Fossils from Japan

[Microraptorfan]

I have tried to buy fossils from japanese sites online but everytime they come back and say the product is prohibited from international shipping due to the fossil being considered a 'living' animal so cant be shipped despite being dead for millions of years? Has anyone else experienced this? Also has anyone here successfully bought fossils from japan?

[hemipristis]

6 minutes ago, Microraptorfan said:

I have tried to buy fossils from japanese sites online but everytime they come back and say the product is prohibited from international shipping due to the fossil being considered a 'living' animal so cant be shipped despite being dead for millions of years? Has anyone else experienced this? Also has anyone here successfully bought fossils from japan?

I haven’t tried, but a friend of mine has traded numerous fossils from Japan.  I’ll inquire

[siteseer]

One of my friends went to Japan for work but it happened to be the same time of an international ammonite conference of some kind and there was a field trip on the weekend he was able to join.  He knew one of the guys already but met several other collectors.  He saw all kinds of stuff and bought/traded for a few specimens over the years from those contacts.

 

You don't see too many Japanese fossils at shows in the U.S.  A few collectors have various ammonites.  I've seen Miocene-Pleistocene shark teeth and some Miocene sea urchins.

[Tidgy's Dad]

The marvelous @David in Japan has sent out a few parcels, I believe, usually with no problem. 

The one he sent me had difficulties but that was at the Moroccan end as our customs are being a nuisance at the moment. 

[David in Japan]

Japanese fossils aren't prohibited from international shipping but sometimes troubles show up at the post office.

 

the reason is quite stupid:

 

When shipping something from Japan, you have to declare the content of your package which I think is mandatory everywhere in the world. As Fossils aren't part of the Japan Post nomenclature contrary to Gems/rocks or animals, you will be asked by the clerk to describe what a fossil is.

 

From past experience, that's when the trouble begins. Because of a lack of knowledge and the fact that Japanese clerks abide only by the manual, as fossils are the per mineralized remains of an extinct organism, the clerk will have to chose between rocks (per mineralized) or animals (extinct animals)...

 

Welcome in hell!  

 

Can take easily 40 minutes before they decide in what category fossils goes but you have 75% of chance that they tell you you can't send your package because fossils are animals. I have been told twice that as fossils are extinct or near extinct animals' remains (thank you Sherlock ), they are protected by the CITES and I needed a special permit. 

 

Once they decided that your fossils are animals, there is nothing you can do to change their minds.

 

My only tip for you is to ask the seller to describe the content of the package as "cleaned/dirtless rock" or "geological sample" and if the post office refuse to send the package ask him to go to another post office because once one post office decided to put fossils in the animal category, they will apply this rule at least for a year (as long as the clerk is stationed in this post office but they change very often).

 

 

 

 

 

[Kikokuryu]

I'm in Japan right now for another 3-4 weeks, but finding Japanese fossils is certainly not easy.

 

You can find Japanese ammonites at the very few fossil stores, but vertebrate fossils like sharks, mammals, etc seem to be limited to Japan's own pseudo-region locked auctions. I think there are 3rd party businesses that buy at the auction for you and then ship to you, particularly common with collectibles like anime and games. The other option is to go to Japan for a month or 2 and buy and then ship it yourself.

 

Even at the Tokyo Mineral Show which I went to recently, the vast majority of stuff for sale is the standard Moroccan and USA, and whatever is hot for the season like Madagascar or Niger.

 

The only other method of getting Japanese fossils I'd assume is to actually go out and find them yourself. Unfortunately, I don't really know any good places to hunt.

[hemipristis]

3 hours ago, Microraptorfan said:

I have tried to buy fossils from japanese sites online but everytime they come back and say the product is prohibited from international shipping due to the fossil being considered a 'living' animal so cant be shipped despite being dead for millions of years? Has anyone else experienced this? Also has anyone here successfully bought fossils from japan?

I had that experience here in Guam last year. I purchased a Siberian rhino tooth. The resulting chaos with the drones at Guam customs had me write it off as a loss. They didn’t seem to understand the term EXTINCT.

 

Nine months later i was contacted by a new director, who understood the issue and returned it to me. It had been sitting in their warehouse. It was a pleasant surprise