Wow! I am really starting to see alot of teeth here on Ebay that look like they belong in a salad more than they do in a collection case.  I am not going to make this article long winded but I do want to point out a few things to be very careful of when buying sharks teeth, with one of them being "the old OIL trick." 

I am seeing this more and more on Ebay.  Some sellers may want to try and justify doing this but its very dishonest and is simply motivated by money and greed.  What they are doing is applying a little bit of oil, vegetable oil, 2-cycle engine oil, peanut oil....whatever....to the bourlette and blade. 

What exactly will this do to a tooth...you ask?  It will make a very crappy bourlette look dark and new again....for a while.  The bourlette itself is usually very thin and sometimes when it flakes off or fades away...there is still a little residual of it left and can be brought back to "artificial life" for a period of time. Usually long enough to sell the tooth and for you to receive it.  The problem is.....the oil begins to fade away over time...and your eventually left with the original looking, lower quality bourlette.  Chances are...this tooth would have sold for much less, and is now worth less, than what you originally paid for it. 

Oil also has another trick.  It will make the small lines, often called "hydration cracks" in the blade disappear...again...for a period of time.  Often the hydration cracks are white in nature and stand out from the darker colored blade. Putting a very small amount of oil on the end of your finger and rubbing it on the blade itself and into the hyration cracks....will almost make these lines disappear.

This is pretty shady and a total scam but it seems quite a few sellers are doing it...and clearly not mentioning it in their ads and passing the tooth off as All Natural. Its simply a dishonest way to make a tooth look better and get more money from you.  The tooth oil will eventually disappear and your tooth will look worse than when you bought it.

My advice to you....is this:  If you have a low quality tooth that perhaps you bought when you first started collecting, and don't care a great deal about....try it on this tooth for yourself.  Once you do it for yourself and see the difference it makes....you will be able to spot the teeth on Ebay that are doing it.  I see about 20 or so really nice teeth up on Ebay right now at the time of writing this that all have oil on them.  The bourlette has flaked away but still oily jet black. The person even got sloppy and smeared a little oil up onto the root and has left marks.

One thing you might want to ask each seller...if in doubt is this, "Hello Joe Blow, I am not accusing of you of anything but if I discover that you have put oil on this tooth....am I entitled to a full refund since you didn't mention it anywhere in your ebay discription?. I know you would never do such a thing but there are a lot of sellers out there doing this and I need to protect my investment."  

Make sure your seller has a refund policy.

I hope this has helped.

Kind regads,

Sydni816 (Garry Dye)