Have you lost your marbles????

​On August 25, 2018, we held the estate auction of James "Jim" Opitz of Strawberry Point, IA. It started out like most estate auctions with a phone call from a family member that was interested in having an auction. My husband and Harry Lahr Auctions Auctioneer Matt Lahr headed up to take a look and take a few photos. Soon after he uploaded the photos on to the website and it didn’t take long for one item to get noticed- a flat of marbles. 

We often sell marbles on our auctions but this flat of marbles was getting a lot more attention than usual. After phone calls and messages from in and out of state bidders requesting additional photos of three certain marbles we heard the word- Superman. To most of us Superman is the super hero that first appeared in the Action Comics #1 comic book in April 1938. But to marble collectors Superman is a highly collectible marble with a blue, red and yellow swirl. 

The day of the auction arrived, and Lot #46 came up and with three phone bidders and an audience of bidders on site, the bidding started. The opening bid received a gasp from the audience. My phone bidder asked me to repeat myself and quickly said they were out. I stood behind the cashier’s desk and the family was standing near by and in disbelief the bidding continued until a phone bidder in another state was the winning bidder at $840.00.

The ring man brought the locked case with the marbles in it to me and I put it behind the desk. As auction customers began to come up to pay for their items, several people asked what is so special about those marbles? The family simply couldn’t believe it.

After the auction the winning bidder arranged to have the marbles shipped. We packaged them up and sent them to their new home. While that flat of marbles left some people asking if bidders had lost their marbles, to one happy bidder….we hope you found your Superman.