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Tucson Fossil Show 2017


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9 hours ago, Jesuslover340 said:

Note to self: If ever I get to attend the Tucson fossil show, LEAVE MY WALLET AT HOME!

That being said...from the looks of those pics, I think I would have died and gone to heaven! That's better than any museum!

It is always far beter than any museum.  You need to attend at least once in your life.

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7 minutes ago, sseth said:

It is always far beter than any museum.  You need to attend at least once in your life.

I hope to! May be a few years, though. Moving to Aus later this year :)

"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another."
-Romans 14:19

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I was in Tucson over the (long) weekend, though I could only sacrifice so many lectures!

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There were a decent number of Megalodon teeth, but I thought they were expensive even at wholesale prices. Maybe that's just what they cost now?

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There was a surprising amount of the Canadian Placenticeras, but that didn't lower prices much!

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I didn't snag the prices on these, but I imagine there's a fair number of zeroes at the end.

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This Paraceraurus was surprisingly affordable (restoration?), but still a bit too much for me.

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19 hours ago, sseth said:

It is always far beter than any museum.  You need to attend at least once in your life.

 

It's like Mecca to me!

 

Sadly it keeps falling on Chinese New Year period.

Looking forward to meeting my fellow Singaporean collectors! Do PM me if you are a Singaporean, or an overseas fossil-collector coming here for a holiday!

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I think this piece was from Moussa.

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Definitely too many zeroes on this one! Saniwa ensidens from Lindgren Fossils, but it was housed by GeoDecor in the Mineral and Fossil Co-Op.

 

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Lots and lots of fakes, but these were being sold as such with the exception of the heteromorph ammonite. $20-30 for the Cambropallas.

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Beautiful display, but I never snagged the price. I might have been able to take home a rib :P

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I think this was $15,000 with 'some restoration', but I am not sure how much work was done.

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Sclerocephalus, I believe, but it was price on request. I saw a handful of these ranging from $10-20,000, though one of them was from an American dealer selling fake Hohokam potsherds and a 'Metacentena' trilobite (it was an Odontochile!). I heard the dealer claiming they prepared a lot of their material themselves, which was pretty disappointing. 

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Lots of high-end trilobites. I brought a handful of nicer pieces back, and then plenty of solid common species. There were a handful of pretty convincing fakes, though!

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I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

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30 minutes ago, ReeseF said:

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Very much so! :thumbsu:

 

Thanks to everyone that has shown the fossils from Tucson:goodjob:

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Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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Great pics Reese! Thanks for sharing.

 

Argh I really gotta go one year.

Looking forward to meeting my fellow Singaporean collectors! Do PM me if you are a Singaporean, or an overseas fossil-collector coming here for a holiday!

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You get the impression that there is no shortage of great fossils to be had. Why then do they have such exorbitant price tags on them? Are there that many rich fossil collectors at these events?

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2 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

You get the impression that there is no shortage of great fossils to be had. Why then do they have such exorbitant price tags on them? Are there that many rich fossil collectors at these events?

You'd be surprised...

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Fantastic photos, thanks for taking the time to post them up. Maybe one day I'll get to visit this show but until then it's great to be able to see pics of it.

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6 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

You get the impression that there is no shortage of great fossils to be had. Why then do they have such exorbitant price tags on them? Are there that many rich fossil collectors at these events?

Many high end fossil collectors come to Tucson and many dealer I've spoken to do say that they sell most of their high end material. Of course every price is negotiable and I've seen prices drop to a third of what's labeled. As the show goes on prices also drop and the last weekend is the time to go if you want a bargain. Many dealers would rather sell their merchandise than pay for return shipping to their warehouses.  There was a line outside some of the high end dinosaur dealer's booths before opening day, mainly high end buyers looking for that one of a kind piece. The most expensive piece I saw this year was $3.5 million, but was a near complete Stegosaurus!

 

I only took pictures of the nicest fossils while there but don't let what you see posted here discourage you from attending. There is plenty of material for a few dollars and like I said above, every price is negotiable and what you pay in Tucson is less than you'll pay anywhere else.  Many people will also have large booths with everything marked with a price and then on a small sign in the corner have a sign that says "keystone," which means everything is half off. Why they do this I never understood, but it's all a bargain in Tucson!

 

Tucson is like a museum where you can touch everything and everything is for sale. 

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It seems like it.

I would expect the 'big' stuff like dino and mammal skeletons/teeth (and megs) to be the highest price, but I'm also surprised at how expensive is the oddball stuff that I like such as Fezouata, Mazon and Ediacaran. Until I got online I never thought there were so many other people out there as interested in these as I am, but of course my budget is lower than most. All I can say is at the usual online sites, everything I want is way out of reach, and climbing!

(I'm not really surprised by the prices on the spiny trilos because of the amount of prep work that goes into them unless the prep job is crude)

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On 2/10/2017 at 5:12 AM, HamptonsDoc said:

Many high end fossil collectors come to Tucson and many dealer I've spoken to do say that they sell most of their high end material. Of course every price is negotiable and I've seen prices drop to a third of what's labeled. As the show goes on prices also drop and the last weekend is the time to go if you want a bargain. Many dealers would rather sell their merchandise than pay for return shipping to their warehouses.  There was a line outside some of the high end dinosaur dealer's booths before opening day, mainly high end buyers looking for that one of a kind piece. The most expensive piece I saw this year was $3.5 million, but was a near complete Stegosaurus!

 

I only took pictures of the nicest fossils while there but don't let what you see posted here discourage you from attending. There is plenty of material for a few dollars and like I said above, every price is negotiable and what you pay in Tucson is less than you'll pay anywhere else.  Many people will also have large booths with everything marked with a price and then on a small sign in the corner have a sign that says "keystone," which means everything is half off. Why they do this I never understood, but it's all a bargain in Tucson!

 

Tucson is like a museum where you can touch everything and everything is for sale. 

 

 

I think "keystone" is an old mineral dealer term or maybe an old general wholesale dealer term that came to be used by retailers as well.  The line between wholesale and retail in the fossil and mineral business has blurred.  These days, you see only a few dealers requiring a buyer's ID/business license before selling to someone.  

 

 

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7 hours ago, siteseer said:

 

 

I think "keystone" is an old mineral dealer term or maybe an old general wholesale dealer term that came to be used by retailers as well.  The line between wholesale and retail in the fossil and mineral business has blurred.  These days, you see only a few dealers requiring a buyer's ID/business license before selling to someone.  

 

 

Yes, I remember the term from back in the days many years ago when our family owned a lapidary shop.  Gem wholesalers would come in peddling their wares and quote numbers that were intended to indicate what the retail prices should be. "Keystone" meant you could buy it for half that price.  There was also "double keystone" meaning you got it for one-third the price and I think even "triple keystone" for stuff the wholesalers really wanted to get rid of.  At the time it didn't make sense to me but that was before I understood the peculiarities of marketing.

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