DENVER, Pa. – Some of the finest handmade and machine-made vintage marbles ever to be offered at auction will be available to bidders on May 26 at Morphy’s gallery in Lancaster County, Pa. The 783-lot specialty sale is all about marbles, and nothing else. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live bidding.

Manufacturers represented in the sale include such coveted names as Christensen Agate, Akro Agate and Peltier. The selection includes boxed sets as well as single marbles.

One of the auction’s special highlights is an Akro Agate Kullerbubbel Gum marble set, a display that was designed to offer children a stick of gum and one agate marble for a penny. The lucky person who purchased the last stick of gum from the display box would receive the only included corkscrew “shooter” as a bonus. The boxed set with 120 marbles, 120 sticks of gum and shooter is expected to make $3,000-$5,000.

Christensen singles include three teardrop guineas. Also among the top lots by Christensen are a rare cobalt with orange and white marble, est. $1,000-$2,000; a hard-to-find red devil that is estimated at $1,500-$2,500; and a blue devil with electric-yellow stripes, similarly estimated at $1,500-$2,500. The latter two examples are pictured in all four editions of Everett Grist’s “Big Book of Marbles.” A third red devil, with yellow striping and spotting is also estimated at $1,500-$2,500.

Onionskins are led by a rare 4-panel controlled mica with faceted pontil. It has two opposing panels of almost solid red and two other opposing panels of turquoise and white with blizzard mica. Extremely hard to find in this configuration, the 1 1/8 in. marble could realize an auction price of $2,000-$3,000.

VINELAND, N.J. – Bertoia’s March 23-24 ‘Made to Be Played’ auction, a 1,400-lot offering highlighted by the Grover Van Dexter European tin toy collection, closed the books at an impressive $1.3 million (inclusive of 15% buyer’s premium). An extensive variety of early toys crossed the auction block. A Hubley cast-iron Popeye Patrol depicting the popular cartoon sailor on a motorcycle had been estimated at $10,000-$12,000 and rode off as top lot after hammering $19,550.

“It was a well-attended event, and the phones and Internet were very busy,” said Bertoia Auctions associate Rich Bertoia. “We’ve noticed that with each successive sale there are more and more serious bidders using alternative bidding methods. We’re reached a point with the electronic crowd where they’re 100% trusting of the catalog descriptions. A bidder will call ahead of time and ask, ‘Is this toy really excellent?’ Then after the sale they’ll call me and say it was actually better than described.”

The aforementioned Popeye on Motorcycle had an association with Bertoia’s that went way back, Rich Bertoia said. “My brother Bill (Bertoia, co-founder of Bertoia Auctions) bought that toy years ago after visiting the Hubley showroom in New York. It was a big deal for a small company like Hubley (of Lancaster, Pa.) to make it to the big trade show, and they had brought along the 1928 Popeye motorcycle as a display piece only. Somehow Bill managed to buy it. He later sold the toy to collector Bob Brady. In turn, Bob sold it at auction a few years ago. The person who bought it at that particular auction, consigned it to our March 23-24 sale.”

PITTSBURGH – Armchair generals and commanders of upscale bathtub fleets worldwide will show their firepower over the weekend of June 2-3 during a very special Old Toy Soldier Auctions event containing 1,200+ lots from several choice collections. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com

Headlining the auction are soldiers from the collection of the late K. Warren Mitchell, plus the Bob Bailey collection of prewar Britains, and other important properties from American and overseas consignors.

OTSA owner Ray Haradin described the headliner collections as “an excellent match-up, since each brings something distinctly different to the mix.”

Bob Bailey, a Seattle collector who has been active in the toy soldier hobby his entire life, focused his efforts almost exclusively on early Britains. While working as a Pan Am flight attendant in the 1970s, Bailey wisely took advantage of his many layovers in London to scour the shops for Britains productions.

The late K. Warren “Mitch” Mitchell, who was from Warren, Ohio, was a respected veteran dealer and collector who began his buying and selling adventures in the 1970s.

“Mitch sold actively at shows until about the last four or five years of his life. I know many collectors who bought their first set of soldiers from him, and his reputation in the hobby has created a lot of interest in this sale,” said Haradin.

DENVER, Pa. – On April 28 Morphy Auctions will hold its first-ever single-day auction devoted entirely to comic books. The sale will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, with Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com.

The auction features a great grouping of early Planet Comics issues. Highlights are led by an issue #1 with a CGC grade of 9.0, estimated at $15,000-$20,000. Also included in the Planet group are issues #3, CGC 8.5, estimate $2,500-$3,000; and issue #4, CGC 9.0, estimate $7,000-$8,000.

Other early Golden Age comic books entered in the sale include Daredevil Battles Hitler #1, CGC 8.5, estimate $7,500-$8,500; Sub-Mariner Comics #1, CGC 5.5, estimate $5,000-$6,000; and Captain America #1, CGC 6.5 (restored), estimate $10,000-$12,000.

ZIONSVILLE, Ind. – Morphy Auctions has been chosen to auction the vast collection of antique and vintage toys, advertising items and other amusements belonging to Carter’s Toy Museum in Zionsville, Indiana. The Oct. 5-6 auction will be an uncataloged live event produced and conducted by Morphy’s at the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Indiana. There will be no provision for phone or Internet bidding.

For six years, Carter’s Toy Museum was a destination attraction in the upscale Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville. Brimming with character toys, pedal cars, pressed-steel vehicles, railroadiana, BB guns and Western toys, the museum reflected the passion and commitment of its owner, Robert Carter, who passed away on Aug. 9, 2011.

