I'd hate to say this, but I don't think for a minute it's real. I've seen WAY too much fake stuff on eBay to believe it. Also the price is way wrong. And believe me if someone had an item of that 'coolness' s/he wouldn't be selling it on eBay! There are major dealers/brokers who take care of items of that sort of magnitude. I have been fortunate enough to have had a couple of that type thing--and people with the $$$ stand in line for it before you even decide when you want to sell it. No, that sort of thing is usually brokered and sold 'behind the scenes' or handled by a major auctionhouse (Sothby's or Christie's etc.) and it would make news. The last time I saw a small piece of paper from the ship with the Titanic name actually on it for sale was in the early 80s, in a very posh ocean liner collector's catalogue--and it was the FRONT COVER item! It was a weight receipt found in a small lapdesk picked up by one of the body searching ships and it had a pedigree a yard long. It also was selling at [i:80c23b3bde]well[/i:80c23b3bde] over $4,000 [i:80c23b3bde]then[/i:80c23b3bde]! I'd put something like that at three times that or more today.


About rusticles; I have seen them on sunken ships--and even produced small ones in the lab here. They break very easy and when they dry are nothing but powder. I have a small bag full of 'rust dust' in the lab to show what pure iron oxide is like. It feels like a bag of flour.

7th you do have a point about the item if it was real it would not be on e-bay for that price, etc.