Buying a Dinosaur fossil egg - Ebay ?

[Fonne]

Hi

Hope its OK to ask here, really want to see a dream come true 

Has always had the idea about fossils like a dinosaur egg to cost a small fortune, but looks like I am wrong or ?

Is it really true that I can buy a real Hadrosaur egg from 75 million years ago with Certificate for "only" 400 Dollars ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dinosaur-Egg-nest-Dendrolithus-Hadrosaur-Duckbill-Fossil-Jurassic-Cretaceous-G6L/164364388332?hash=item2644e187ec:g:wPQAAOSwjXlfTusy



What do I miss ? - A seller with 900+ positive feedbacks, and its not the only one on Ebay.

Regards Henrik

[Shonisaurus]

F @Fonne Do not trust this ad. I honestly don't think they sell dinosaur fossil eggs for $ 400. At a fair in my city I saw that they sold protoceratops eggs for a whopping 300,000 pesetas from 20 years ago, that is a real price, I do not believe at all that it is a hadrosaur egg fossil that could be a fake.

Don't trust that ad.

[Ikessauro]

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/69391-examples-of-commonly-faked-dino-eggs/

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

As stated in the link above, the egg is much to perfect-looking to be real.

I would suggest always being skeptical of fossils coming from China or being sold directly from that part of the world.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I own about four different eggs from China....they were verified as dinosaur eggs by Ken Carpenter, who wrote the book Eggs, Nests and Baby Dinosaurs    Perhaps the definitive word on the topic. Its rather technical reading but goes deeply and thoroughly into the subject matter.

   My thoughts looking at the images are this....the supposed egg is shaped similar to a hadrosaurid egg from China. These eggs when located are exhumed from beneath to leave the matrix base you see present which in all likelihood would normally obscure the hatching window.  It isnt so much the shape of this one that you should be put off by
   My own egg similar to this displays a brownish coloration not gray and most of these I have seen are similar...the outer shell seems to preserve in that color normally for whatever reason. The shell is actually how you can spot this as unlikely as an egg. This object does not possess a seperate layer of outer shell visible....an egg will normally do so, to some degree, and will display compression cracks, missing pieces, and some discoloration in various areas due to various artifacts of the preservation process.....this object displays no seperate outer layer of shell, and with it, the normal patterning that comes with all dinosaur eggs, called ornamentation. Further the colors are far too even and regular.

  A real egg of this type in this condition does sell for give or take 4-7 hundred dollars. Hadrosaurid eggs are far more common than the other types often brought to market from China....Oviraptor, Citipatti, Gigantaraptor, Sauropod, etc. The seller apparently knows a real egg should cost in that range ....

  I do think Pachyrhinosaurus spoke well in suggesting to be careful with Chinese fossils, many are faked, or altered to appear better than they are. In the egg market its not uncommon to add additional shell to an egg, or patch several broken eggs with some plaster and matrix to appear to be a single egg.
  There are some nice hadrosaur, segnosaur, and even oviraptor and citipatti eggs offered frequently on ebay....a decent hadrosaur egg would likely sell between 4-8 hundred dollars, segnosaur eggs are around 4-600 dollars apiece, while oviraptor and citipatti eggs can get expensive depending on quality, compression, how much shell has remained, and general eye appeal of the egg.
  An average oviraptor or citipatti egg moves between 4 on the low side and 1200 on the high side.....museum level , extremely high quality eggs can cost significantly more , and pairs, or partial nests can quickly move into the tens of thousands.

Here for instance is an example of an egg cobbled together from two or three pieces to create a single egg for resale...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/EXTINCTIONS-REAL-DINOSAUR-FOSSIL-HADROSAUR-EGG-FULL-EGGSHELL-VERY-AFFORDABLE/154107109326?hash=item23e17fdfce:g:L78AAOSwSGVfTvxm

This is a  real oviraptor egg, would grade mid level, with decent shape, and shell coverage, although it does have shell missing

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Authentic-OVIRAPTOR-RAPTOR-Dinosaur-Theropod-Egg-Fossil/402315233600?hash=item5dabdb4940:g:aJQAAOSw4E5e~3X0


This is an average Hadrosaur egg, albeit rather steep in price...an egg like this should sell around 4-600 dollars

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hadrosaur-Dinosaur-Egg-Shell-Fossil-6-0-pound-5-1-2-x-5-x-5/133511234047?hash=item1f15e3c1ff:g:sDYAAOSwS5tfUkVs


Finally this egg, which I would highly suggest for you.
The seller is identifying it as Saurolophus which is as close as possible given the evidence....he correctly stated the egg is from the xixian Basin Henan Province, In China.
He also provided the provenance for the egg, as being from Lowell Carhart, a well known former egg dealer. He is correct in stating that Lowell is one of the largest and most well known egg sellers ...I purchased all four of mine, from that same man, and his sister Christina Coyle is the prep tech that did most of the work on the eggs he sold.
My eggs I bought from the same dealer were all verified as real , and I dealt with Lowell off and on for perhaps 15 years.
Finally the egg itself is nice ...fairly intact, good shell coverage and presents nicely. I would be proud to own that egg.
These eggs are an eyeful too....imagine it as being roughly the size of a football and quite heavy....another reason i feel the egg is legit, the seller stated a weight that makes sense for the size of this egg.
Everyone has an opinion, but mine for what its worth is skip the egg you were considering, spend a bit more and get something you can be sure of and happy to have.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hadrosaur-Dinosaur-Egg-Shell-Fossil-6-0-pound-5-1-2-x-5-x-5/133511234047?hash=item1f15e3c1ff:g:sDYAAOSwS5tfUkVs

I forgot, one final thought. Any seller from China offering dinosaur eggs for sale is a fraud, period. In 2009 Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule and with it the export of fossils from China for commercial sale was halted. The US executed a letter of understanding with China in agreement to prohbit the import and trade of vertabre fossils sourced from China. Noone in China can legally sell you a dinosaur egg now. Anyone actually selling dinosaur eggs from china would be in violation of both chinese and international law, and quickly jailed or worse..

[austrosaurus]

Even if this is real you shouldn't buy it since depriving the scientific community and general public of such important artefacts by placing them in a private collection is highly unethical and immoral