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Advice whether these are real or not?


Olivia Singh

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Hi there!

I was just wondering if anyone has experience buying and selling dinosaur tooth fossils. I was looking to purchase my first dinosaur tooth as a gift. Many prices on sites can be extremely pricey, I was taking a look on ebay and the prices are relatively cheap for what I'm looking for. I was wondering how to tell whether or not these are authentic tooth fossils.
 

 


If someone could give me their opinion on purchasing a tooth I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks!
 

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Welcome to the Forum, Olivia.

 

Sorry, but we do not allow sales links for fossils.  They are very short-lived in their content and quickly render a topic as frustrating and useless to future readers.  It's fine if you would like to copy and paste a photo to ask opinions.  Please do not mention dealer names, as they do not affect the authenticity of a fossil.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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I'd be willing to help if you would post some pictures here on the forum. Like John already said, we don't post links as they are only temporary and most dealers just sell what they are told. We wouldn't like to put a bad name to a dealer for mistakenly selling an improperly labeled or fake fossil.

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Welcome to the forum.

Agreed just post pictures of what your interested in and there lots of folks that can provide input.  Just leave the dealer name out but provide all of the info on the tooth

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16 hours ago, Runner64 said:

 We wouldn't like to put a bad name to a dealer for mistakenly selling an improperly labeled or fake fossil.

 

Why not, heck the buyer is the one getting harmed not the seller. I've gone both ways with this but in the end dealers need to be more careful in what they sell, its their business.  If they were taken to task on their mistakes they may take more time to understand and research what they sell, again it's their business.   We too often give them an out and they just go on to make more mistakes, they have no downside.  I wish there was a process here in the forum to manage dealers, which fustrates me because they make so many mistakes.  Today it's solely the buyers responsibility to become knowledgeable in what they are looking at, why we have this forum.

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1 hour ago, Troodon said:

 

Why not, heck the buyer is the one getting harmed not the seller. I've gone both ways with this but in the end dealers need to be more careful in what they sell, its their business.  If they were taken to task on their mistakes they may take more time to understand and research what they sell, again it's their business.   We too often give them an out and they just go on to make more mistakes, they have no downside.  I wish there was a process here in the forum to manage dealers, which fustrates me because they make so many mistakes.  Today it's solely the buyers responsibility to become knowledgeable in what they are looking at, why we have this forum.

From a collector who has been taken numerous times before finding this forum, well said!   :)

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3 hours ago, Troodon said:

 

Why not, heck the buyer is the one getting harmed not the seller. I've gone both ways with this but in the end dealers need to be more careful in what they sell, its their business.  If they were taken to task on their mistakes they may take more time to understand and research what they sell, again it's their business.   We too often give them an out and they just go on to make more mistakes, they have no downside.  I wish there was a process here in the forum to manage dealers, which fustrates me because they make so many mistakes.  Today it's solely the buyers responsibility to become knowledgeable in what they are looking at, why we have this forum.

 

The Fossil Forum is not the place to litigate the Reputation of sellers (almost all of which are not members) or specifically disparage other businesses.  Off The Forum, anyone dealing with a seller can (and should) take advantage of all legal methods to protest unethical business practices or recover money lost to fraud.  As previously discussed on The Forum, many auction sites have guidelines for reporting fraudulent sellers - report it on their site - Not Here.  The Fossil Forum does not want to become a party in any legal dispute resulting from offsite disputed commercial transactions.  This is also part of the reason why we request seller ads are not copied or linked to on TFF.

 

The educational information and experienced opinions provided by our members (like Troodon) are priceless.  Teaching others to better understand the fundamentals of fossil identification will help them no matter who is the seller.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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I understand and support the charter completely but that does not prevent me and others to be frustrated that we can only address one part of the equation.  

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5 minutes ago, Troodon said:

I understand and support the charter completely but that does not prevent me and others to be frustrated that we can only address one part of the equation.  

 

Frank, your support of The Forum is unquestioned.  ;) 

 

As a general comment, we cannot have members taking 'potshots' at sellers (whether they deserve it, or not).  If that was allowed, The Forum would expose itself to potential legal action and degenerate into something far less enjoyable than it is. 

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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I agree with JohnJ. We cannot allow overly critical comments about specific sellers since we do not want to expose our Fossil Forum staff and administrators to libel lawsuits. One large lawsuit could shut us down even if the negative comments were truthful and backed by solid evidence. It is best that we preserve ourselves so that we can continue to help people determine the authenticity of fossils using pictures of the fossils without the seller ID. Billionaires can withstand lawsuits; we can't. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg was sued in Germany for failing to ban hate speech (definitely a type of negative comment) on the Facebook site.

 

As a corollary, we welcome to hear about sellers of fossils with good reputations and ones that made a mistake with a fossil ID but corrected the ID on their website and/or gave the buyer a refund.

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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I agree this is not the place but there are no forums or places where you can get a good read on suppliers and collectors at least from the dinosaur side desperately need something like that.  They are getting ripped off every day on auction sites and with online dealers knowingly or unknowingly list incorrect ID's.    

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/9/2016 at 6:40 AM, Troodon said:

I agree this is not the place but there are no forums or places where you can get a good read on suppliers and collectors at least from the dinosaur side desperately need something like that.  They are getting ripped off every day on auction sites and with online dealers knowingly or unknowingly list incorrect ID's.    

 

 

Hi Frank, for now the only thing we can do is to improve communications with one another, or to form a new FB group warning of them (though I realize FB groups are potential trouble as you expose your real identity).

 

Besides the issue of lawsuits, I once called out an honest dealer from the auction site (even linking to his page) when I made an incorrect ID. The mods were understandably upset, and it's a mistake I would not wish to see repeated.

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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  • 3 weeks later...

Back to IDing fakes, look for areas of the fossil that aren't the same texture or color as the other areas. If you can get your hands on them, it makes this job easier, because you can preform simple tests on it(see if it's hollow by knocking on the back, put a drop of water near where it looks glued or repaired, check for even fluorescence). As it is, check for areas that look like cement, or in some cases they might get lazy and let the cement flow on repair jobs, covering the fossils up. Practice is the best general way to learn to identify fakes.

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