Ramo Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 I don't sell any fossils, and don't buy fossils. (I don't have anything against it) I was wondering what the value of some of my fossils are. I came across this web site, and these price seem outrageous to me. Are these in the ballpark, or are they kind of high. http://www.paleosearch.com/newestitems.html For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoPutz Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 It seems that boutique fossil shops are always really outrageous. In my experience, most of these places price things high but will accept a cash payment much lower. In fact, I was in that situation a couple weeks ago. I was viewing some plates in house and they told me they would give me a much better deal for cash. However, the prices were nothing like those. I would be willing to deal with them on the first fossil provided I could examine it in person. I don't have that kind of money though. I wouldn't pay near their asking price for most of their stuff. I bet they would play the game though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicranurus Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 I don't sell any fossils, and don't buy fossils. (I don't have anything against it) I was wondering what the value of some of my fossils are. I came across this web site, and these price seem outrageous to me. Are these in the ballpark, or are they kind of high. http://www.paleosearch.com/newestitems.html I buy lot of fossils and I think it is really expensive shop. "It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living." -Sir David Attenborough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 I must add my vote that way as well. I have bought many of my specimens, the ones at your link are pretty steeply priced IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fig rocks Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 Agreed, I'd say they're definitely high! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron E. Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 Agreed, I'd say they're definitely high! 1500 bucks for fossilized scat. Feel free to replace the inner two letters at will. That's bullscat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrocklds Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 definately very highly priced. i buy and sell fossils all the time and even for a retail end shop these are very expensive. i would say that a fair price for most of that stuff is 25% of their asking price sometimes less than that. for example the rooted allosaurus tooth. it is not that big only 3.5 inches, i have sold and bought teeth like this for $500-800 even top quality teeth for $1000 good wholesale prices on allo teeth are $175 per inch for good teeth. $5k is pretty far out there. Brock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Smilodon Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 (edited) I have been a fossil dealer for over 20 years. I know the proprietor. He has always been kind and gracious to me. You must understand that most of his customers are filthy rich (but in a nice way ) foreigners. With the dollar being weak for years, they can afford just about anything. Much of his non-Kansas material is on consignment - the owners determine the price. He consistently has the BEST Kansas material available bar none. For example: Who would you go to and how much would you pay for something like this. that would be a 21 foot Cretox - no composite, no resto my 2 cents Edited October 31, 2009 by Smilodon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Eaton Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 That shark is amazing! I studied that picture for several minutes. If you look at selling fossils like selling art, I can see how the prices would grow exponentially when you get to the top 1% of specimens. Personally if I had the money, I would consider fossils a better investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bone digger Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 crazily priced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
32fordboy Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 I have never bought from this place, but one time I was looking for something exceptionally rare, and they went out of their way to find it...and actually found something much better (which then meant it was out of my price range). I was looking for a small platybelodon shovel tusk. They found an 8" wide, 2.5-3 ft long platybelodon shovel tusk STILL IN THE SOCKET! How the heck do you find something like that on the market? I'll never know, but I can say they did everything they could to help and I really appreciated that! Nick www.nicksfossils.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 They are a high service company with high-quality, high-end fossils. They have their client base, obviously. At the upper level, small differences in quality can make a tremendous difference in the price; take a look at the difference between a MS-67 and a MS-68 graded rare coin and you'll see what I mean. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 OK, here is an insight from the world of business: Any successful small business will offer two (2) of the following three (3) items: 1) High quality goods/services 2) Excellent customer service 3) Low prices If they try to offer all three, they go bankrupt or out of business. If they only offer one, potential customers will end up elsewhere very quickly. Personal aside: my business offers the first two items. Like these folks, not the third. 40 years later and I am still in business, most of my clientele are long term (20 - 30 years) representatives who broker my work to third parties for even higher prices. While I am not a high roller myself, I am at the service of the bourgeois. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
