Loading…
19
Bought a 'rare' thunder egg online for $75 and it was just a painted river rock
I saw this listing from a seller in Tucson that said it was a genuine Oregon thunder egg with agate inside... but when it arrived, you could see the paint flaking off the outside. I tried to cut it open with my tile saw and it was just plain gray stone all the way through. Has anyone else gotten burned by a fake mineral listing, and how can you tell the real ones?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
jake7476mo ago
Yeah, the rind on a real one is rock, not paint. If it's flaking off in chips like old house paint, that's a dead giveaway. I've seen fakes where they use that craft acrylic that gets that weird plastic-y crust. A real weathered rind just looks like, well, a weird lumpy rock. The weight is often wrong too, a painted river rock feels solid all the way through, while a real egg can feel a bit different.
4
the_holly6mo ago
Honestly that sounds like a skill issue with the tile saw more than a scam. A real thunder egg can look like a plain river rock on the outside, that's the whole point. The paint flaking could just be the outer rind weathering off. Some of those Oregon eggs have really solid gray centers too, not flashy agate every time. Maybe you just cut it wrong or didn't hit the good part.
3
zara_sanchez4mo ago
Right? "Skill issue with the tile saw" is the best insult I've heard all week. Pretty soon people are gonna blame their uneven bacon slices on not holding the knife at the right angle.
2
jake7476mo ago
Wait, you used a tile saw on a thunder egg? That's a bold move. I got a "rare geode" last year that was clearly just a concrete blob they'd dyed purple inside. The seller swore it was natural but it smelled like craft paint when I cracked it open. Sometimes you just gotta accept the loss and check their return policy before cutting into anything suspicious.
1