You Never Know Where Your Fossil Has Been

[Guest Smilodon]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330380242274

I bought this fossil from another dealer about 10 years ago. So, another dealer had it before my seller. I traded it to another dealer 2 years ago. He either sold it or traded it to another dealer in the last two weeks (don't ask how I know) and now it's on Ebay from this dealer.

(Singing, it's a small world after all)

http://www.millersfossils.com

Edited November 24, 2009 by Smilodon

[siteseer]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330380242274

I bought this fossil from another dealer about 10 years ago. So, another dealer had it before my seller. I traded it to another dealer 2 years ago. He either sold it or traded it to another dealer in the last two weeks (don't ask how I know) and now it's on Ebay from this dealer.

(Singing, it's a small world after all)

http://www.millersfossils.com

Smilodon,

I have a similar story. Maybe 10-12 years ago, I traded a pinniped jaw section to a British dealer. Then, about five years ago, I had traveled cross-country and happened to be standing nearby when a friend showed another friend a fresh purchase at the Tampa fossil show. It was that same jaw section. The British guy had it for a while and ended up trading it to a Florida guy who sold it to my friend. At first, I thought it might be just a similar specimen until I saw the label (my writing).

There was a large megalodon (nice orange color from an unusual locality) that ping-ponged among dealers for years before finding a home.

[THobern]

I had a Meg that was in Vito Bertucci's collection, and then in another dealer's before I bought it and kept it for about a year. I then sold it to Steve Alter, only to see it on eBay a few weeks, listed by a fifth dealer. It had gone between 5 dealers in 2 years, and if it sells (it hasn't yet), it will have had 6 owners in 2 years.

[THobern]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bizarre-deformed-S-C-MEGALODON-shark-tooth-teeth_W0QQitemZ120444289677QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0b0a028d

The second owner bought it for $180; I bought it along with two other pathological megs (Fl and VA) for $275; I sold it for $350; it was sold for about $500; the current owner is looking for $1,200.

Edited November 24, 2009 by THobern

[Guest Smilodon]

Smilodon,

I have a similar story. Maybe 10-12 years ago, I traded a pinniped jaw section to a British dealer. Then, about five years ago, I had traveled cross-country and happened to be standing nearby when a friend showed another friend a fresh purchase at the Tampa fossil show. It was that same jaw section. The British guy had it for a while and ended up trading it to a Florida guy who sold it to my friend. At first, I thought it might be just a similar specimen until I saw the label (my writing).

There was a large megalodon (nice orange color from an unusual locality) that ping-ponged among dealers for years before finding a home.

Florida seems to figure prominently in these vertebrate fossil stories. Two of the dealers from my story are Florida boys.

[Guest Smilodon]

I had a Meg that was in Vito Bertucci's collection, and then in another dealer's before I bought it and kept it for about a year. I then sold it to Steve Alter, only to see it on eBay a few weeks, listed by a fifth dealer. It had gone between 5 dealers in 2 years, and if it sells (it hasn't yet), it will have had 6 owners in 2 years.

Was there a stop in Florida or just South Carolina?

[Phoenixflood]

...There was a large megalodon (nice orange color from an unusual locality) that ping-ponged among dealers for years before finding a home.

How rare are orange meg teeth?

[THobern]

Depends on the location; if it was a Bone Valley tooth, a nice, large example would be worth thousands; a 3" Bone Valley Chubutensis tooth went for over $2,000 the other day. Battery creek and the Ashepoo river also turn up some orange megs. Orange Moroccan megs are also pretty common (picture of my 5 5/16" African meg) and I also bought a 5" orange tooth the other day from the Cooper river, S.C.

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[THobern]

As the picture isn't working, here's the link; http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250530425524&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[THobern]

What I meant to say in that rambling is that they are out there, and are more common in some locations that in others.

[Phoenixflood]

What I meant to say in that rambling is that they are out there, and are more common in some locations that in others.

Ah, ok, thanks What about an orange 5" potomac river find? (see picture below)

Also check out this one which is my 3" avatar tooth Not as orange though. It even has the root in matrix with a small tooth of another shark logded in the back.

[Harry Pristis]

A few years ago, I went to an antiques & collectibles auction at a Central Florida auction house. I was interested in the antique bottles that were advertized.

I arrived early for the auction and spent time looking at all the auction items to be sold. I was surprised to find several flats of small fossils, boxed and labelled in a familiar manner -- they were fossils that I had sold perhaps ten or fifteen years earlier.

I asked the auctioneer about the identity of the seller (these auctions are often estate auctions); but, that information was confidential. The auctioneer would tell me that the family was selling the collector's accumulation of collectibles, and that the collector himself was suffering from advanced Alzheimer's Disease.

The bottles were interesting and eventually I acquired some of them. When I got them home, I found the name of the collector on a label on the bottom of one of the bottles. The label confirmed that the collector was a fellow with whom I had chatted and to whom I had sold fossils year-after-year, usually at an antique bottle show in another city.

I remember the collector as an affable, educated, and active man with snow-white hair and a politicians smile and handshake. It was eerie to incidentally inherit some of his collection of bottles like this -- an anonymous sale. (I didn't bid on the fossils or artifacts.) When you think about it, each of us is a temporary custodian of the things we collect -- and how time does fly!

[siteseer]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bizarre-deformed-S-C-MEGALODON-shark-tooth-teeth_W0QQitemZ120444289677QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0b0a028d

The second owner bought it for $180; I bought it along with two other pathological megs (Fl and VA) for $275; I sold it for $350; it was sold for about $500; the current owner is looking for $1,200.

I have talked to friends about fossils that are traded/sold and are re-encountered later. One friend said he spotted a fossil he dealt years ago and then saw it again online but it was offered for less than he originally sold it for. That's weird - case of someone along the line getting it in trade and not knowing what to sell it for later or maybe got a great deal relative to the value of what he traded.

Jess