Anyone Make Money With Fossils?

[Ramo]

Note to self: Next time in Texas go shopping at the Goodwill.

[chele]

I have never sold any fossils. I have given tons away to people. The Triceratops I found has to be sold, I have no choice. If it were up to me I would keep it. I would rather trade or give them to someone that enjoys them. I enjoy it when I see the faces of the people that I give them to. I especially love giving to children. I get a lot of "you are stupid for giving that away". I recently gave some very nice shark teeth to a little 5 year old boy. He was grinning from ear to ear when I gave them to him. He told me he was keeping the big one for himself. The next 2 big teeth went to his sister and brother. I asked him what he was going to do with the small one and he said that one goes to his girlfriend! I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! The next day he showed up with a large deer shed antler. He gave it to me in trade for the teeth. It was so cute. His grandmother said he kept digging through his suitcase. She asked him what he was doing and he said he needed to find something to give to Chele in trade for the shark teeth. His grandpa finds all the antlers and gives them to the 5 year old. After a while he said I know what to give her and he picked the biggest horn out of the pile to give to me. I still laugh about it. To me that is worth a million dollars. I also gave him some large chunks of Triceratops frill so he would have some dinosaur bones also. He went back to his parents with a large box of bones and a lot of stories.

[Auspex]

Chele, that is priceless and charming.

[Down under fossil hunter]

This is a really interesting topic, one I think about several times a day.

I think I would love to quit my job and sell fossils all around the world however I don't have the time to spend every weekend at gem shows or the money to stockpile thousands of dollars worth of specimens.

Going from a double to single income family (after the birth of my son) has meant that the cash I usually had at the end of the month that I would put towards an amazing dinosaur fossil, is now consumed by an ongoing stream of bills.

This has started me on a small venture of buying very cheap fossils and re-selling them at a profit, definitely not setting the world on fire at the moment but it does offset some of the cost of obtaining nicer fossils for my collection.

I still give away a lot of what I find to workmates and kids, come to think of it I don't think there is an office at my work that doesn't have a Dicroidium paper weight!

[Uncle Siphuncle]

offices at my workplace look much the same, including the president's.

[Multicusp]

i sell sharks teeth, echinoids, and other marine mammal / land mammal fossils. It is really not about profit in my case, it is a good way to share them and at the same time provide fossils to those who prefer to just buy rather than collect for themselves. Fossil sales generate millions of dollars each year, maybe not just to one dealer. Anyway,can't take all of them with me when I become a fossil, so I keep the real killer stuff in my small private museum to pass on to my daughter, nephew, etc.

[fossilman01]

Use to sell mine,but the Moroccan fossils started flooding the market dropping the prices!I just keep them now........Might sell them when I get old.....

[ashcraft]

I

I haven't found a way to profit, but I have found a way to defray some of the cost of my two passions--teaching and natural history. I declared myself an "educational curriculum consultant". I spend two to three weeks each summer out of town attending professional development workshops and conferences for teachers (usually involving earth or environmental science). Usually all travel costs, meals and hotels are paid for, and on average I receive $50 a day as a stipend. When I develop and present my own workshops I get reimbursed expenses and paid $250-$500 per six hour workshop. I'm developing a four day workshop right now for next academic year--"Understanding Deep Time". We will have an intro session on relative and absolute dating, a boots on the ground field trip to Jacksboro and Mineral Wells, a day on interpreting geological data (geologic atlases, cross sections, topo maps, Google Earth, etc.), and finally a day on paleontology, faunal succession, and index fossils. I'll be sharing presentation lead with two other educators, but will average about $300 a day for the four days.

I'm not getting rich. The most income I've filed is about four grand. I probably average about $2500. I tend to write off about 80% of that. Books, materials, etc. All stuff that furthers my content knowledge or is used in my classroom or in workshops. I'm not writing off caviar or escorts. But it does allow me the indulgence of being an "amateur naturalist" without being part of the landed gentry.

I have considered doing that. There is alot of continuing education money floating around out there, being wasted on teaching techniques and discipline issues. My plate has been full teaching regular lower level college classes in my spare time, but I suspect that teaching CEU's would be more lucrative, especially if I could wrangle it into Master's credit.

[steve71]

Have a business or profit?

i've done alright all my fossil finds are foresale.got a few pieces i'm going to take to a fossil show in glen rose texas i but dont have to many left.the money i get from fossils pays for my gas to go find arrowheads and the fossils pieces are a bonus.

[jpc]

Looking back on it I consider the fossil collecting simular to my car hobby(the one in my avatar). I am really new to fossil collecting and have been involved with cars for several years.

I always thought you were showing off the outcrop, but no your showing off the car...please accept my apolgies.

I've sold a few Green River Fishes... a small species rarely seen in the marketplace for minimal money, but other than that, nope, I don't sell fosils. I don't collect for money.

But, then, to return to to the original title of this thread, I am making money with fossils. I used to sell fossil huntig trips, but that was a whole different story. As a guy who works in a geology museum, I am making all my money with fossils... plus the little bit of freelance prep work I do on the side.

Fossils been bery bery good to me.

[Missourian]

Collecting for money is too much hard work.

[Antony Gerard]

I have been collecting since 1963 and have amassed a very large collection of fossils from which I keep and display the very best specimens. I am from Kalamazoo Michigan and have to travel long distances to hunt, so selling a few pieces helps defray some of the costs that my passion demands. Once per year I host a fossil, bottle, artifact, and treasures from the land and sea show and sale. Covers a lot of my travel expenses and sometimes I even make a little money. After I die my family can sell or donate my best finds as they see fit. For now they stay in my collection. My next show/sale is this Sunday so I have to get back to organizing.

Until next time, keep digging.

PS: I probably give away 500 fossils per year. Mostly fossil shark teeth.

[Raistlin]

I always thought you were showing off the outcrop, but no your showing off the car...please accept my apolgies.

I've sold a few Green River Fishes... a small species rarely seen in the marketplace for minimal money, but other than that, nope, I don't sell fosils. I don't collect for money.

But, then, to return to to the original title of this thread, I am making money with fossils. I used to sell fossil huntig trips, but that was a whole different story. As a guy who works in a geology museum, I am making all my money with fossils... plus the little bit of freelance prep work I do on the side.

Fossils been bery bery good to me.

LOL it is perfectly fine. The avatar is a bit small and hard to make out. The outcrop seems to be free of fossils unfortunately. I just really liked the way it looked behind the car due to its rally heritage.