Are fossils worth the trouble?

See, I was reading this Paco journal entry about valuable videogames and how much they're worth. Then I realized that many "modern" things such as baseball cards, rock memorabilia, comics and stuff can reach really high prices.

Of course there are many invaluable things like landmarks or really unique works of art such as the Mona Lisa.

But...

How about fossils? Do they worth anything? Is it first come first serve, like the first T.Rex cranium that was found is more valuable than some stupid bone you found in your backyard? Who sets the price?

Come on GFF, I wanna know!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It is like that with meteorites too. I was amazed how much money some of these little rocks can end up selling for -- some can go well into the millions.

I suppose it all really comes down to the academic community for things like that and how much it is worth to them. Private collectors are probably to thank/blame as well as I always hear of these rich tycoons spending ridiculous amounts of money so they can own a piece of Mars or their own Tyrannosaurus Rex.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've seen stuff like matching pairs of fish fossils sell for several hundred.

Basically, like gems and shiny things, it all comes down to how pretty or impressive the thing is, as others have already said.

Though you do have to make sure the place you get your fossil from yourself is not something like a state or federal land, otherwise, those are not yours to take.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

For the sake a preservation, I think the prices should be somewhat inflated. If they weren't, then a lot of folks would probably pay no heed to the idea of keeping ancient fossils intact and just build a Quicky Mart on top of the site.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?