Folks - just as an FYI.... in spite of a number of conversations between Evan and Ourfigs and Figs4Fun forum members, including myself making it clear that selling plants on eBay grown from seedlings and listing them as Black Madeira plants with even a small disclaimer telling folks they are grown from seeds is tantamount to scamming people for their money, Evan continues to list his seedlings as Black Madeira plants. Now after the first 18 auctions, he has raised the ante and has now put his seedlings on eBay as auctions WITH STARTING BIDS of $20!!!! Evan clearly has had success selling his previous seedlings for good money as folks who simply don't know better bid his plants up far beyond the value of a seedling or grafting stock and now he wants to go for bigger money. I don't know how other members feel but to my mind he has turned into a true SCAMMER.... For shame! Too bad! BUYERS BEWARE!

He's averaged better than $20 so far. I've seen $13 to $42. At the very least he should say seedling in the auction title. The masses just don't know what they're buying. He's using the Black Madeira mystic to draw in bidders.

Yep... what he should do to be an honest or trusted seller is put it up as a "Buy it Now" for a certain price and then sell them for that. If he thinks they are worth $5 bucks for grafting stock, then sell them for that as 'Buy it now'.... Or, put it up for "buy it now" for $7.50 with a "or best offer".... Then I respect the guy.... putting it up for a starting bid of $20? Scammer! In our world, it should not be all about the money... if it is.... at the cost of honesty.... Scammer.... JMHO... folks.... no one need to agree with me but that is my belief...

Tony, grafting might work for winterized trees, but here in TX, I wouldn't even bother grafting anything onto a Black Madeira whatever it is. It is easily damaged in winter in TX if left outside. All my UCD Black Madeira growth this season is new growth from the ground up, so anything above the soil including grafts from previous years would've been caput.
IMO this variety needs a long hot season to ripen its fruit.
Perhaps the buyers of those seedlings are conducting research into miracle fruits, and if enough trees are sold, we might get a winner:)

Thanks, Sas! I would much prefer to see some of this higher bid money donated to St Jude's for the kids.... I guess it's not my place to suggest to folks how to spend their hard earned monies....

The power of reading. I bet some buyers just see Black Madeira and go on a buying frenzy. They will eventually learn the hard way. What's even worst, wait for them to distribute cuttings. That's the norm now, distribute without verifying what variety they really have. Some just want to make a quick buck. More and more confusion in the fig world.

Willis Orchard does the same thing with a few plants. Seems like a thin veil of truth wrapping a dishonest sales pitch. Maybe it's ignorance on their part or just an unorganized display of the plant's description. But they will always say the same thing,"Well technically, it says seedling in the description" even if the product is advertised as a named cultivar, as is the case with Willis Orchard and this Rosenthal character. How they can justify such a technicality, when the idea is so incredibly simple, is beyond me.

He is on my scammer list, and I'll recommend that anyone asking my opinion avoids him like the plague.

There are a lot of fake BM trees listed on eBay.  I recommend only buying from folks you know!  I feel sorry for those taken by the scammers!!!!!

Agreed, Dennis.... There is security in buying from someone you know and know that, to the best of their abilities, they deal with cultivars true to the name... Anything else is a crap shoot and in most cases with crap shoots, you get crap...