How to buy real amber online (and avoid the fakes)

There’s a lot of fake amber out there. Fortunately, there’s a lot of real amber out there as well. This blog post will teach you the way to avoid the fakes and buy the real ones.

1) Know Your Dealer

Businesses who specialize in fossils and amber are trustworthy because they specialize in sourcing the real thing from each country. And if a reputable business is caught selling fake amber, they will lose their reputation and a lot of money.

Fake amber online - these items are fake plastic amber.

Anonymous dealers, such as Amazon.com and TikTok, will not have repercussions when a customer buys their product and later realizes it’s fake.

Some reputable dealers are:

- amberbugs.com

-ambericawest.com,

-dominicanfossil.com.

fossilera.com

Non-reputable dealers would be Amazon and TikTok.

eBay is a gray area where there are authentic amber dealers, but there is also fake amber dealers.

2) Prices

Real amber usually costs a minimum of $20 and up per piece and can easily get very high. Fake amber can cost five dollars apiece or ten dollars apiece. A very low price is often a red flag.

3) Know how to spot fake amber

There are various forms of fake amber out there, and you can read our blog post here about how to spot amber from fake amber.

4) Colombian Copal

Colombian copal is very similar to amber and has amazing insect inclusions. It is a real material made in nature, but it is not fully fossilized yet, and therefore it is not amber. Recognize how to spot this material by its pale colors, very large numerous insect inclusions, and low price. It is a great material, but it is often marked as amber when it truly is copal because it will dissolve in alcohol.

5) Watch out for pressed and heat treated amber

Pressed amber and heat treated amber are a form of recycled amber, and many dealers will sell this and not tell you that it has been processed. Therefore, you will think it is 100% natural, but in fact it is slightly altered. While this is still real amber, it should be clear that it has been re-melted into a new shape because that will always eliminate any insect inclusions and natural features that it has and render it noticeably different than before.