Hi Harvey:Thanks for the vigilence you practice ,finding out,what some people are up to.
I found out today how easily i can be cheated.
In 1989,on april 15,it was on a Sunday close to my Birthday,my wife ,and a lady friend of her,decided to ,give me a gift,for my birthday.
So they wanted to buy me a gold chain,paying half and half.
What I needed to do ,was to go with them and choose what i like.
Went there ,at "Pennsauken Gold Mart"choose a Figaro gold chain about 10 grams or more.
I remember well it was $250+
I was wearing it a couple of times,then it went in my wife jewerly box.
This year she promise to buy me a gold pendant with my zodiac,the ram.
So she said,why do not you wear your gold chain,supposelly makes you healthier if you do.
So I said,OK,bring it out.
When she got it out ,it was kind of turnished a little and was suppose to be 18 Kt.
So I said:
Let me check with magnified glass to see if it is marked as 18K Gold.
When i looked it had only one number, 925 SU.
Check on computer and  it was the marking of Silver.
Our problem is that none of us three ,did not check the marking in 1989,because we trusted,the seller.
So it is Gold plated Silver.
It took 26 years to find out,LOL.

Bad grief!
Amazing how early naive fig-fun has evolved to ...

Herman - I think the more important thing here is that your memory is incredible. No details are missing, it seems. I imagine your wife lives nothing down :)

I wonder if ebatihk and 13figger are part of this as well . Thanks for figuring all of this out Harvey

Trust me they are..

Oh, Oh...I think I may have been an unwitting participant in this fig conspiracy.

When I offered cuttings at a reasonable cost recently, I had one particular order for over 100 pieces. It came from an individual with a Russian sounding name and a Brooklyn address.

But if the end game is to sell them on eBay as rare cultivars, why not simply raid a local fig tree and label the cuttings accordingly?

Great detective work guys.  You should all work for CSI.  Although I buy quite a bit of stuff off ebay and am usually very satisfied I have always be nervous about ebay cuttings.  After reading this I am certainly going to stay away which is a shame since ebay is a great resource.  Most of my cuttings were either acquired locally or from generous members plus one year i ordered from UCD.  I guess that isn't going to change for a while.

Thanks Harvey for the info.  There are definitely sellers in that post that I recognize from window shopping on ebay.  I think maintaining a list that connects ebay sellers with their F4F member ID is a good thing (Obviously with their consent).  Many ebay sellers do provide their forum ID but not all.

I second Harvey post about good ebay sellers.  Many legit people do sell.  For them it does make sense since it is easy to keep track of sales and get address labels printed ect. 
I used to check this forum long before I became a member back when figs were a passing fancy rather than an obsession.
I looked for lots of good posts, passion and information from the sellers.
I know I'm not the only one either since the stuff from the good sellers cost more than the new sellers.
Isn't the time, energy and cost of growing your fig to a 1-2 year plant worth more than the $20-30 saved?
I mean what a heart break to pamper a Celeste or Brown Turkey for 2 years thinking you had something rare and different.

Knock on wood I don't think I've been burned yet.

Sharon

There are 71 guests on as I right this.  I think that more than one are looking at  varieties and seeing how not to get burned on ebay.  As to the number of posts on this topic I think almost every member has looked at the ebay offerings and has though about buying.  Other topics may be informative but only interesting to the members if they are ready to try something or are having that issue.  Just my thought on why this had so many views and replies. 

I think I've seen these someplace before.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FIG-TREE-VISTA-3-CUTTINGS-/251798356158?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa05a00be

Very sad.

Update: Based on nearly identical photos and same location, it appears obvious that radyslava is another eBay seller account being used by abcd (in addition to 2014.gulen)

LOL...talk about FIG SCAM MAFIA!!!  Seriously.

Hey abcd, chime in here buddy!  You keep checking in but do not respond.  All we have to do is check your profile and it shows when you were last online.

Yes,it appears anyone who has sent abcd cuttings will now be able to "visit" them
on ebay.

But.. He was such a "cute" little fella.

Hey Paul. Did he buy from you also?

Yup,can't wait for the Preto to be listed.

Cheers,

Paul

Wow what a shame!

I would be surprised if he doesn't already have a new f4f screen name, if not several.  Just beware. ...

Thanks Harvey for the update, People be careful on your Ebay purchases and trading on the forum.

korina77 (korina77-2008) is complaining on GardenWeb that I'm not minding my own business!

Time to bump this thread! :)

Geez… I think when I joined the forum 2 years ago, the world was kinder and friendlier :(
What a shame…
It is all about money now. What happened to the fig spirit ??? It is not even fun to check the posts any more.