[meteorite-list]pterodactyl egg (ad)

[Darren Garrison]

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 23:09:43 -0700, Michael L Blood <mlblood at cox.net> wrote:

>        And to further clarify - it is not "my" asking price, but the
>asking price of the owner (no doubt an evil capitalist lurking
>in the dark recesses somewhere out there).

Yes, that is exactly what I think.  I DO think that someone who finds something so very rare and
important who thinks only "how can I get rich off of this" and wants to sell it to the highest
bidder even if that means disappering into a private collection is BY DEFINITION a bad person.

If you see nothing wrong with someone trying to get rich off what (if it were real) were the only
pterosaur egg ever found on the continent of North America and one of less than 5 known to exist
anywhere, even if it means having it no longer accesable to science, then  my opinion of you is not
very high either.  People who are out for nothing more than money with no interest in or concern for
the science involved are the reason private collectors of fossils or meteorites are so often hated
by professional scientists.  Because people like that DISERVE nothing other than hate.

It's okay, though.  In attempting to try to fend off the tragedy of something important to science
going to a deep-pocketed private collector, I did some probing around with seeing if any museum
wanted to buy the piece if it was real, and if any professional scientists had heard of it (just
because I'm not rich enough to buy it doesn't mean that I'm willing to set back and just watch such
a crime against science happen).  And during those attempts, one of the best sources I know of in
Kansas on fossils from Kansas told me that someone attempted to sell him a "pterodactyl egg" last
Saturday-- here's his reply:


"My, my, this is a surprise... I saw the piece of sandstone they were 
calling an egg last Saturday... and it's not... It was found in a junk 
collection, so the owner isn't even sure where it comes from or who 
found it. Apparently the guy didn't listen very well, or worse, didn't 
want to hear what I had to tell him."

"Not sure how it came to be a very nice egg-shape, but I can tell you for 
certain that it's not even close to being a fossil egg.... of anything."

This seller had the last name of Moses.  Unless there are TWO people trying to sell a "pterodactyl
egg from Kansas" at the same time, you got suckered, sucker.