Bass and I chatted earlier.  He does not know who this seller is and they have zero feedback and have two Lebanese Red plants listed for sale (plus a Jolly Tiger which shows no variegation).  The photo of the Lebanese Red fruit shown in both auctions is a photo that belongs to Bass and is being used without permission.  I believe Bass has reported it to eBay (at least he said he would do it).

http://www.ebay.com/sch/jonat-sawye/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=200&_trksid=p3692

Not good

I asked him what the source of his plant was, and he answered that he got cuttings from a friend in Lebanon, and has had his tree for 7 years. For what it's worth.

Us Honest Guys got it hard...LOL   Well at least I can sleep at night.  BEWARE: There are scammers all over the place.

Yes, I am skeptical now, but guess who the high bidder is on the first one. Yea you got it. I really want a L R not just another fig. I was asking him a lot of questions. I quit getting answers. He is not a member here. I hope he is being honest, time will tell.

Bass has reported both of them as of this morning.

Thanks for the heads up. They look like really good trees, now I know why. Nice pictures Bass!

7 years and has to steal pix . . .

I was looking at the tigers this afternoon on ebay and was surprised that there was no varigation in the leaves at all. Then I thought ok maybe it's because it's a small tree. Then I walked to my greenhouse and look at the tiniest of leaves on my tiger (even the newest ones had signs of variegation) and said nope this guy's fullocrapola. I hope everyone that looks for figs on ebay at least reads the forum so they don't get ripped off. BUYER BEWARE!!!!

If the tiger is a non-variegated the seller should always state that fact in the description.

In my opinion, with cameras so ubiquitous these days, the only reason to use someone else's photo is because you don't have the subject available to take a picture yourself, ie, you are selling something you do not have. Caveat emptor! 

There was a time not long ago when we were once labeled as bullies when a topic like this was presented.

When all we tried to do was to inform the "Newbies" and warn them. Against our advice and warnings some proceeded with their purchases, to only come back later and to complain they were scammed by a ebay seller.

Some were sports and admitted they went against us. But some chose to suck it up and not admit it. At the end of the day they were out of unspecified amounts of money. And really, we didn't care at that point anymore.

This forum is a great place for resource, research and a great tool for just about every category there is related to figs, including ebay sellers.

Another thing that gets me are those who join the forum and not contribute yet they claim to be members of the forum. Just because they register as members does not mean they are legitimate. Trust is earned. Not taken. So do your research! Do not be afraid to ask! 100% positive score doesn't mean anything with plant material.
Yes they shipped. Yes it was quick. Yes it was alive and well when it arrived. But a year or two later your $200 RDB or $200 Lebanese Red turned out to be nothing more than a Brown Turkey? Guess who the real Turkey is now?

And then you have those who buy cuttings or get them from UCD and quickly turn around and start selling without even verifying the cultivars they have for sale. There was a huge problem with this issue a little while ago and the seller was not able to make refunds at the time. Got a bunch of cuttings and rooted them and sold them on ebay or just sold cuttings "without first" verifying them. I don't know what the end results were but it created a big mess.

I can sell a ton of fig material on ebay now and have done so with a few plants and cuttings before. But I will not sell anything unless I am 100% certain my product is true to its' name.
Why? Because mistakes have happened, even if the material was given away for free. I felt bad.

My 2 cents.

Yeah, I think I got bamboozled once on a deal...Man, when someone's gotta stoop down to unscrupulous methods just to make a buck, just makes me wanna...(EXPLICIT LYRICS!)

I sell on Ebay and love it. However buying is another issue. There are some really shady people trying to make a quick buck. Just reminded me of the Black Madeira crook recently. I have had great experiences from Kerry and Harvey. There are other great sellers from the forum also.just my thought....I hope there is a consequence for this person.

These arrived last spring from a new eBay seller who used another seller's photo (can't believe I fell for it!). I got my $6 back and the seller got an earful. 

Cottonwood maybe?  

Yeah, people who have no idea what they are doing looking to make an easy buck. It was bizarre. Lazy and ignorant but not really deceitful I think. They apparently could not tell trees apart and thought the hardwoods were seedlings from their fig tree. I assumed they would be sending suckers and am a sucker myself for an Etna fig, like they showed.

The ads featuring high priced varieties and stolen pics like in this thread are listed by people who know exactly what they are doing though. They are ignorant about plants but not money.

I must admit I looked at a lot of ebay plants and checked the sellers on forum then ended up not buying any.  The scammers wouldn't be attracted if varieties were not being bid up to hundreds of dollars.  I'll wait and get plants from people I trust.  Saving my extra's for the south east fig fest.

Yes Harvey emailed me about this a few days ago. I sure hope eBay acts swiftly and the winners get compensated accordingly. The winners also need to file a complaint with eBay and possibly Paypal.

Harvey, did you find out if they were indeed buying trees, then reselling them with Bass' photos and website information to boost up the price?

Thankfully I've never had a problem buying anything fig related. I only purchase from a select few sellers. Always a pleasure doing business with them.

If the said winners do not have any luck with refunds, send me an email and if I have the particular cultivar I'll do an air-layer or send some cuttings. Even if I don't have that variety, I'll send you something. I truly know how it feels. It's downright terrible. I got taken a very long time ago, for a very lot money on eBay. So much money that the police were involved. Even so I never saw a cent of the funds I sent the seller.

Best of luck and good looking out Harvey.


Charles

Charles, this is a different one than the young scammers I chatted to you about.  Don't know what happened with those guys, they may have had legitimate plants but weren't being truthful about their source.  The world is full of them! :)

Hi,
Well having a tree for 7 years and no pics of the mother tree, and the daughters he is selling ... No pics of ripe figs to make buyers mouth water ...
That is really hard to believe for me.
But ok, sometimes one is lucky is the product "could" be true to type ... BUT  --->Buyers risk ! <----

By the way, a friend swapped cuttings with another fig-grower some ten years ago. to make a long story short, not a fig got harvested from that
tree, and I decided to give that strain a try ... Well, Someone a caprifig ? or a figtree producing non-edibles?
 I'll let it be until next year, but for what I've seen I have a caprifig .
If someone could open a topic with "generation one" figs of a caprifig that fell off ... shriveled surely like the ones on my tree and mine are still hanging on .... but shriveled ...
I'll open a topic with mine to start with ...
Surprisingly, the figs are full of hard seeds as compared to some figs from the "common figtrees" that shriveled and were full of silky hairs for now .

So Buyers ... you'll always be under buyer's risk !

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=171374105287&index=11&nav=SEARCH&nid=29111397309

I guess the guy relisted it

I just sent this just to be a ball breaker..

Im very interested but do you have any more pics of the tree something with a date like next to a newspaper or something so I know  when it was taken also do you have any more I would like more then one thank you for your time.

Ok this was the response I got...


I'm gonna list another one, I'll put the date next to it and I'll include this one in the picture.

We have exchanged about 18 messages. I am more than skeptical to say the least. I did get a second chance offer for 95 dollars and refused it. He originally told he that he only had one and then listed another a few hours later.

If this isn't a scam, it certainly is shady business practices