Does anyone know of a good place to do this from?  I know figs are difficult to mail because they perish quickly and bruise easily.  Perhaps just really fast shipping and shipping peanuts?

When in season you can get them at http://www.figlady.com/

Greg,

     I know our little fruit market here gets them shipped in from Califonia in season. They come in a flat separting them egg-carton fashion. I think they are picked  before dead ripe, but when they get here, they go soft in a day.

I wonder what it would cost to have a box of figs over night delivered.

My birthday was 4 days ago and my family tried unsuccessfully to find fresh figs. They aren't hard to get in season but pretty impossible now as far as I know. In the past -- as in last year I also tried to find fresh figs as I was absolutely jonesing for them but there were just none to be had. Good luck, though.

Priority medium size  flat rate $12.85  USPS

Greg, this link will give you a good idea when different varieties are available for mail order http://californiafigs.com/page.php?page=19

I've been considering giving this a try once all of my new figs begin producing.  I have a long-time chestnut customer of mine in the Bronx that would love to buy figs from me.  I think overnight shipping is too pricey for most folks.  Priority Mail shipping from my location near Sacramento to NYC is usually 2 days (maybe about 40 hours after I ship late in the afternoon), so I am going to give that a trial run with this customer but am not very hopeful.  The packaging cost will probably also be significant.

i had to settle for dried figs last night.. no fresh figs for me till end of may/early june. looks like Kathleen's Black's breba will be ready by then.

Are fresh figs ever found in markets back east?  If so, I imagine that they must be picked way before being ripe.  Even the few figs I see around here are not very good. Post harvest handling recommendations at http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/PFfruits/Fig/ suggest storage at 32F which is colder than I expected.

last few years, i have seen BT at local supermarkets. i got few when i first saw them thinking i might do a test drive since i'm growing figs and never had fresh figs before.. that was 4 yrs ago. the figs were good looking. but taste was rather bland. bit of sweetness to them, but nothing else.

a year later, i had my VdB, putting figs out for first time. after first bite, i decided that BT sucks.

All of the BT I have found in markets were terrible.  I have wondered if that is a product of being in markets (early harvest, commercial grow, etc), or if that's a function of BT just being terrible.  In any event, I think it's a little silly that I've eaten exactly 3 kinds of fresh figs ever but am growing 50+ fig trees in my basement.  I want to remedy this!  :-)

Harvey, I'd like to get in on some of you fresh figs via mail if that's alright.  I may spring for overnight shipping too to play it safe.

All the (so called) fresh-figs that I ever bought from any big-box super-market tasted (more or less) like plain-cardboard.

Figs are best eaten right off-the-tree at the right-ripe-moment.

Other than an (expensive) overnight ship; it is all a waste.

Greg, I don't know that I'll have enough to sell any this year.  I'm taking better care of my 15 in-grond trees now than I have before but I don't expect any meaningful production from my new 125-150 trees this year.

I'm wondering if cardboard egg cartons would be an effective shipping package.  I think mold might form too quickly with the styrofoam ones when shipped without refrigeration.

I have never tasted a fresh fig . I have only seen them in a local market  in Nebraska  once and they didn't look so good . They wanted $8.99 for 4 figs .

 In Peru i saw figs in walled gardens and in church court yards at 11,400ft Cusco.
I also saw many fig trees in gardens and farms in Egypt and Jordan but i saw no fresh figs in the markets in those countrys.
We did have a varity of dried figs on the breakfast buffets in Egypt and Jordan. YUM  1

Harvey,
The clear plastic egg cartons might work better. The "fresh" figs I've found here in both SW Va and the DC area have been packaged in cartons very much like those clear plastic half dozen egg cartons.
I find BT and Mission every year and I always try them out of curiosity. They aren't very good and are allowed to sit on the shelf too long. That being said I have found them no worse then the figs sold by the local fig orchard that seems to have no problem calling their 3 day old figs "fresh". They sell Mission, Champagne and a variety I've forgotten (sorry). The figs from CA are obviously picked early and the local figs are probably picked at the right time but kept too long.
I'm on your waiting list for chestnuts so you can just add figs. I'll PM you my personal email I used on your site. 
BTW - pricing = local, $6.99lb, from CA = about 50 cents each -- the 6 fig cartons are $2.99 and don't list an accurate weight.
AND BTW -- I would gladly pay half a buck for the substandard figs from CA as they are far better then nothing.

I've seen lots of fresh figs in markets here in the East.  I find them in Wegmans supermarkets regularly while in season.  Also Tops supermarkets.  In both cases they were shipped from afar (California I think), sometimes in big flats (choose and buy individually, ranging from 75 cents to $1.50 per fig), and sometimes in plastic packages of 4 to 8 figs each.  Quality and freshness are mixed.  Longer ago they were in Giant supermarkets in pint and quart baskets (I think those were locally/regionally grown, and they were really good).  I've found them in local markets too.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5

You might try a Trader Joe's store if you have one in your area. I usually get dried figs from Turkey there.They are not as good as freshly picked ripe figs,but better than no figs at all.

http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=690