32fordboy Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 (edited) Well said, Bear. We at the rod shop try to make #3 work for our kinder customers (only because they will help us get our name out), but you really have to be careful because it can indeed turn things bad very quick. Edited November 1, 2009 by 32fordboy www.nicksfossils.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Smilodon Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 (edited) OK, here is an insight from the world of business: Any successful small business will offer two (2) of the following three (3) items: 1) High quality goods/services 2) Excellent customer service 3) Low prices If they try to offer all three, they go bankrupt or out of business. If they only offer one, potential customers will end up elsewhere very quickly. Personal aside: my business offers the first two items. Like these folks, not the third. 40 years later and I am still in business, most of my clientele are long term (20 - 30 years) representatives who broker my work to third parties for even higher prices. While I am not a high roller myself, I am at the service of the bourgeois. Bear, A friend of mine has a sign next to the cash register of his print shop: Quality, Price, Speed - your choice of two. Edited November 1, 2009 by Smilodon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Menser Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 It's a balancing act for sure. Clintel for the high priced markets are usually folk with enough cash that price isn't that big an issue. For those of us with lesser means, really need to shop around and keep in the back of your mind that somethings are not going to be available to you unless you actually find it just because on the market there are folks willing and able to pay more. Sad truth, but thats capitalism. Be true to the reality you create. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Knightia Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Ah, Paleosearch. Back when I first got into buying fossils Paleosearch and The Natural Canvas I looked at all the time. Couldn't afford them, but truly beautiful and the best fossils around! So much has changed in such a short time. XFossil, Missing Link fossil Enterprises, and other very fine online shops are now gone. It's hard to find good deals nowadays, I don't know for sure but I guess there must be many times the fossil buyers nowadays as there were 10 years ago. I don't think Paleosearches prices are unrealistic. Unaffordable to most, but those pieces are truly museum quality. As time goes on I find myself settling for less. No longer do I have to have perfect trilobites, or covet the ones I can't afford. Restored pieces and mostly complete partials do the trick for me nowadays. Sam Gon III once wrote that the average fossil isn't perfect or complete, but is still a very special thing, and he's right:) I even have some replica fossils lying around. They are nice, usually affordable, and will do if you don't look too close:) I have a Bothriolepis replica that is mind blowing. But I can't scan if for you, too big:) Bless the fossil dealers of the world, online and brick and mortar, you make my dreams come true! Gerard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dicranurus Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Those fossils are truly museum quality, but there is one paradox. Most museums' are very poor and they don't have money to buy "museum quality" fossils. Here in Finland are only 3 museums where is fossils on display (we don't have own fossils much) and these fossils are not "museum quality". We have one university where can study paleontology but they don't have for example graptolites, crinoids, mammals etc. in their study collection. So we have professional paleontologist who have never seen real for example real (complete) crinoids, graptolite fossils... Sad but true. "It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living." -Sir David Attenborough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Smilodon Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Those fossils are truly museum quality, but there is one paradox. Most museums' are very poor and they don't have money to buy "museum quality" fossils. Here in Finland are only 3 museums where is fossils on display (we don't have own fossils much) and these fossils are not "museum quality". We have one university where can study paleontology but they don't have for example graptolites, crinoids, mammals etc. in their study collection. So we have professional paleontologist who have never seen real for example real (complete) crinoids, graptolite fossils... Sad but true. I have to laugh when I see the phrase, "Musesum Quality," especially as applied to aesthetics. Have you ever seen the aesthetic quality of Museum specimens besides what's on display? They pretty much look like ####. They have high scientific value, but you couldn't give away most museum stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Knightia Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Hi Dicranurus and Smilodon, Good points, times are hard and museums are hurting too. Maybe they can't get some of these fossils after all. Smilodon, you remind me that much of museaum collections are partials in little bins and cabinets in the basement... you're right, not the most artsy of settings or material. I'll have to rethink what I mean when I parrot the phrase 'Museum Quality' from now on:) Gerard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 'Museum Quality', much over used phrase. If a museum doesn't have a particular item, and wants a representative specimen for their collection, it will take more or less any piece offered, especially if it's free. KOF, Bill. Welcome to the forum, all new members www.ukfossils check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawooten Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Museum quality??? I agree that the prices are museum quality but the fossil specimens are not. There is a sucker born every day that will pay such a price but it only takes one it seems to make a profit. People can ask what ever they want but a honest person will not ask for more then its value. You need to compare that site with the many more sites that are out there and you will see the difference. To say they are selling museum quality and then try to pass off common specimens or broken ones is tacky I say. :sword: :growl: :roadrage: The best days are spent collecting fossils Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted November 26, 2009 Author Share Posted November 26, 2009 It's a free market, and if you can get a million dollars for a 5 dolar fossil, more power to you. That being said, I did contact this seller about reconstructing my mosasaur skull, and he offered me somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,200-$1,500 for it. I think he was hoping I was just someone who came across this skull and didn't know anything about them. For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xiphactinus Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 It's a free market, and if you can get a million dollars for a 5 dolar fossil, more power to you. That being said, I did contact this seller about reconstructing my mosasaur skull, and he offered me somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,200-$1,500 for it. I think he was hoping I was just someone who came across this skull and didn't know anything about them. That's a ridiculously low price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
32fordboy Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 $1,500? Shoot, I'll give ya $1,550. Nick www.nicksfossils.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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