Beachcombing for Fun and Profit #2

Five things to collect for cash on eBay the next time you walk along the beach.

Beachcombing is becoming popular again – a morning stroll along the beach with your lover is even more enjoyable after a storm when the sand is strewn with eBay items.

2. Fossils

Dinosaur fossils have been found on every continent of the globe, from Africa to the Arctic. When someone finds a fossil, they grow curious and tend to keep their eyes open for more specimens - before they know it, they have become fossil hunters! Fossil hunting is a very infectious obsession, and today more people than ever are collecting dinosaur bones, and eBay prices have risen accordingly.

Generally speaking, one of the best places on the planet to find dinosaur bones is on the beach. That’s because the waves from the lake or ocean have already done all the hard work and broken apart coastal rocks and washed away surface mud to leave well preserved fossils in the sand. All you have to do is pick them up.

Limestone beaches and cliffs are often especially rich in dinosaur fossils as they evidence a prehistoric environment that favored fossilization - one in which sediment buried the animal during, or shortly after their death.

You can expect to find some fossils loose in the limestone shingle (gravel), for example small ammonites, belemnite ‘guards’ (small bullet shaped objects), and even perhaps an ichthyosaur vertebra. If you persist, and as you gain experience, and with a bit of luck, you'll soon make more exciting finds, such as even a complete ichthyosaur.The business of selling fossils online is growing larger every year - last summer (July 2007) The BBC reported that Fossil Guards have been hired by local government to protect the Dorset and east Devon coast amid increasing concern about safety and damage to the limestone cliffs. The area is known as the Jurassic Coast as so many fossils have been discovered here (over hundreds of years), the coastline has earned its own World Heritage Site status.

Believe it or not there are only about a dozen full-time dinosaur paleontologists in Canada, and they mostly concern themselves with excavations in the badlands at Drumheller, Alberta - this section of Canada is rich in dinosaur bones that are a distinct orange color.

But fossils come in many different colours. The ground minerals that replaced the organic material in the prehistoric animal’s bones determine the color of the fossil. Perfectly preserved, the plant and animal remains of the Paleocene Epoch could be black, brown, pink, yellow or green depending on the mineral composition of the beach.

Fossils range in size from microscopic plant pollens to complete dinosaur skeletons. When poking around in the shoreline – be sure to remember where you find each fragment; bones visible in one stone can often lead to a larger fossil in another rock. The most well preserved discoveries are always those in which no part of the skeleton is initially exposed, but it takes skill to find these items.

A paleontologist’s trained eye can often spot the small exposed portion of a specimen and reason the direction and approx length of the body inside the rock. ‘Uncut fossils’ can be sold on eBay to other specialists who use advanced cutting equipment to remove the rock and showcase the fossil inside.

When combing beaches for the fossils, you should also be on the lookout for petrified wood, clams, snails and shells plus fossilized whale and dolphin bones. If however these are found embedded in the face of nearby cliffs, do not attempt to remove them, as your actions will have a deleterious effect on the surrounding landscape.

Dinosaur fossils are increasing in value on eBay as more and more collectors attend shows, download e-books and join online fossil photography groups. Poorly photographed pieces are sometimes bought, rephotographed properly, and then re-sold for more money.

Here’s a Norwoodia bellaspina on eBay. For six hundred US dollars you could own this Trilobita class fossil. Its 18,5 mm long x 11,5 mm across; although not rare, this specimen is complete and shows beautiful details.

Another popular item on eBay is extinct Sharks teeth – the teeth of the Carcharocles megalodon , which most experts believe to be the largest predator (land or sea) to have ever lived. The maximum length this shark is hotly debated today, ever since paleontologists learned that they could get more accomplished by disagreeing with one another. The most widely accepted maximum size for the megalodon is approximately 55-65 feet; at minimum, the megalodon was at least two or three times larger than the Great White.

The megalodon teeth found on the east coast of North America sell well on Fossil Beach. Those teeth are 75-85% complete and most have minor blemishes or cracks. This lot is being sold for $215.00 a pound and will probably end up in a children's day camp, or schoolroom science display.

