SHINY THING$ 0162: 🦴 ❤️

A bunch of unexplained drones over New Jersey, a $765M payday for the 4th best player in baseball, and non-stop coverage of a murder in midtown that has conspiracy theories flying in every direction.

Selling shares in a Stegosaurus is actually the most normal thing happening this month, and it’s happening on Rally.

Over the last 48 hours, we’ve started to see some some stories about the Rally Steg make their way around the internet (This New York Times piece covers all the bases), and we’re excited to finally open this landmark offering to the entire Rally community. 

This past Thursday, for our internal all-hands company meeting, our geological lead, Tom Lindgren, made a guest appearance via zoom to walk our team through the excavation lab and lend some insight into the current status of the Rally Stegosaurus. 

This was essentially a beta for what we intend to do once the IPO is complete with all investors as part of our upcoming bi-weekly updates leading into the completion and eventual sale of the Steg. After the completion of the 12/20 IPO, we’ll be distributing updates to all investors including news from the ongoing excavation, the updated bone count as more pieces are discovered and catalogued, and any comparable sales or activity that could affect the dino market. In early February, we’ll bring Tom back into the fold to talk directly with investors and answer all of your questions with what we hope will be a specimen that is very close to completion. 

Today, in the 162nd installment of Shiny Thing$, we stick with the dino theme and deliver a preview update of all things Rally Steg ahead of the Friday 12/20 IPO with some exciting updates, a brand new reservation system in-app, and a preview of what’s to come… 

→ An Update from the Lab

Our team of experts continues to work through the sandstone within the jacketed plaster blocks removed from the dig site, finding more bones and scientifically important details. Of note this week, a particularly interesting find amongst the extremely high quality well-preserved tail spikes: indentations and possible bit marks likely belonging to a theropod (a carnivorous dinosaur such as a tyrannosaur or velociraptor) that may have made a meal of the Rally Steg, either while still alive or as a scavenged meal post-mortem. 

While more scientific studies will need to be completed in order to confirm the indentations did in fact come from the bite of a carnivore, if the theory holds true this would be the first Stegosaurus ever found to have such a bite, representing an fight or an animal in defense of an attack. 

→ Additional Bone Volume

Incredible progress was made since the last update a couple weeks back as we now sit just below 70% of the original bone having been excavated. The timeline for the Rally Stegosaurus excavation remains on pace with the initial dig to likely be completed within 4-6 weeks from today. Once all bones have been extracted from the remaining sandstone, they will be cleaned, cataloged, and continually added to the bone map. 

In our weekly conversation with excavation lead Tom Lindgren is that when all is said and done, we may end up with a dino that rivals Apex. “I think we’re going to approach 80%” was his comment in the most recent zoom. For context, the most complete Stegosaurus ever found (and the most valuable at $44.6M) is the steg known as “Apex,” which clocked in at just over 79% bone volume. 

The work now shifts to finding the smaller bones, which requires more attention to detail and a bit more time. However this work is likely to yield more pieces of the skull, as the Rally Steg contained many small pieces of skull in an area where water current was likely to move pieces around. 

→ What’s Happening In the Market 

Last week, “Apex” was officially loaned to the American Museum of Natural History here in New York City to literal gasps from the audience at the official unveiling. While the debate continues between whether private buyers of dinosaurs are keeping key specimens away from the scientific community, there is no debate as to the importance of this particular stegosaurus and the impact it has had on both the auction community and collecting culture as a whole. 

“People are really excited about this fossil because Stegosaurus is an iconic dinosaur" remarked AMNH dino curator Roger Benson. “It's hard not to get excited about a really complete, large individual of this animal.” The dinosaur will remain on loan for a 4 year period and is likely to be the most viewed exhibit at AMNH throughout that time. 

A lower quality steg from the Meilyn Quarry sold via Christie’s last last week for $5.42M, above the median estimate. This result is a very positive outcome for the Rally Steg, as the Christie’s example exhibited darker bone, under 18 feet in length, and only ~45% bone volume. As such, this example would not be considered a direct comp, but is an incredibly encouraging result relative to the quality of the Rally Stegosaurus. 

→ Reserve Your Shares

With the launch of “STEG” on Rally comes a new feature that we’re slowly rolling out to the user base: Share Reservations. This will allow Rally investors to secure their spot in the offering prior to general release on 12/20, with the ability to return to the app at the public open and add to your position should shares still be available. 

How it Works:

Starting today, the Stegosaurus offering page will have a button that reads “Reserve Shares.” Selecting that button will allow you to commit to purchasing shares before the IPO officially opens, essentially putting you at the front of the line. The shortened flow will allow you to select number of shares, confirm purchase, and place those shares into a “Reservation” tab in your portfolio. Once the offering is sold out, we’ll allocate all reserved shares. If we are unable to grant you the full share amount requested, you’ll be refunded for any unclaimed shares and the remainder will be added to your portfolio. 

While this is the first IPO for which we’ll be offering share reservations, we intend to continue building out more optionality and more features to support highly anticipated assets like this one. We will also be distributing more details around Early Access and guaranteed full-allocation in the coming weeks leading into our Q1 IPO schedule. 

We look forward to launching STEG, and you can expect a lot more info and detail in the coming week leading into the 12/20 IPO. Questions? You can respond directly to this email. 

Until Next Week…