I hope he has an automatic watering system, otherwise when he gets out of prison all of those trees will be dead. Then again the state will probably take them as evidence and then auction them off after trial.

At this point I am just curious what he might be doing with all these trees. Obviously he is growing a LOT of figs and by the looks of it has well over 1000 plants. He can't possibly sell them in any volume since people would notice shipments from Kansas and connect the dots. He isn't selling them to other nurseries or else they would be re-selling rare varieties to the public. He probably isn't selling figs themselves at farmers markets since again people would notice. 
A scam like this with 1000s of dollars at stake will lead to prosecution. I just don't understand what he is doing...

The only logical explanation is he got in over his head and didn't realize how many orders he would really get. Then he took them anyway and at some point realized he couldn't deliver without continuing to make more and more mother trees.

What he should have done was take whatever orders he needed to get this venture off the ground and then stopped there. After that he should have just listed trees he had for sale when he had them.
Initially you would get the deal, after that would be market price.

No that is incorrect, if he didn't have the money to do this then he shouldn't have started. Period. He never represented that he needed X amount of dollars before he ships orders, it is illegal to use deceit when accepting money from another party especially if a promise has been made to provide a good or service. That is an absurd notion that he can use the first batch of buyers to fund his operation. That is illegal guy.

I think using funds to help start a business is a good idea as long as you are upfront. This is what kickstarter is and there is nothing inherently illegal about it. Some people have called it a ponzi scheme which it is not. In a ponzi scheme initial investors have to get some return. If this was the case he would have sent some trees to the first buyers so they would talk it up to get more money.

This is simply put a failed business at first. He tried and failed to deliver on his own promises, which he changed with no cares given. In fact he stated himself that trees were set to ship already, this was months ago and nothing was shipped. At this point the failed business has become a con. He built confidence initially by sending good cuttings to people or so I have heard. Once he stopped caring to engage with customers and just post ambiguous updates every couple months, then it was a full on con. If he would just shut the site down, be clear he failed but will either refund you or wait to ship the trees, that would be the honest approach. 

Perhaps he will deliver at some point, but honestly nobody will trust in this venture or he will have to raise prices up to much higher levels. 

Kickstarter is inherently different in that all parties involved are made aware of the nature of the "investment", most often actually a donation. In the case with James, he simply failed to provide a good or service he promised to provide and also accepted money on behalf of that promise in a deceitful nature. I do t know your situation but the rest of us did not agree to donate any amount of money to James. This is a very simple situation and the only ambiguity is in the nature of his deceit. Livetaswim, there's no ambiguity in the law in James' situation, he stole from many people, very simple.

? The fact that that the plants cost $7 has nothing to do with James not shipping the products when he promised to do so. The cost of the product also has nothing to do with the responsibility James has to each customer. James entered into an agreement with each customer to provide a product on a certain date and failed to do so. What don't you understand?

You are absolutely right OldOneEye! TODAY the pictures are different.
Hahaha! But YESTERDAY he had the same number of pictures up and they were the identical same pictures on both updates and even in the same order.
He must be checking these posts often and realized he got caught. That was a dumb move.
I wish you had seen the website yesterday. I compared the pictures on 2 screens on my computer.
They are still the same pictures today BUT he removed a good number of the pictures he had in the earlier post and left only a few ones where the plants look smaller and made sure to remove these from the "newer update".
Yes, he is keeping an eye on our conversations on this forum, guaranteed!

He was NOT "up front" about it. He sold from his site without any warning of it being a starter business. Those of you who keep saying he was honest about it are not considering the many other buyers who did not buy $7 trees advertised in this forum.

The updates, are just another trick from James to calm people a little bit and to gain a little bit of more time. But I think people are pissed off and they are tired of fancy pictures, updates and no trees.

Cut him off from his source of ill gotten gains....

PayPal is aiding and abetting a scam...

File a complaint with https://www.consumerfinance.gov/

http://www.wildlife.k-state.edu/kaa/
This is the page for Kansas Aquaculture Association, the directory has phone numbers for board members, president etc. call and blast James' name. These guys need to hear all this too.

He's also claims to grow/sell Tilapia. He's a board member on KAA (fish farming). I assume most people are good honest people, including the members of that group, just like all the members here. James is the exception and many honest people will wisely choose to dissociate themselves from people like James.

Would you choose to keep a guy like James on a board of directors you were on? Would you recommend him in any form of business? That's why they should be aware of his activities. After he's gone from here he will most likely get into model trains or something else and try to rip off a bunch of model train collectors and they also should know he's a crook.