Fossils are by far the oldest category of collectible antiquities - most animals lived between 235 million to 65 million years ago. Also please note that term 'dinosaur' refers only to the land based life forms, which are distinctly different from the flying creatures (pterosaurs), and the swimming reptiles (mosasaurs) of the same period.

Finally, Dumpdiggers has its eye on an excellent 'deposit' of Coprolite from Southern Utah. Coprolite is fossilized Dinosaur poop and this offering is around 148 million years old, from the Jurassic Era. This eBay item has an outstanding dung pattern and a very cool shape - the Seller has advertised this as 'an excellent one of a kind display specimen'.

Perhaps this should be a separate post - ‘Dinosaur Dung sold on eBay!’

Geocaching Collectible Coins

Dumpdiggers love Geocaching – this new sport (it all started less than ten years ago) is a great way to stay in shape, see the countryside, and interact with family and friends while sharpening your own skills as a treasure hunter. In fact geocaching is kind of similar to relic hunting but without the rich historical rewards. Sure there's some plunder, but the sport actually requires participants donate prizes of equal or greater value after completing each quest. Maybe I should back up and explain some things…

What is Geocaching?
American military technology has transformed treasure hunting into a thrilling 21st century sport, but instead of using an X to mark a spot on a map, we can now use GPS devices to pinpoint our quarry, and throw away the map.

G.P.S. means Global Positioning System
Unless you’ve been hiding underground for the last fifteen years, you probably already know that satellite based GPS first appeared as the invisible hand that guided those smart bombs into Iraqi equipment sheds in Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990’s. Now it can be used by the public to glean the position of anything anywhere on the planet. Armed with a love of exploration and a decent GPS system, participants use alpha numeric coordinates to search and rescue cached goodies.

One international Geocaching Website binds the entire community together with remarkable unity. On this one site, ALL geocaches in ALL countries are listed, along with their coordinates and any hints you may need to find the booty.

Introducing Norman Hissa and his son Neil. These two avid adventurers have extensive resumes as anglers and rock hounds on Lake of the Woods.

Together they discovered the thrill of geocaching in late July 2007, and now obsessed, both evil geniuses conspire to create the most challenging travel adventure in the area; an empty peanut butter jar has been codenamed 'LOW not Whisky Island' and indexed as GC152ET . The drop was made on a tiny island in the middle of the lake on August 10, 2007. (There was a spectacular lightning storm at 4pm that afternoon and the boating party was lucky to get back alive.)

Why plant this geocache?
Operating under the moniker ‘Rosie’ in July, the duo found and logged their visits at all the geocaches in Kenora in under three days. Unfortunately these caches were too easy to find; like most targets originally seeded by Rambling Rose, they require a hike along the railroad tracks. Keep your eyes peeled for railroad dumps near Tunnel Isle – there’s a nice one in the marsh just east of the first rock cut (on the north side of the tracks).

This family understands Geocaching's appeal, and sees the new sport's potential as an emerging tourist activity. The snowmobile clubs have 'poker runs' where drivers pick up cards and rally between ice fishing huts - soon there will be Geocaching Clubs visiting Lake of the Woods in all seasons. Frustrated with how easy it was to find ALL existing caches in Kenora, Norman and Neil decided to create this super-challenge.

GC152ET is the alpha numeric key code for a geocache that was planted by stormin’ Norman Hissa and his son Neil in the middle of the lake. Without question this is the hardest target in the entire area; GC152ET requires a boat (or a snowmobile in winter) and some special skills!

Geocaching on Lake of the Woods

At the time of this writing, there are 508520 active caches worldwide, and there are over 5000 caches in Ontario alone, but less than fifty caches in the Lake of the Woods area. GC152ET is a peanut butter container filled with trinkets, buttons, pins and collectible coins.

Collectible coins?
This sport is one of the few hobbies around today that traffics in collectible coins! Geocoins, as they are called, are created to mark events and honor places - and they travel in the pockets of geocachers all over the world. Most will probably increase in value over time, depending on certain key variables that seem kind of mysterious to this author, at this time.

