public Library," he says with an ever-widening smile.
Dale has learned marbles can be worth anywhere from a half cent to hundreds of dollars.
"Marbles are prized for their rarity, manufacturer, and size," he reports.
The standard marble size is about 5/8 inch in diameter. Shooters are 3/4 inch. There are also larger decorative marbles.
For centuries the little spheres of a child's playground game were handmade of clay. Marble coatings, paintings, handmade glass marbles came about in the late 1800s.
An American maker of ball bearings, revolutionized the mass production of marbles in 1904 when he modified ball bearing grinder screw process to handle molten glass.
"I've never spent my own money on the marbles," adds Dale.
He's done this through knowledge of what friends and acquaintences in Augusta and the area like to collect.
Here's how that works.
Dale, an early visitor at many garage and yard sales, spies something another may want. If the price is such he can buy and resell to friends at a reasonable markup he does so.
It's the proceeds between his purchase cost and the markup that he re-invests in marble purchases for himself.
Dale recently had to pack up "all his marbles" at his longtime home at Ranchwood & Post for a move to a new home at at 2809 Stoneybrook.
He estimates the value of his collection around $90,000.
Dale subscribes to a newsletter of the National Marble Society and he has visited marble museums around the country as well as a modern marble manufacturing plant in Bonner Springs on the west side of Kansas City.
As they talked marble lore, the plant owner asked "Doc Anderson" for some medical advice and gave him marbles in return at no charge.
Amid the colorful corkscrew, popeye, comic, solid, and swirl patternered spheres, - propertly identified and sized - (recently packed neatly away for the relocation), Dale has some marble sets that can bring a few thousand of dollars in the right market.
"I'm not in it for the money. Just the joy of collecting,"; sald Dale, once a dealer in glassware. He transitioned to smaller marble objects to make the missus and himself happier.
|
|
|
|
This submission was made by Debbie Hoback, Prospect, TN on September 26, 2006
|
Return to the Archives
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 How to Play Marbles Terms of Sale Security Privacy FAQ
Wish List
Order History Forum Switch to Mobile Contact Us
/!\ WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD
Marbles are not for children under 3 years.
|
How to Play Marbles 
