Bagged advertising marbles are all over the net these days. They use attractive and nostalgic label images to imply that the marbles inside the bags are "old" or "antique". 

The following guide provides collectors with information that will assist in determining "old" from "new".  

99.9% of the so called "Advertising Marbles" are new and contemporary. 

All someone has done is take a plastic bag, drop a few brand new contemporary marbles in it, run a label on a home printer and staple it to the top of the bag.  See ID tips below.

It's easy to get swept away with the nostalgia of the images printed on the labels but don't forget the same images are widely available for download or copy...... and NEVER does a label by itself reflect the true contents of a container! 

Advertising marbles are usually sold under the following names:

Arbuckles, Alox, Buster Brown, Coca Cola, Compliments of GULF oil,  Chub Bait Company, Cub Scouts American Marbles, Dad's Root Beer, Dick Tracy, Dick and Jane, Esso, Flying A Gasoline, Gene Autry, Girl Scouts, Hires Root Beer, Kellog's Corn Flakes, Little Rascals, Little Black Sambo, Moxie, NEHI, Niggerhead, Pegasus,  Pepsi, Pee Wee, Red Ryder, Red Devils, Roy Rogers, Rio Theatre, Santa Barbara Air Express, Shur Shooter, Sinclair Gasoline, Trixy and Rastus Watermellon marbles, Tydol, Texaco, Watermellon, Winchester Shotgun Shells, and the list goes on. 

Feel free to email me names you come across and I'll add them to the list at my next update.

ADDITIONAL TIPS to identify bogus bags:

1. The NAME on the label should be a tip. See above.
2. Look at the label. Is it clean and crisp with corners sharp? No stains? If it looks like it was printed yesterday it likely was printed yesterday. Truly antique labels are most always stained, crumpled, dirty and dog eared.  
3. Look at the staples. Are they clean and shiny? No thirty year old staple holds it's original manufacture shine. If there were any "old" marbles in the bag, the shiny staples imply the original contents are gone.   
4. Look at the bag. Flawless and easy to see through the plastic? Plastic bags that look new are new.
5. ASK your seller for a guarantee that the marbles in the bag are pre -1940. All professional marble sellers will be happy to comply with this simple request.   

Last but not least,  give sellers of these adverstising marbles the benefit of the doubt.  Keep in mind that some sellers are perfectly innocent and just repeating back what they were told when they purchased these in the first place. 

Most sellers will change listing wording to reflect contemporary marbles/labels after being advised of the error. Advise them of the error but don't condemn them.

Thanks!