The Number One Problem our Customers Face
Stop paying premium prices for junk.
Sadly, more often than not people pay top dollar for terrible fossil casts or original skeletons. Museums and private collectors regularly shell out large sums of money for substandard dinosaurs that are mounted poorly, misrepresented, illegally collected, or simply look bad. Large design firms eat up multi-million-dollar budgets and deliver slipshod results easily replicated by a high school drafting student and a welder. As a museum exhibit builder and fossil technician of 21 years, the biggest problem I see for my customers is that most of them cannot tell a high-quality product from a low-quality product.
Does the difference really matter? The general public spends less than a minute on a single exhibit. A private collector just wants the fossil to appreciate in value and match the furniture, right?
The difference does matter. Fossils and skeletons represent Earth’s heritage. Through our evolutionary relationships, shared interest, and the lessons they teach us, we find context and connection. For those looking at the fossil as an investment, a good portion of my career is spent re-mounting skeletons. I get contracted to do that work because the effort results in millions at the auction block. People tend to respect and prefer quality craftsmanship even if they don’t recognize it right away.
Fortunately, you can develop a critical, practiced eye. From watching wildlife documentaries, you know that animals move in dynamic and organic ways. In contrast, rigid goosestepping dinosaurs with splayed limbs and locked knees on display at most museums look goofy and incorrect because no animal actually behaves that way. Excessive external armature looks distracting (and if you’re looking at a cast, there should be no visible armatures. Plan ahead when building something!), bad welds look bubbly and blobby, and random bone fragments held together with putty look like someone got overeager with Play-Doh. Run a UV flashlight over this and watch the fossil dealer squirm (if he even lets you use it.)
To avoid getting taken in by a bad exhibit builder or dealer, educate yourself and get some help. I’m always shocked at how often museum directors or high net worth individuals wish to buy a dinosaur but don’t know the names of the animals they’re purchasing. When someone walks into a fossil gallery pronouncing the word “Pteranodon” as “pteradon”, the unscrupulous fossil dealer smells blood in the water.
Also, enjoy the learning process. Watch documentaries about fossils, read books with pictures, and visit a museum for the guided tour. The more you know, even if just a little, the savvier decisions you’ll make. Treat it like any other interest, like collecting fine wine or comic books, and you’ll get more from whole experience. Try books like The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs by David Norman. It’s a little old but still stands as a great introduction.
UV light reveals the original bone as glowing green for this fossilized fish from the Late Jurassic.
Next, inspect the fossil in detail. Grab that UV flashlight and run it over the bones. Avoid questions like, “What percentage complete is this?” because that’s a loaded term and easy to misrepresent. Instead ask, “Which bones specifically do you have? Are the bones fragmentary? What specific parts of the fossil did you need to restore?” Questions like these are far more revealing, both in what the fossil offers and the level of naivete you bring to the interaction.
Finally, get some trusted help. I’ve been in the business for 21 years and the company I work for has been operating since 1989. We have put exhibits in 300+ institutions all over the world and advised many more on their projects. I’m not so much in the skeleton sales business as the help-people-make-informed-decisions business. The majority of my customers are repeat customers because they know they can trust me. If you’d like to talk over something, even a fossil I’m not personally involved in, then I can likely help you out or point you to someone who can.
Don’t spend money on a fossil or a display that is subpar. The legacy that these artifacts convey is worth the extra time and effort and the people doing substandard work aren’t doing anyone but themselves any favors.