A new IPO offers shares in something completely different: dinosaur bones
The market for rare dino skeletons has been heating up. Just ask hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who acquired one for $44.6 million.
Last Updated: Dec. 13, 2024 at 5:09 p.m. ET
First Published: Dec. 13, 2024 at 9:01 a.m. ET
Forget investing in stocks or bonds or even cryptocurrency. A trading platform is offering an opportunity to buy shares in something altogether different: a dinosaur skeleton.
Rally, a platform that specializes in fractional-ownership structures of everything from rare comics and baseball cards to a copy of the Declaration of Independence, is announcing today an IPO in what it simply calls “Steg” — a fairly complete Stegosaurus fossil that is still being unearthed on a private plot of land in northern Wyoming.
Rally co-founder Rob Petrozzo told MarketWatch the offering is being valued at $13.75 million, with 200,000 shares available, priced at $68.75 apiece. “Steg” is expected to start trading on Dec. 20, Petrozzo said.
Although items on Rally are typically traded like traditional equities, with opportunities to buy and sell at any given moment, “Steg” is being offered with a different proposition, Petrozzo said. There will be no trading possibilities once shares are purchased. Instead, the expectation is that “Steg” will be sold within 18 to 24 months, presumably at a profit, through an auction or private sale, with the shareholders divvying up the proceeds.
The demand for dinosaur skeletons has been growing in recent years, with prominent specimens at auctions going for seven figures or more. Most noteworthy of all: Hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin acquired a Stegosaurus fossil dubbed “Apex” at a Sotheby’s auction in July for $44.6 million. The skeleton is now on exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
“It really is a brand-new market,” Petrozzo said of the interest in high-end dinosaur fossils.
To that point, Christie’s held an auction this week, with three dinosaur skeletons selling for a combined sum of £12,405,000 (roughly $15.7 million).
Still, collectibles expert Stephen Fishler, chief executive officer of ComicConnect, a New York-based enterprise, remains somewhat skeptical of the investment potential for dinosaur skeletons.
The primary issue, Fishler said, is that it’s still an emerging category and the quality of specimens varies so much — some fossils may be 50% complete while others may be 80% complete. (The missing bones are typically filled in with replicas for display purposes.)
“We’re very far from a marketplace where we could consider it an investment,” Fishler said.
Petrozzo, however, makes the case that “Steg” is a prime example of a quality specimen. While it is still being unearthed, he said it is already 67% complete. “And we’re finding more each day,” he said of the excavation process.
People interested in investing in dinosaur fossils, however, don’t need to look to seven- or eight-figure examples, collectors say. Items can be purchased for thousands or even hundreds of dollars, they note.
There are websites selling a variety of such items, such as individual bones or teeth. There are also collector shows.
Quincy Hansen, an avid fossil collector based in Fort Collins, Colo., has purchased items for as much as $750. But Hansen also takes to the field himself and does his own excavating in search of rarities. He reports he’s had some success with a few finds, though nothing like a Stegosaurus potentially worth eight figures.
Still, Hansen remains hopeful.
“You do what you call prospecting,” he said.
