A story about a box of loose marbles that finally made it out onto the light, one acrylic easel at a time.
Twelve months of sitting my best marbles up on clear acrylic easels. What the stands did for the collection, what got scratched anyway, and what I now do differently.
Does lifting each marble onto its own clear acrylic easel stand really beat just lining them up on a shelf? A fair comparison for a growing collection.
If your best pieces live in a box, you already know the problem. Clear acrylic easel stands get a marble up off the shelf and into the light, and they fix more than you might think along the way.
A story about a box of loose marbles that finally made it out onto the light, one acrylic easel at a time.
A step-by-step way to set out a fragile glass marble collection on clear acrylic easel stands so nothing rolls, scratches, or drops.
Past the polished product shots: where small clear acrylic easel stands shine, where they wobble, and which marbles they just aren't built to hold.
A season of sorting a jug of loose marbles into a 34-grid adjustable divider box. How the compartments hold up, and what still escapes the dividers.
One grid of adjustable compartments versus a single tub where every size and color runs together. A fair look at whether a divided box is worth it for someone who deals in marbles.
Color to the front, sizes apart, bulk safely in back. What an adjustable divider box actually does when you deal in marbles every day.
Years of sorting loose bulk glass by feel, one show day that broke me, and the thirty-four compartment box that put the whole shop back in order.
A plain, repeatable system for grouping a stray marble stash by color, size, and condition using a 34-grid adjustable divider organizer, so nothing ever runs back together.
The dividers look neat in the photos. After weeks of daily sorting, here's what holds up, what shifts out of place, and what keeps slipping between the slots.
A year with a 160-count tin of classic glass shooters, bought as a working sample and never put away. How the marbles grade, how the tin holds up, and who this set actually serves.
A tin of marked and matched shooters against a loose bag of mixed glass. Which one earns its keep depends more on what you plan to do with them than on the price tag.
A collector's honest case for keeping a flat tin of 160 glass shooters on the bench, even when you've already got a display cabinet full.
A long day of buying and selling glassware ended with cracking open a fresh tin of glossy shooters and slowing right down.
One tin of shooters is the cheapest honest education in the hobby. Here is the slow, house-proud way to build a collection that means something.
Past the retro toy marketing: how the 160-count tin box actually plays for a serious collector or a family wanting one good set of marbles.
A year of grading marbles, checking glassware seams, and spotting chips with a 30x 60x illuminated jeweler's loupe. What it shows, what it hides, and whether it earns a spot on every collector's bench.
For seeing chips, seams, and swirl inside a marble, does a focused jeweler's loupe beat a broad hand magnifier? A side-by-side for buyers and sellers.
A tiny folding loupe with a light won't make you a grader overnight, but it will stop you overpaying, misreading a seam, and trusting the glare. Here's where I reach for mine.
A story about almost overpaying for glassware at a flea market, and the jeweler's loupe that saved the deal at a quarter inch of distance.
A plain, repeatable way to read a glass marble, it's surface, and it's seam with a 30x illuminated loupe, so you stop buying other people's mistakes and grading yours the hopeful way.
A year of grading marbles and checking glassware with the JARLINK 30x 60x illuminated loupe. What the bright LED really shows you, what the 60x actually does, and the honest limit of a folding lens.
Lonnie Gentry spent a year keeping his best marbles and most fragile glassware behind a 4-tier glass cabinet with doors and lights. What it protects, what it does not, and how he loads it.
Dust, light, and curious hands: does a glass-fronted display cabinet protect a fragile collection better than an open shelf, and is the cost worth it? A fair comparison for fragile glass.
Your fragile marbles and small glassware are doing fine on an open shelf until the day they aren't. A glass-fronted cabinet shuts out dust, controls the light, and spreads the weight. Here's what it earns in return for the floor space.
A story about glassware tumbling off an open shelf until a 4-tier glass display cabinet finally held it steady, dust-free, and in the light.
A collector's layout for arranging fragile marbles and small glass pieces behind glass doors the honest way: balancing weight, controlling the light, and giving every piece room to breathe.
Behind the glossy marketing: assembly time, how the color lights actually look, and the honest weight limits of each 4-tier shelf.
Twelve months of sitting my best marbles up on clear acrylic easels. What the stands did for the collection, what got scratched anyway, and what I now do differently.
Past the polished product shots: where small clear acrylic easel stands shine, where they wobble, and which marbles they just aren't built to hold.
A season of sorting a jug of loose marbles into a 34-grid adjustable divider box. How the compartments hold up, and what still escapes the dividers.
The dividers look neat in the photos. After weeks of daily sorting, here's what holds up, what shifts out of place, and what keeps slipping between the slots.
A year with a 160-count tin of classic glass shooters, bought as a working sample and never put away. How the marbles grade, how the tin holds up, and who this set actually serves.
Past the retro toy marketing: how the 160-count tin box actually plays for a serious collector or a family wanting one good set of marbles.
A year of grading marbles, checking glassware seams, and spotting chips with a 30x 60x illuminated jeweler's loupe. What it shows, what it hides, and whether it earns a spot on every collector's bench.
A year of grading marbles and checking glassware with the JARLINK 30x 60x illuminated loupe. What the bright LED really shows you, what the 60x actually does, and the honest limit of a folding lens.
Lonnie Gentry spent a year keeping his best marbles and most fragile glassware behind a 4-tier glass cabinet with doors and lights. What it protects, what it does not, and how he loads it.
Behind the glossy marketing: assembly time, how the color lights actually look, and the honest weight limits of each 4-tier shelf.