Mr. Carter never missed a local auction if it had a toy in it that appealed to him, and he liked his toys in all shapes and sizes. The museum’s collection also includes a 2/3-scale 1940s operating carousel, around 50 completely restored coin-op kiddy rides that children could ride on, a 20 x 20 vintage bumper car track with fully functional vehicles, and even a life-size talking tree. With its beautiful, old-fashioned ice cream parlor, the museum was a popular venue for birthday parties – truly a place where fantasy and fun were the watchwords.

VINELAND, N.J. – If all the nautical toys in the world were lined up in a single fleet, their captain would surely be Dick Claus, whose magnificent 30-year collection of antique boats is being offered in two parts this year by Bertoia Auctions of Vineland, New Jersey. Part I of the Claus collection, a 220-lot array of ships and related toys, will be auctioned on Saturday, May 12. Part II will be sold in November. Internet live bidding will be available during both sales through LiveAuctioneers.com.

Led by some of the finest known examples of Marklin ships, the May 12 auction roster will bring to life the colorful images seen in Claus’s 2005 reference book The Allure of Toy Ships: American & European Nautical Toys from the 19th and 20th Centuries.

“I’ve read Dick’s book cover to cover probably 50 times, but the privilege of handling and cataloging the toys in his collection taught me double what I thought I knew. There’s nothing like seeing and examining items of this quality firsthand. This is a collection that merits the attention of all ship collectors,” said Bertoia Auctions specialist Rich Bertoia.

The collection’s flagship is the large and impressive Marklin Chicago paddlewheeler featured on the dust jacket cover of Claus’s book. It sits at the very top of the list of select favorites that Claus retained in his private collection after publication of his book.

Claus always liked Marklins because most are named after and depict actual seagoing vessels of their time, such as the Maine, the Brooklyn, and the Olympia. He regards them as “toys with history.”

The collection’s massive, steam-engined Marklin Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, which replicates the Hamburg America ship launched in 1905, was a prized acquisition – in Claus’s words: “a wonderful example of an ocean liner that measures 46 inches long and weighs a hefty 30 pounds.” Purchased at an auction in upstate New York, it came from a doctor’s estate. Further investigation revealed that it had been kept for many years in a dry barn and probably had never been played with.

NEW YORK – LiveAuctioneers.com, the Manhattan-based technology company that provides Internet live-bidding capability to nearly 1,300 auction houses worldwide, has rolled out a new timed-auction platform. Known as LiveAuctioneers Timed Live (LATL), the specially designed platform allows for automated closing of auctions at a pre-specified time, an option particularly well suited to smaller or single-consignor specialty auctions.

“We believe the new timed-auction platform addresses a specific need in the marketplace by providing auctioneers with a way to conduct fixed-timed and eBay-style auctions,” said LiveAuctioneers CEO Julian R. Ellison. “LATL can also be used as either a primary auction method or, in the case of larger, more-active auction houses whose core business is traditional auctions, as an auxiliary method of revenue generation.”

LATL combines the timed style of online auctions with the customary live-bidding close that encourages auction participants to bid quickly and aggressively to ensure they win the lot they desire. Timed Live auction catalogs are posted to LiveAuctioneers.com as normal. There, potential bidders can register and, if desired, leave absentee bids per the customary method. When the pre-announced date and closing time arrive, manual absentee bidding ceases and an automated clerking console launches, accepting both live bids and absentee bids.

FREDERICK, Md. – Ask any regular who attends auctions conducted by Mosby & Co., and they’ll tell you what the Maryland-based company is best known for: everything. Owner Keith Spurgeon makes a point of personally selecting only the most interesting, best-quality pieces from dozens of collecting categories for his well-attended sales.

Spurgeon’s April 28 Spring Antiques Auction, which will be held at the Mosby & Co. gallery in the Washington suburb of Frederick, Md., features 550 lots that range from sculptures, clocks and an old collection of Chinese soapstone to toys, historic Americana and a spectacular assortment of 19th- and early 20th-century posters. Bid live via the Internet on any lot in the sale through LiveAuctioneers.com.

The approximately 100 pieces of soapstone, to be apportioned into 30 lots, are from a single-owner collection that was started 60 years ago. “It’s a completely unpicked collection. It hasn’t been touched in 30 years,” said Spurgeon, who regards the contents as a buying opportunity for dealers or those who may be seeking a way to get into the Asian art market.

Sculptures from multiple consignors represent both European and American artists. Among them are three Frank Polk Western bronzes, including one of a cowboy and horse titled “Two Old Timers.” A bronze depicting a male archer is signed “Schwatenberg, Germany,” likely referring to Spiro Schwatenberg (1898-1922). Another noteworthy sculpture was created from wood by the Lithuanian artist Romas Kvintas.

DENVER, Pa. – A remarkable cross-category collection of vintage toy airplanes, three outstanding train collections and more than 400 lots of dolls and accessories will join a widely varied array of other fine toys to form the core of Morphy’s May 11-12 auction. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide the Internet live bidding on both days.

The Friday session starts with a major offering of antique and vintage trains that comprises a good 40% of the 1,615-lot sale. “Every train collector will find something that pleases them,” said Dan Morphy, CEO of Morphy Auctions. “There are hundreds of prewar, postwar and contemporary trains of many different gauges.”