The Net Effect- Selling (and Buying) Stuff Online
By Andy Secher

It used to be that to acquire an eye-popping fossil or mineral collection you had to venture out into the field - there to brave the unpredictable forces of nature as you battled against the elements (and perhaps even your digging partners) in order to procure a prize specimen. If you didn't particularly want either to freeze or fry your keester off - depending, of course, on the time of year you chose to venture forth into the collecting wilderness - there were always the myriad of mineral and fossil shows, where dealers from throughout the world would gather to display their most appealing natural wonders.

But in recent days things have certainly changed dramatically for the science-minded enthusiast. No longer do you have to plan a sojourn by foot, car, or plane in order to see and acquire the latest and greatest in natural history specimens. Indeed, all you need to do is sit in a cushy chair in the comfort of your own home and flip on your computer.

There, within the ever-expanding world of “online” experiences, an entire array of incredible collecting (never call it “shopping”) opportunities instantly becomes available to both the novice and the most advanced purveyor of natural history goods. Want a complete cave bear from Russia? The Discovery.com auction has one for just $40,000. Will your life never be complete without a spiny Phacops trilobite from Morocco? There's one over on eBay - and that one can be had for a mere $1,500. (Oh, sorry, that one just sold.)

These days it would appear that just about anything under the sun is available through the Internet to meet the needs of voracious consumers. From illicit porn to fresh-popped corn and seemingly everything in between, a new online world has opened up for the savvy collector. And few fields have seized upon the opportunities presented by the burgeoning .com craze with more gusto than the natural history community.

“THE INTERNET has had an amazing impact on my business,” says Bill Barker, a long-time fossil dealer whose Internet “handle” is Doc Fossil. “In past years, I had to spend months on the road travelling between shows and then setting up for anything between three days and three weeks in order to sell my material. Now I simply take a digital photo of the specimen I have for sale, throw it up for auction on any number of fossil-oriented Web sites like eBay and amazon.com, and the bids come in from around the world. I've sold pieces to collectors in Japan and Sweden this week alone - people I probably never would have met along the show circuit.”

There is obviously an irony inherent in 500-million-year-old fossils being marketed in this most au-courant, cutting-edge venue. How bizarre it is to consider collectors situated in the far-flung corners of the globe all gathering around their video screens to view the same paleontological treasures being offered for sale or trade on a daily basis.

Indeed, this rapidly growing phenomenon has effectively changed the face of the mineral/fossil industry. Not only has it forever altered the role that conventional rock shows have played in the lives of collectors and retail merchants everywhere, it also has had a dramatic and telling impact on the collectors themselves. In fact, some show promoters have begun to speculate openly that this preponderance of online natural history auctions and retail outlets present the very tangible threat of putting their businesses in jeopardy.

“It does worry me a little,” says one show promoter. “On one hand, it's good for business because more people than ever are becoming interested in rocks, gems, and minerals. But on the other hand, a lot of the dealers - some of whom drive hundreds of miles to sell at my show - no longer feel the need to make that kind of commitment in time or resources. They can stay at home and reach a far bigger audience without ever having to gas up their van.”

For both retailers and consumers, initially getting involved in .com natural history can be a somewhat intimidating experience. While the basics of getting online, or even purchasing material over the Web, are relatively simple, discovering exactly where to go in order to best satisfy your collecting desires can prove more than a bit confusing. All anyone need do is type in such key words as “fossils,” “trilobites,” “meteorites,” or “minerals” into any of the seemingly countless Web servers (Yahoo, Infoseek, and Hot Bot, to name but a few) in order to be confronted by a veritable smorgasbord of Web pages.

Literally hundreds of natural-history-oriented sites already exist on the Web - featuring dealers and collectors from all over the world - with each site designed expressly to appease any and all fossiliferous or mineralogical needs. From one-dollar fossil ammonites to a million-dollar fossil shark jaw (reportedly the largest in the world), the Web has evolved into a heady cross between flea market and high-end auction house geared up for presenting (and selling) some of the most incredible natural history specimens ever offered for public consumption.

SELLING V. SCIENCE? As one might expect, all this online action has sparked a budding war of words between the collecting world, which widely views the Internet as the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel, and the scientific community, which, true to its button-down nature, sees the influx of commerce to the Net largely as either a corruption of “their” medium or another hindrance to their total dominance of the natural history field, if not both.

A number of scientists and museums have already gone out of their way to express their outright disdain for those who utilize the Web either to sell or procure “rare” scientific specimens. But with notable institutions like the Discovery Channel (a major supporter of scientific research) already having sponsored a series of Web fossil auctions in conjunction with amazon.com - where common items such as 50- million-year-old fossil fish were sold alongside rare, but not scientifically valuable, pieces like 100-million-year-old dinosaur eggs - it would seem as if this scientific contingent is standing on increasingly shaky ground.

