Most shark teeth people find are worth less than $1 each as of late 2026. The small black and gray fossil teeth that wash up by the thousand at Venice, Florida, and along the Carolina and Maryland shores sell in bags of a hundred for roughly $15-30, and a modern tooth pulled from a jaw sells for a few dollars. The exception is the megalodon. A worn or broken megalodon tooth sells for about $10-150, a whole 4 to 5 inch tooth with good enamel brings about $200-600, and a fine, unrestored tooth near 6 inches has sold at Heritage for $3,625 and $4,000 in the last two years. Fossil great white and mako teeth sit between the two, usually $10-150 depending on size.
Four things set the price of a shark tooth: the species, the size measured along the longest edge, the condition of the enamel, root and tip, and whether any part of it has been restored. Location matters too, because collectors pay more for teeth from certain rivers and formations, and because the colors of the teeth tell experienced buyers where they came from.
Quick answer
- Common small fossil teeth (sand tiger, lemon, bull, tiger, snaggletooth): about $0.10-1 each, roughly $15-30 for a bag of a hundred.
- Modern teeth from a jaw: about $1-10 each. Fossil great white and mako: about $10-150.
- Megalodon: $10-150 worn or broken, $200-600 for a good 4 to 5 inch tooth, $500-2,000 at 5 to 6 inches, and $2,000-5,000 for a fine tooth near 6 inches.
- Restorations are common on large megalodon teeth and must be disclosed. A restored tooth is worth a fraction of a natural one.
How to identify and value a shark tooth, step by step
- Decide whether it is fossil or modern. A modern tooth is white or cream, light, slightly translucent at the edge and has a hollow root that looks like bone. A fossil tooth has been replaced by minerals over millions of years and is black, gray, brown, tan, blue, green or orange, noticeably heavier and solid. Color says nothing about the species, only about the sediment it lay in.
- Measure it on the slant. Collectors measure the longest edge, from the tip of the crown to the farthest corner of the root, in inches. A megalodon that is 4.5 inches on the slant is a 4.5 inch tooth, even if it is shorter straight up. Size is the single biggest price factor on any large tooth.
- Look at the edges. Fine serrations, like a steak knife, point to megalodon, great white, tiger shark, snaggletooth (Hemipristis), Otodus angustidens and the upper teeth of bull sharks. Smooth edges point to mako, sand tiger and lemon shark.
- Find the bourlette. The bourlette is the darker chevron-shaped band between the enamel of the crown and the root. A megalodon has a large, distinct bourlette; a great white has a small one or none. On a large, thick, serrated triangular tooth, a wide bourlette is the clearest single tell for megalodon.
- Check for side cusps. Small extra points on either side of the main crown mark sand tiger teeth and some extinct species such as Otodus angustidens and Carcharocles chubutensis. Megalodon and great white have no side cusps.
- Grade the enamel, tip and serrations. Sharp intact tip, enamel with no peeling, serrations visible along both edges and a full root with both lobes is a high grade. Rolled teeth from beaches and rivers have rounded edges, worn tips and missing serrations, and are priced as such.
- Look for restoration. Under raking light, look for an area of root or crown where the texture, color or shine changes sharply, a line where two surfaces meet, or serrations that are too even. A long-wave ultraviolet flashlight often shows filler and glue as a different glow from fossil enamel and root.
- Note where it was found. "Found myself in the Peace River" or "Cooper River, South Carolina" adds confidence and interest. Teeth from North Carolina phosphate mines, Calvert Cliffs, the Peace River, the Carolina rivers, Peru, Indonesia and Morocco each have a look, and buyers price the location as part of the tooth.
What shark teeth sell for
Prices below are typical sold results for natural, unrestored teeth as of late 2026, from sold marketplace listings, dealers and fossil auctions. Restored teeth sell well below these figures.
| Tooth | Size | Typical sold price, as of late 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Common small fossil teeth (sand tiger, lemon, bull, snaggletooth) | Under 1 inch | About $0.10-1 each; roughly $15-30 per bag of 100 |
| Fossil tiger shark (Galeocerdo) | Under 1.5 inches | About $2-20 |
| Fossil snaggletooth (Hemipristis), sharp and colorful | Around 1 inch | About $5-40 |
| Modern teeth from a jaw (bull, tiger, mako) | Under 2 inches | About $1-10 |
| Fossil mako (Isurus hastalis, "broad-tooth mako") | 1.5 to 3 inches | About $10-150 |
| Fossil great white (Carcharodon carcharias), serrated | 1.5 to 2.5 inches | About $20-150; over 2.5 inches more |
| Otodus angustidens and Carcharocles chubutensis | 2 to 4 inches | About $50-500 |
| Megalodon, broken, chipped or heavily worn | Any size | About $10-60 |
| Megalodon, worn beach or river tooth | 2.5 to 4 inches | About $40-150 |
| Megalodon, good enamel, full root | 4 to 5 inches | About $200-600 |
| Megalodon, good enamel, full root | 5 to 6 inches | About $500-2,000 |
| Megalodon, fine, sharp, unrestored | Near or over 6 inches | About $2,000-5,000; rare exceptional teeth more |
| Any megalodon with restoration disclosed | Any size | About 20-50 percent of an unrestored tooth |
The bags and small teeth are where nearly every beach find sits, and that is not a disappointment: they are fossils millions of years old, and they make good gifts and displays, but they are common enough that the market treats them as a few cents each. A megalodon is a different object, and size moves its price faster than anything else. Heritage sold a Morgan River, South Carolina tooth of nearly 6 inches for $3,625 in December 2025 and a tooth of over 5.75 inches from the Intracoastal Waterway near Savannah for $4,000 in August 2024. Size alone does not set the top price, though: a big tooth with a worn tip or dull, cracked enamel can sell below a smaller sharp one, because enamel, color and sharpness count as much.
