Fossils – Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectibles Blog – You say what?

Well I arrived in the Smokies safe and sound. After we spent some time getting our place in order, Joshua, my son, said it was time for an adventure, so off to town we went. One of his favorite things to do in Gatlinburg is to mine for gemstones so we set out to find a place where this activity is done. Before we got to our destination, however, he wanted to visit a shop that featured fossils.





To my amazement, these fossils really caught my attention and as I browsed the shop the prices also became interesting to me. It was fairly easy to pick up a specimen that was priced over $1000 or more. I continued to browse around the shop, memorizing as many of the prices as I could. This was going to be a subject I needed to research. I believe the reason that fossils caught my eye was that I often see examples of them at garage and house sales priced very cheaply. But my question was “If I buy them, is there a secondary market out there?”





As usual, I went to my old standby eBay. At first, there were listings under fossils that didn’t pertain to what I was looking for, but at about $700 there they were. A shark's tooth, crab and snail all over the $700 mark. Then around $400, I began to see examples of the ones that I have been passing up at sales and auctions. All of these were completed sales on eBay so now I know what I have to do in the future: buy them. Dinosaur and shark teeth are bringing over $1000 if they are old and large, and other fossils are also bringing premium prices.





I believe I am going to spend more time with my son because it seems that he has the magic touch when it comes to finding collectibles that fit the rules set out by the Daryle Lambert’s Antiques and Collectible Club, that is, to buy items where you can at least double your money when they are sold. First it was coins, then flying items, and now fossils. Even in today's economy, it seems these categories are still doing well.





Do a little research on fossils; they might be for you. Most dealers wouldn’t touch a fossil so if you obtain the knowledge you may be in a game all by yourself. What could be better than that?