“I've yet to see anything that is of true scientific importance appear on the Web,” said a leading online dealer. “Scientists like to bellyache about these things because they view any intrusion onto their turf as nothing short of sacrilege. Well, that's just too bad. Many of the people on the Web have been major supporters of science, so in a way, those scientists are biting the hand that feeds them. But so many scientists live in their own ivory towers and never really understand what's happening in the real world.”

Whether or not the scientific community ever learns to accept the fast-growing role the Internet has now assumed in presenting natural history objects of every size, shape, and description, there's no denying that the Web has opened up incredible new vistas of opportunity for many collectors. As recently as 10 years ago, science enthusiasts and collectors often had to travel hundreds of miles - or at least accrue some heavy-duty phone bills - in order to get in contact with others who shared their passions and interests.

Now, literally within seconds, an ammonite collector in Wisconsin can e-mail a digital photo of his latest trade piece to a friend in Sweden . . . and get a response seconds later. Indeed, major retail fossil Web sites, like Extinctions.com (which has quickly acquired elite status among natural history Web spots), have proven that there are countless serious collectors located around the world - and that many of them are ready, willing, and more-than-able to drop some major bucks on a desirable piece at a moment's notice.

Many long-time followers of the natural history trade have been nothing short of astonished by both the voracity of the collecting community, and by the amount of money that serious collectors will spend - without ever actually seeing more than a digital photo of the specimen in question. In fact, in recent months a major escalation in the price of so-called average fossil pieces has taken place due to the growing power of Web-dominated transactions. These .com deals have also had the net effect of carrying the price tags of many major pieces to near-stratospheric heights.

Large, perfect serrated teeth from the Moroccan dinosaur Carcharodontosaurus, for instance, now routinely garner $1,000 or more when they come up for auction on the Web - far exceeding the price they previously attained at most local fossil shows. Exotic Moroccan trilobites, long a staple at both national and local trade shows, have also recently seen their desirability increase as a worldwide collecting community battles against itself in order to procure the latest “hot” specimen. The degree of financial frenzy that fossils now generate online has on occasion far surpassed the expectations of even those who place specimens up for auction or sale.

BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE about it: as exciting as shopping for fossils online can be for both the collector and the retail dealer, this isn't necessarily a one-way thrill ride for all involved. There are risks, too. Sometimes valuable specimens can be damaged in shipping after a Web transaction is completed; other times, an “unprotected” auction piece will sell for a fraction of its retail value. Bill Barker, who has effectively used both eBay.com and amazon.com to hawk his fossil wares, explains that while he has scored a number of successes via the online fossil auctions with his exceptional line of trilobites, he's taken a few hits as well.

“I've won a few, and I've lost a few,” Barker says with a laugh. “That's the risk you take at any auction. The quality of the trilobites I'm putting up for auction are the best I have, so direct comparisons to average wholesale sales may not be appropriate. But I've quickly discovered that there's an amazing hunger for this material all around the world. I usually start off an auction at one dollar, even if the piece has a retail value of $1,000 or more. That makes things very interesting. Sometimes the buyer ends up with a steal. Other times, two or three guys will really be after the same piece, and the price will get up there. You've got to roll with the punches - if you can do that, it makes it really a lot of fun for everyone.”

So it would seem that in the months and years ahead the growing relationship between some of the world's most ancient items, fossils, and the planet's latest sales resource, the Internet, will continue to expand at an exponential rate. Indeed, there are already plans for renowned auction houses like Butterfield's and Sotheby's (both of whom recently were partially bought out by major online auction sites) to utilize the Web for high-priced, high-profile natural history-oriented auctions.

Of course, as with almost anything else, this proliferation of online natural history sites may eventually cause a backlash of sorts, where those who yearn for the relative simplicity of dust-covered specimens and the dim lights of a local rock show may turn their backs on the newfangled Web. But it would seem that as we forge ahead into the unknown wonders of Y2K, there's clearly no turning back. The marriage between the once-secretive world of fossils and the immensely accessible universe of the Internet has been consummated . . . and heaven help anyone or anything that plans to get in its path of ever-expanding growth.

“This is the wave of the future,” says Steve Hess of Extinctions.com. “It's opened up the world of fossils to everyone around the globe. We're helping to fill the desires of collectors - but we're also helping to bring along the next generation of people who are interested in the natural world.”

Andy Secher is a major trilobite collector and the editor of Hit Parader, a rock 'n' roll magazine.