Fake/authentic? You decide

I'm pretty sure many would have heard of the image of Virgin Mary appearing on garage doors and lemon slices.

But are you prepared for this?

Virgin Mary appearing on a pebble.

It was supposedly found by a Christchurch woman (Lisa-Marie Corlet) on a beach (New Brighton or Sumner maybe?). I wonder what she was hunting for when she "stumbled" upon this 1cm in diameter pebble.

Personally, I think it looks like a walrus-man dressed up for a charity event (hence the tie).

She's selling it on Trademe now, here's the link to the auction. At 1.44pm right now, the leading bid is $31,600.50, with hundreds of comments, and 290 unanswered questions for the lady to answer.

This is what she wrote on the auction:

Pebble found on South Island beach with image of the Virgin Mary. Its genuine and I will be contacting the university geology department in the very near future to have authenticity proved. Check out The Press Newspaper, Tuesday 23rd of Wednesday 24th October to view more photos and find out more about this tiny pebble.

The debate going on is FIERCE. What I don't get is what's the big deal over a stone? Maybe before it was found, a little naughty boy decided to take out his crayon and sketch a picture of his toy walrus, left it on the beach, and the ink became permanent over the years.

Ok, so maybe it is the REAL thing. I just don't understand why would God want this pebble to be made/discovered. Besides it being a collector's item, I don't see how owning this pebble can bring someone good luck or helping him/her get closer to God.

Which made me wonder: The man above must be laughing away at the sight of us going ga-ga over a pebble, regardless of its authenticity.

Which leads to this: an item cannot even be proven "authentic" unless there is a similar item that has already been proven so, and a comparison can be made. Make sense? For example, it's possible to tell apart an authentic LV bag from one that's fake by careful inspection. So what are the geologists (supposedly) comparing this "authentic" pebble with?

Either way, good for Lisa-Marie for donating the sales to charity. Whether or not she donates any of it away or keep it to herself, she's entitled to it. Why? She found it, finder's keepers. And even if it's fake, the buyer should know better there are risks in buying this pebble. I see this as her being blessed, very abundantly might I add.

Kiwis are a bunch of funny folks. This guy here is selling a Virgin Mary on a surfboard set. See description below.

Thought to be fake at first when found on my desk this morning-but look at second photo taken with a photon gamma mapping camera- the energy coming off is incredible!
Looks remarkably like the Virgin Mary on a surfboard?
If you can help me with how this came to be in existance I would appreciate any feedback.
Free postage within NZ.
** buyer will need a small piece of blue-tac to keep Mary on the board.
***UPDATE!!

RANGE EXPANDED AT NO EXTRA COST!

New Virgin Mary Surfboard set now includes:
NEW! Donkey Poster!
NEW! 3 Wise men!
NEW! Baby Jesus! ( looks a little like a penguin )
NEW! Glow in the dark Star of Bethlehem! (doesn't actually glow in the dark....)

If you think this is funny, scroll down to the comments of this auction and the original one. Even this fake auction has a lead bidding of $147 as I'm typing this. haha. More of these fake authentic stones are appearing on Trademe by the hour, it's worth reading the comments and have a good laugh.