2023 ESCONI (Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois) Show

[Nimravis]

This weekend was the Annual ESCONI Rock, Mineral and Fossil Show that is held on Saturday and Sunday at the DuPage County Fairgrounds.

 

 

There were a lot of people at this local show and with the “feels like” temperature was hovering at about 5 degrees, it was a great place to go.

 

This show has several vendors, exhibits, kids corner, demos, silent auction, live auction and door prizes.

 

Exhibits-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demos-

 

 

 

Kids Corner-

 

 

Silent Auctions- 3 Tables that close I believe every 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Continued on next post-

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Troodon]

Nice pick anything up?

[Nimravis]

Live Auction-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Sales-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Shabica, one of the authors of Richardson’s Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek, stopped by and signed some copies the book.

 

 

 

Jack Witry @fiddlehead was also in attendance and signed copies of Mia numerous books.

 

There were several other Fossil Forum members in attendance, @stats , @flipper559, @connorp and I know there were others, but I forget their Forum names.

 

Other pic and people-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued on next post-

 

 

[Nimravis]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was happy to see that the club was selling nice Prehistoric Toys for $5.00. Here is what was left after I was finished.

 

Here are the ones I picked up, I only bought 27 of them. @Bobby Rico would have been pleased with these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also picked this piece up at the live auction - Gar scales from Kemmerer, Wyoming.

 

 

 

Continued on next post-

 

 

[Nimravis]

I also picked up a book on trilobites and a nice sliced and polished piece of Dino bone.

 

 

[Nimravis]

23 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Nice pick anything up?

Thanks- I just posted what I bought- toys, book and a couple fossils. I will stop back tomorrow to check it out again.

[Meganeura]

2 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

I only bought 27 of them

Only! You bought out over half their stock, Ralph!  Worth it though, those look awesome!

[Nimravis]

13 minutes ago, Meganeura said:

Only! You bought out over half their stock, Ralph!  Worth it though, those look awesome!

Btw- I took those pics of the Dire Wolf and Short Faced Bear for you, thinking that they are from LaBrea, but I know you are finding their fossils on the Peace.

[Meganeura]

Just now, Nimravis said:

Btw- I took those pics of the Dire Wolf and Short Faced Bear for you, thinking that they are from LaBrea, but I know you are finding their fossils on the Peace.

They're gorgeous skulls. I definitely look to the LaBrea stuff for confirmation on IDs - so they're quite helpful! The Smilodon one too!

[Troodon]

Good pickups, yes Bobby would be proud of you.  I like the plate with the Gar scales, you rarely see them associated.

Did you not see or overlook buying the rarest item at the show a baby Trex

 

[Nimravis]

4 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Good pickups, yes Bobby would be proud of you.  I like the plate with the Gar scales, you rarely see them associated.

Did you not see or overlook buying the rarest item at the show a baby Trex

 

That was in the live auction and some young kid wanted it badly. I told them to put it up next so he could bid. I told him how to bid and though I was interested, I would not bid against him. He did a couple bids and soon it past his $40 limit, so I stated to bid. I was figuring that if I got it for $80, I would sell it to the kid for $40. But the bidding continued and I took it up to $140 and someone got it for $150, so I bowed out. I did pick up a couple more of the smaller Dino’s and I found the kid and his mother and told him- I know he was upset not getting the big one, but here are a couple small ones, he was very happy.

[Nimravis]

32 minutes ago, Meganeura said:

They're gorgeous skulls. I definitely look to the LaBrea stuff for confirmation on IDs - so they're quite helpful! The Smilodon one too!

Funny- one thing that you rarely see at this show are shark teeth, at least not in the live auctions is silent ones.

[Meganeura]

Just now, Nimravis said:

Funny- one thing that you rarely see at this show are shark teeth, at least not in the live auctions is silent ones.

Do you have any idea why that might be? That is really interesting. There also seemed to be (at least from the pics you took) much less Mazon Creek fossils than I expected.

[Nimravis]

I think it is a regional thing. As far as MC stuff, there was a bunch there. A lot is being auctioned off in the live auctions, silent auctions and a number of vendors had nice stuff- I did not take many pics. The reason being, is that I did not want to take the time to block out the prices before I posted them on the forum.

 

Here are some in riker mounts-

 

[Meganeura]

26 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

I think it is a regional thing. As far as MC stuff, there was a bunch there. A lot is being auctioned off in the live auctions, silent auctions and a number of vendors had nice stuff- I did not take many pics. The reason being, is that I did not want to take the time to block out the prices before I posted them on the forum.

 

Here are some in riker mounts-

 

Okay but important question - did any of the sellers have an MC fossil you don't yet have an example of?

[Nimravis]

26 minutes ago, Meganeura said:

Okay but important question - did any of the sellers have an MC fossil you don't yet have an example of?

There might have been, but I did not see any. But with that said, there were countless beautiful examples of MC pieces that I would have liked.

[Meganeura]

3 minutes ago, Nimravis said:

There might have been, but I did not see any. But with that said, there were countless beautiful examples of MC pieces that I would have liked.

There’s examples you don’t have yet? That’s honestly very surprising

[stats]

Great to see you, Ralph!  It was a good time.  We get to do it one more time tomorrow.

 

As for the Mazon Creek questions, I don't think it was less that other years.  We had at least enough to fill about 3.5 display cases full for the Live Auction.   We have a little over 1.5 left for tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

[Bobby Rico]

9 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Here are the ones I picked up, I only bought 27 of them. @Bobby Rico would have been pleased with these.

Cheats Ralph they are stunning toys, really well made. 
 

 

looks like a cracking day out . Nice lot of bugs and I love the Tully Monster model . One day as they say “when my boat comes in” I will get a Tully Monster specimen for my collection. Nice thread.
 

Cheers Bobby 

[flipper559]

Thanks for capturing the show in pictures Ralph !!

Great report !!

And it was great to see you and hang out for a bit of fossil fun !!!

Rock On !!

Phil

[Yoda]

@Nimravis

 

That Mazon Creek material is stunning 

 

Much more impressive than the smaller, common pieces that find their way here. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Thanks for the tour, Ralph.

[Nimravis]

1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Thanks for the tour, Ralph.

Glad you enjoyed it Mark.