Lee’s Marbles worth the roll into York

I remember playing marbles as a kid. Having a cat’s eye marble was a special thing back then. Kids would try to play you for winner takes all, just to get that cat’s eye. Today, apparently, “special” is in the eye of the marble.

During a recent visit to Lee’s Legendary Marbles and Collectables in York, Nebraska, we learned that the market had been flooded with cat’s eye marbles, thus rendering them just another marble. While they are still special looking marbles, there are too many of them now to consider any one a cut above the others.

Lee’s Marbles is an amazing place. They have marbles from all over the world. They have almost every type of marble produced on display and available for viewing.

The owner – Lee – has 700,000-1 million marbles in his collection. That makes the museum one of the largest marble collections in the world.

Many of the marbles are in mason jars, ringing the main floor on top of shelves. Some of them are sorted by color and style. I cannot imagine the effort that went into that work.

Some marbles are on display with the games they were used with back in the day.

Individual marbles are on display. I love one that was clear with a seashell design in the middle. Specially designed marbles are truly impressive.

Older, scraped up marbles can be seen on the display floor, as well. I like that the museum will show visitors all types of marbles. During our visit – casual tours are allowed – a gentleman stopped in to see if he could sell some older marbles. The clerk on duty examined them. He identified them for the guy and even explained why they weren’t marketable. The gentleman walked away with his collection, as well as an education that he could pass on to his grandkids.

We checked out a set of lead or metal marbles. They looked like old cannon fodder, but, of course, too small. Some of the marbles were heavy.

Some marbles had company names painted on them. A lot of gas stations and oil companies had their names of marbles – Phillips 66, Marathon and others.

Sports teams had their share of painted logos on marbles – Texas A&M, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Flyers and the Detroit Lions were among them. We left with NFL- and Minnesota Vikings-embossed marbles.

Since Lee is a collector, his inventory went beyond marbles. Coca Cola products were represented with the collectibles – mugs, tins, bottles, etc.

Budweiser beer was represented with steins, mugs and other items.

A throwback to my childhood days included a horse lamp. Ah, the memories.

Lee’s Legendary Marbles and Collectables is worth checking out when in York. For more information on Lee’s Marbles, please visit their website at www.leeslegendarymarbles.com.