Three companies have set up shop here in Canada to manufacture such coins. Check out Land Sharkz, and Angies Outdoors and Geocoins.ca to peruse new material. I suppose if this collectible merchandise is preserved in mint condition it will increase in value - there's some proof of that here in a Lady Luck Blonde geocoin on eBay that’s getting the attention of geocoin collectors worldwide. I would like to know more about geocoins and what makes them collectible. Perhaps I should issue a series of Dumpdiggers coins?

Have you ever seen a mustache cup?

Not so long ago, Dumpdiggers left a friendly comment on The Victorian Era to celebrate a great piece of writing titled Mustaches and Manners. The humorous post details those giant waxed mustaches that were so popular in men’s fashion throughout Europe and America during Queen Victoria's reign in England. I reported that sometimes Dumpdiggers unearth broken 'mustache cups' in 1800's era dump sites - hard proof of the forgotten fashion of big facial hair.

The Victorian Era blog is actually paying homage to a very specialized blogspot called Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century that showcases so many fascinating nuances of the ‘Age of the Mustache’.

Personally it would drive me crazy to have a mass of tangled hair growing on my upper lip, but that's me... and my Grandma. Yes, my Grandmother once told me that a man only grows a mustache when he has something to hide – and not just the skin on his face. Consequently I always shaved before visiting her.

US Civil War general Lew Wallace's mustache was obscene. How could anyone take this guy seriously? Ulysses Grant blamed him for the losses at Shiloh, and ruined his military career, and yet, he persevered and became even more distinguished... This mustached man was the U.S. Minister to Turkey, 1881-1885 and he wrote the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ which has never been out of print, and has been filmed three times. Not bad for a guy with something to hide huh Grandma?

MUSTACHE WAX

For a myriad of reasons mustaches flourished throughout the Victorian Age. At the height of this fashion, well born gentlemen would frequent upscale barber shops and saloons to procure mustache wax, which was stiff pomade they could apply to their moustaches to hold the hairs in place, especially at the extremities. Such wax would also have restorative properties, and of course that became more and more important as the length of the hair increased. No man could sport a ‘handlebar mustache’ without mustache wax.

COMPOSITION Mustache wax was quite commonly scented and sometimes color pigmented. Historically the product was fashioned from beeswax, coco butter, and petroleum jelly. More sophisticated recipes include gum Arabic and soap, essential oils for scent and all manner of colouring.

MUSTACHE CUPS

After bathing, and trimming his mustache, a gentleman would melt a ½ gram (a dab) of mustache wax in a pan. Using a special comb, the gentleman would then carefully apply the hot wax to his mustache to keep the curls intact. And therein lay the problem - a stiff upper lip would always soften during high tea.

Every time a man raised a steaming teacup to his mouth, the steam would melt the wax, and it would drip into his tea. And worse than that, after drinking coffee and tea, fair haired men's moustaches often became stained!

Strangely it wasn’t until 1830 that an English potter named Harvey Adams introduced the first mustache cup, which had a ledge he called a 'mustache guard' across the top. The guard had one semicircular opening against the rim of the cup to allow the user’s mustache to rest safe and dry on the mustache guard.

Harvey Adam's invention (look for maker's mark 'HA&co') spread all over the Europe until almost all respectable potters featured a product with a similar design. A multiplicity of mustache cups were fashioned in Meissen, Royal Crown Derby, Imari, Royal Bayreuth, Limoges and other famous manufactories between 1850-1900 as each potter created his own version of this masculine tableware.

Are mustaches fashionable again? Perhaps, but they'll never be as popular as they were in the Victorian Age.

Do you have a mustache? Are you seeking a vintage mustache cup? Perhaps you are wondering how much such an object would cost? Here are two auctions on eBay we can follow:

The pretty red cup above is one from Saxon Germany and at the time of this writing, it already has three bids - the current bid is $26 bucks and there's still six days left in the auction.

Next is a very pretty mustache cup & saucer, painted with yellow flowers, green & brown leaves & stems with turquoise blue & white background and gold trim that has just appeared on the auction site at $9.99.

Anyone looking for more information on the history of this tableware innovation could read a comprehensive report on mustache cups from the respectable online resource, The Gavel.