My friend found a container of old marbles at her Grandfather's house!

[Steve in PA]

They were in this old wooden tea container. They look to be in really good condition. There are quite a few that I believe to be German swirls with the ground down pontil marks/tool marks. I took a few quick pictures when I was over there today. She put a good many in her fish tank as you can see . The rest are still in the tea container.

I'm hoping Cheese and/or anyone else can comment on which ones are the best, and approximate values.
I can get better and more complete pictures of the whole collection, and close ups of any may be special.

 

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[GoDeep]

You have some beauties there!

 

[cheese]

Oh goodness, get those out of the fish tank, fish tanks ruin marbles (the water leaches minerals out of the glass surface and causes them to slowly get a frosted surface which totally ruins value) and you have hundreds of dollars worth there, maybe thousands. That white one with green and gold bands could be worth a small fortune by itself. You have many 100+ year old very collectible marbles there. Condition is key in value. One nick can cause a marble to go from being $700.00 to $200.00. Don't let them contact each other and take some more detailed pics.

 

[Steve in PA]

Oh goodness, get those out of the fish tank, fish tanks ruin marbles (the water leaches minerals out of the glass surface and causes them to slowly get a frosted surface which totally ruins value) and you have hundreds of dollars worth there, maybe thousands. That white one with green and gold bands could be worth a small fortune by itself. You have many 100+ year old very collectible marbles there. Condition is key in value. One nick can cause a marble to go from being $700.00 to $200.00. Don't let them contact each other and take some more detailed pics.

Thanks Cheese. I called her and advised her to get them out of the fish tank! I also sent her the link to your response. I'll see her next weekend and I'll get more/better pictures.

 

[cheese]

In the fish photo, there is one with gold at 2:00 too, big $ marble. Also the one iunder the fish tail, looks like it has a blue core. If so, also big $ and rare. The dark red one in the wooden round box, a good hand gathered brick with what looks like a mint original surface, very collectible. The clay ones are fairly common but old.

 

[SusanMN]

I see a number handmade German swirls (clear with colored glass inside), one I think is called an onion skin and one with mica sparkles in it. Those are some of the more collectible marbles and they all seem to be in great shape!

 

[brianc053]

I had no idea that marbles could be worth that kind of money - thank you for teaching me something, and I'm glad I looked at this thread!
- Brian