Search the Community

Hello, As someone who has only started collecting fossils over the past several months and exclusively via purchasing, I wanted to ask people on this forum what their thoughts are on "imperfect" fossils; namely, their approaches and advice to tempering expectations for imperfections in a fossil given one's limited budget. It's no surprise that better-preserved higher quality specimens fetch significantly higher prices, and in general I'd rather spend more for a good, representative specimen than get a cheap, "bad" one. But prices can increase exponentially with increasingly "perfect" specimens, and so with a limited budget sometimes the perfectionist in me gets caught in a repeated cycle of gauging and worrying about whether I'd regret not buying the even more expensive one. This is all despite understanding in theory that past a certain "good enough" quality, it is simply not realistic cost-wise to endlessly chase perfection. There's also the variable of certain fossils just generally being far rarer in good preservation. Where and how does one draw the line? I think I might already somewhat know the answer to this; that it is partly a matter of adjusting my expectations, since fossils are fundamentally different from manufactured collectibles. Being the remains of deceased organisms, they are not mass-produced in a controlled environment, so perhaps imperfections within reason are to be happily accepted as an inevitable part of the fossilization and collection process, and even biology in general; a missing arm here, some nicking or crushing there, etc. Perhaps there is even a beauty to be had in some imperfections? Fossil collecting is a passionate hobby for me due to my fascination by physical traces of exotic ancient life, but I have neither the intent nor resources to try and build the world's most perfect museum of a collection. At the same time I feel it's only natural to want one's treasures to be as nice as possible. What are your thoughts on this? How does everyone else deal with their expectations for imperfections in fossils; do you experience some struggle in this balancing act? I apologize if this is too serious of a topic and belongs in another thread; please let me know if this is the case. Thanks for reading this lengthy post, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

If you had $50 to spend on fossils what would you get? Please include price and pictures