Yes, there really is a market for human bones.

A week or so ago we ran across an article in an industry blog highlighting an interview with a top collector of human bones. Yes, human bones. As it turns out, there’s a pretty big market out there.

When conducting research for my memorialization business I came across a fascinating industry – bone dealing. Bone dealers sell animal bones, historical scientific specimens, novelty items and… human remains. You can get pretty much any body part you desire on their website including fingers, Vertebrae, fetal skulls and something called a Coccyx (I don’t know what that is but it’s on sale). My interest was piqued, so I took another step and interviewed one of the leading bone dealers in the United States to try and answer some of my questions… Read the full story

As it turns out, the market works pretty much like all markets with supply and demand, rules and regulations, and not surprisingly, a vibrant black market. 

It turns out the human body is quite valuable: Whatever their reasons, some people stand a lot to gain from spending $157,000 on a pair of kidneys, $5,366 on bones and ligaments, and nearly $9 per square inch of human skin. (In case you were wondering, the human body contains approximately 3,168 square inches of skin, making the largest organ in the body worth a relatively paltry $28,322.) Read the full story

If you’d like to learn more about the topic of human bone collecting we recommend these stories:

>>Meet the Living People Who Collect Dead Human Remains

>>IT HAPPENED TO ME: I’m an Ethical Collector of Human Bones and Other Weird Stuff

>>The Bone Room