My advice do not buy anything from robrod815 on eBay. He has Ponte Tresa, Black Madeira, Dall ' Osso cuttings for auction. If you win the auction you'll get dried out brown turkey and kodota cuttings.

Also same story for eBay seller dausername1. They are both scammers.

If you want to buy on eBay, buy from Harvey C, Plant - Creator (Ray), KK or Giacomo (Just Figs). I've dealt with these and a few others and had great experiences.

I was scammed by both dausername1, 77Peony, and RobRod815. Don't waste your money like I did. Deal with someone reputable.

Please make a complaint directly to Ebay. Not the refund, a complaint against the users.

I have been to them along with several others and this has continued for years.

I have given Ebay several opportunities to correct this and they never call back.

I will call them again ( 3rd or fourth time) and am going to crawl up their ass.

I will probably loose my account, but I will go to Consumer Protection and see where it goes.

Mike

goodluck guys, not easy trying to keep the community clean.

There's an easy solution. Don't buy on ebay.

One day....you guys will learn to ONLY buy from people you know on eBay.  smh

There are plenty of great people on this forum who sell all the time on eBay.  None here are scammers.  There is a post listing their names.  All you have to do is search for it or ask another forum member.   There are only 2 or 3 people that I know who has Ponte Tresa and Dall ' Osso fig trees.  If there is any doubt about a seller, listen to you gut and don't buy from them.

And if you try to buy cuttings from overseas, the feds will pay you a visit!  In others words, don't buy cutting or trees from overseas unless you have all of the paperwork and the space to quarantine the goods once received.  Again, the feds will pay you a visit.

The Dall'Osso that is around is not the dubble fig, the one is being sold is from Belfiore Vivaio near Florence, it's a very nice fig well worth growing but it's not the one everyone expects and not worthy of all the hype , I know I have one. These sellers may be misleading you beware!!! And buy from FORUM members

Great idea Dave!!!!

I don't bother doing that Dave since my ID on eBay is the same as here. :)

did not get to Ebay yet, but if the listings are reported as "not as described' the listing should be removed

I have the same name on eBay as I do here

Dave,

and thanks for the Sal's G I got from you on Ebay.

It is a very nice plant right now.

Mike

I use to make sure I always put my forum name in my listing descriptions but as time went on it was left out more and more. I need to start again.

If someone enjoys growing and does so honestt, they will likely want to talk about their trees with others (and end up on one of the forums). Most ppl either put their forum name or ppl here know their name on eBay. Pretty sure I know a few that didn't list here, but if you have a rep here there's no reason not to share the connection!

@pofigist  Not sure what you are suggesting... Most of the fig enthusiasts on this and other forums trade amongst themselves and continuously propagating their cultivars and sharing widely and frequently; a number of forum members derive their livelihood from the nursery trade and figs are a natural nursery item to market. Ebay is a marketplace where goods and frequently services are made available. With the exception of eBay scammer moles that might have infiltrated the forum membership ranks and perhaps try to sow doubt or animosity amongst the regular membership, most everyone on these forums know each other as regulars on the forums and share this common interest; most everyone on these forums also recognize the frequently used scammer handles / monikers on eBay such as dausername1 and others from his group (although this is a constantly changing landscape) and know them for what they are... frauds and criminals peddling junk and they have learned to avoid them. I, personally, am quite comfortable in purchasing rare cultivars from forum members when they are made available on eBay and am confident that those forum members have established reputations that were earned by ensuring, on a best effort basis, that the cultivars they market on eBay are authentic. Your suggestion that you would like to see 'all the paperwork' for the rarer cultivars that forum members market on eBay suggest that you have reservations. You are entitled to them; you are also entitled to NOT bid / buy those cultivars when such reservations exist. It just makes the purchase process easier for those of us that do not suffer from a similar crisis of confidence in the forum members...

If eBay not willing to deal with this sellers it will be a good idea to report them to Agriculture department. It is known that AD watching eBay auctions anyway, so all we need is to supply them with list of varieties that were imported from oversees without paperwork. So this scammers will not be able to sell most desirable and expensive varieties on eBay-in this case d’Osso and Ponte Tresa.

I will contact AD with eBay ID of sellers and list of varieties they are selling.

It will stop the scam definitely. And if it will affect legal sellers, they will be able to present all Certificates / or whatever you need to present to verify that it was imported legally/ to AD agents.

After the cuttings have changed hands once it makes no difference. If the original cuttings were imported illegally the feds can take them or the tree, but after that tree is spread to other people, they can't take my tree that I got third person.where there is money to be made people will try to scam, that's life. I think the biggest thing is to know who you are buying from. Honest people aren't too hard to spot in conversation usually.

You guys are crazy, forum membership is not correlated to integrity, stop scaring off the sane people!

I'm not sure if you were reference my comments, whichever. I just wanted to clarify that for me when I see someone mention they are on one if the forums I check to see pics of their fruit or trees and then talking about them. Or even just how others think of them. I am in no way thinking that being a member of a forum is an automatic golden ticket. But I try to assume that others have good intentions unless proven otherwise, and it's usually the case. I have seen multiple cases of an error for variety or just a mix up in trees corrected, replaced etc. Most ppl want to make good on something if/when they screw up.

That was not directed at you Devin, just the overall theme that has been promoted for many years. 

Most Ebay sellers are honest people, I had an Ebay store for years. Some people on Ebay sell fig cuttings that have been honestly labeled with what the seller thought or was told what is was.  In reality I have been "scammed" by Lowes, WalMart, Home Depot and several local and online nurseries. Do I think I have been intentionally scammed all these times? No, I think they were all taken by their suppliers who were taken by their suppliers of starter plants or cuttings.  Buying figs ANYWHERE is a gamble, I am pretty sure about 25-33% of the figs I have purchased in the last 2 years were not what I bought. I don't buy expensive trees or cuttings. I like to experiment with rooting techniques and give away many plants. So I tend to buy inexpensive cuttings and unknowns often.  I would if I desired the more esoteric and highly acclaimed varieties purchase them from a forum member that I feel has a better knowledge of the types.

I believe a blanket condemnation of Ebay sellers that are not Forum members is over the top. And the opposite is also true, what prevents someone from joining a forum and selling fakes. So what will be after that? Don't buy unless they have been an active poster for how long?

Instead of blanket condemnation what we need is a folder where we can post good/bad transactions for easy reference rather than all the "has anyone bought from?" posts. Please do not rule out common varieties on Ebay out of hand. Many folks are just trying to pick up a few bucks from a tree in their yard, not make a fig collector's life miserable. Just my 2 cents worth.......
 

 

Well put.