A worked example
Say you find a gray triangular tooth on a South Carolina beach, about 3.2 inches on the slant, heavier than it looks, with a wide dark band above the root. The serrations are worn away on one side and visible on the other, the tip is rounded and one root lobe is chipped. The size, the bourlette and the shape say megalodon. The wear says beach tooth. In this condition it sells for roughly $40-90, and the chipped root keeps it in the lower half. Had the same tooth come from a river dive with sharp serrations and a whole root, it would be a $150-400 tooth. Had someone filled the chip with epoxy and painted it, it would still be a $40-90 tooth, sold honestly as restored.
What moves the price
| Factor | Effect on price |
|---|---|
| Sharp tip, intact serrations, full root, glossy enamel | The baseline for the top of each range |
| Tip worn or broken | Deduction of 30-60 percent |
| Serrations worn smooth on one or both edges | Deduction of 20-50 percent |
| Root lobe chipped or missing | Deduction of 20-50 percent |
| Enamel peeling or cracked | Deduction of 30-70 percent |
| Attractive color (blue-gray, orange, banded, two-tone) | Adds 20-100 percent on megalodon |
| Symmetrical upper anterior position | Adds 20-50 percent over lower or posterior teeth |
| Pathological or unusual shape | Adds interest; price varies |
| Known location with finder's note | Adds 10-30 percent |
| Restoration (filled root, rebuilt tip, painted serrations), disclosed | 20-50 percent of natural |
| Restoration not disclosed | No honest value until disclosed; sellers who hide it lose buyers |
| Cast resin replica | $5-30 as a replica |
Fakes, restorations and the legal side
Outright fakes, teeth cast in resin and painted, exist but are easy to catch: they are light, warm to the touch, sometimes show a seam or a bubble, and have identical twins in other listings. The real problem is restoration. Large megalodon teeth often come out of rivers and mines with a broken root or tip, and a skilled preparer can rebuild the missing part in epoxy and paint it to match. There is nothing wrong with a restored tooth sold as restored. There is a lot wrong with one sold as natural, and the gap in price is large. Ask the seller directly, look at the tooth under a long-wave UV light and in raking light, and buy expensive teeth from dealers who state restoration in writing.
Location rules matter for the hunt. In Florida, the state fossil permit program run by the Florida Museum of Natural History covers vertebrate fossils on state land and waters, but fossil shark and ray teeth are specifically excluded, so anyone may collect them. Other vertebrate fossils, such as horse teeth, turtle shell and mammoth bone, need the permit. South Carolina requires a hobby license, issued by the state's Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, for anyone collecting fossils or artifacts from its rivers and other state waters, with collection by hand only and quarterly reporting of finds. National parks, state parks and wildlife refuges generally forbid collecting. Modern teeth from protected species, including great white sharks, carry their own restrictions in many places, so a modern great white tooth is best left unsold unless you know its history.
How WorthPic reads shark tooth photos
WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. From a photo of both faces with a ruler it reads the outline, the serrations, the bourlette, the side cusps and the root shape, and matches them to a species and a tooth position. From the color and surface it judges fossil or modern and often suggests the kind of deposit it came from. From close photos of the tip, edges and root it grades wear and damage, and it looks for the texture and color breaks that suggest restoration, saying plainly when a photo is not sharp enough to tell. It then gives an honest value range for what the photos show. What a photo cannot know is whether a well-done restoration is hiding under paint, or the exact weight and feel of the tooth. It identifies and estimates. It does not authenticate, grade or appraise. For any megalodon that appears to be worth more than about $300, a fossil dealer or fossil auction house with UV light and the tooth in hand should have the last word.
Common mistakes
- Calling every large black tooth a megalodon. Large mako, great white and angustidens teeth are often mistaken for one; look for serrations plus a wide bourlette.
- Measuring straight up instead of on the slant, which undersells a tooth by up to half an inch.
- Pricing from asking listings, where restored teeth are often priced as natural.
- Cleaning with bleach, acid or a wire brush. A soak in plain water and a soft toothbrush is enough; acid etches enamel.
- Coating a tooth in varnish or oil to make it shine. Buyers read that as hiding something.
- Gluing a broken tooth and not saying so.
- Assuming a white tooth is a fossil. White, light teeth with hollow roots are modern.
What to photograph
- Both faces straight on, in even daylight, with a ruler along the slant edge.
- The tip and both edges close up, so the serrations and any wear show.
- The root from both sides, including the bottom of the root lobes.
- The bourlette and the area where crown meets root, where restorations hide.
- A side view showing thickness.
- If you have one, a photo under a long-wave UV flashlight in a dark room.
- For a bag of small teeth, a spread on a plain surface with a coin for scale.
When to get it looked at in person
A bag of beach teeth or a single small tooth does not need anyone's opinion; enjoy it, or sell the bag for what bags bring. A local fossil club or a natural history museum's public identification day is the right stop for a tooth you cannot name, and members are generous with their time. For a megalodon over about 4.5 inches with good enamel, or any tooth you plan to sell for more than a few hundred dollars, show it to an established fossil dealer and ask about restoration under UV, and consider a fossil auction such as the natural history sales at Heritage. If the tooth turned up with other finds, such as points, worked stone or petrified wood, our guides to arrowhead value and identifying a found object cover the rest of the box, and how to identify valuable rocks covers the stones.