I may or may not have a Dino egg, advice needed...

Mods, I didn't really know which category best fit this particular thread, so feel free to move it to the appropriate forum and I appreciate the gesture.

So to the point:

My family (Mom and Aunt specifically) claim they have a Dinosaur egg. An item that is passed down to them along with other assets from my Grandma who passed away in 2007. This thing has been with our family for a few generations now.

Recently, they want me to find people to authenticate it. I guess they want to sell it.

I did some quick Google search, it appears that there has been Dino eggs that went on auction and sold for 30 million dollars before.

In any case, I do not think they have a Dino egg, I think they may have an Ostrich egg encased in stone Honestly, if we had a Dino egg all this time, for the life of me I cannot understand why they didn't think about selling it before.

But I guess I really need to find some agency or experts that can authenticate it. My relatives are rather stubborn in this area, they truly believe that an antique passed down from generations to generations within our family, should not be a fake.

It would be great if anyone has any expertise in this area, may be able to point me to the right direction. I need to find some legitimate labs or whatever to get this checked out.

I don't really know what to expect really, if this thing really check out.. I think I may just go buy a Ferrari soon or something...

I'm going to ask both of them tonight if I can go over and take some photos and post them on here.

It could be a thunderegg, or geode, which is a natural rock formation. They have natural quartz crystal inside them. Lots of new age shops sell them. If you could get ahold of one of those and compare it might help your diagnosis. They come in all sizes. I had a couple as a kid--long gone.

30Million?! Sell that. Live good.

Go to a university close to you with a geology department. I'm sure someone there can tell you what you have for free.

Originally posted by schuyler
It could be a thunderegg, or geode, which is a natural rock formation. They have natural quartz crystal inside them. Lots of new age shops sell them. If you could get ahold of one of those and compare it might help your diagnosis. They come in all sizes. I had a couple as a kid--long gone.

Well, I'm not really sure. I'm in the process of dialing them and going over to take some photos if possible.

If a Thunderegg looks like this:

Then no, I don't have a Thunderegg

If a Geode looks like this:

Then I guess I don't have a Geode either.

What they have and to the best of my memory serves me, looks something like this: geology.about.com...

And the scary part, is that if you've visited the last link...

Well, I'm of Chinese heritage and my family did carry this damn thing over from China lol....

well a lot of dinosaur eggs have been found in china...www.google.com... 5pvhI&ved=0CFwQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=658

So awesome if it does turn out to be a dinosaur egg, selling it would be life changing and id be a tiny bit jealous

Originally posted by Idonthaveabeard
So awesome if it does turn out to be a dinosaur egg, selling it would be life changing and id be a tiny bit jealous

That would be something, wouldn't it?

It's like waking up and hitting the lottery without ever buying a ticket or thought about buying loto.

I'm just poking fun with them right now, telling them they have an Ostrich egg encased in stone It gets them hella pissed lol

I'm not really that optimistic though, if it happens to be real, then it's real. The money goes to my Mom and Aunt, it's not like it's mine.

I don't know about $30 million. I've seen them listed for thousands, although I didn't see much documentation affixed to the offering to vet that they were dinosaur eggs. I suppose it might well depend upon which species they are also.

You might want to contact Montana State University, as I know they have studies concerning dino eggs.

Seems like a really cool thing to have, especially since it has been in your family for some time.

Originally posted by Toromos
Go to a university close to you with a geology department. I'm sure someone there can tell you what you have for free.

That is a good suggestion!

Especially considering they may do the authentication for free.

Is there a certain University you recommend?

I live in SoCal, so may have to be one near here.

Originally posted by argentus
I don't know about $30 million. I've seen them listed for thousands, although I didn't see much documentation affixed to the offering to vet that they were dinosaur eggs. I suppose it might well depend upon which species they are also.

You might want to contact Montana State University, as I know they have studies concerning dino eggs.

Seems like a really cool thing to have, especially since it has been in your family for some time.

Yeah, it's definitely very cool.

I only briefly searched about how much they would cost. I guess it's not like all of them are multimillion dollars.

Probably depending on the age of the thing, the specific species and condition or whatever that determines the final value.

I mean, judging from what the last web site I provided said, a lot (thousands) of Dino eggs were excavated from China, so if mine is real, I'm certain I'm not the only one who tried to sell it before.

If a thousand eggs like mine is already on the market, the value wouldn't be extremely high.

Dinosaur eggs cannot be imported, so if you have one, it's a big deal----but probably not that big a deal. Here's a site that sells them in the US. Some of the prices are quite nice, solidly in five figures. If you wind up with a rare species it could be some serious coin.

Originally posted by schuyler
Dinosaur eggs cannot be imported, so if you have one, it's a big deal----but probably not that big a deal. Here's a site that sells them in the US. Some of the prices are quite nice, solidly in five figures. If you wind up with a rare species it could be some serious coin.

That my friend... is something I cannot answer you.

Let's just .. say that I don't really know "how" they got it over but, they brought it over.

Mind you that when my family immigrated here, it was during a time where you can smuggle two suit cases full of marijuana across continent and not get caught... Anyone seen that movie "Blow" with Johnny Depp? Yeah, it's like that.