How FigStead works

This half of the guide is for selling: getting approved, getting paid, and getting plants to buyers alive. How bidding and buying work from the other side is in Buying.

1. Getting approved

In short

Selling is by application. We look at your trading record elsewhere first (25+ verified sales at 95%+ positive), and a person reads every one.

Anyone can buy, but only approved growers can list. Apply to sell takes about five minutes and lists the full criteria. Once you're approved, Sell in the menu takes you straight to the listing form.

2. Getting paid

In short

Payments go to your own Stripe account. Set it up from account settings before you list.

Onboarding with Stripe includes their identity check. Start it from account settings. Buyers pay on Stripe's page and the money lands in your Stripe account.

Important: Set up payouts before you list.

Until Stripe onboarding is finished you can't receive money, so a sale that happens first has nowhere to go.

3. Creating a listing

In short

Photograph the actual plant, choose auction or fixed price, and set shipping, local pickup or both.

Go to Sell.
Photograph the actual plant you are selling: not a stock image, and not last year's tree.
Choose auction or fixed price. For an auction, set a starting price and, if you want a floor, a reserve.
Set your shipping cost, or offer local pickup, or both.

Why do my auctions run past their end time?

Every auction goes to Overtime: a bid in the final 5 seconds resets the clock to 30 seconds, up to 10 times. It stops a lot going cheap because someone bid with one second left and nobody could answer. Bidding ends when interest runs out, not when the clock does. See how it plays out.

4. Cuttings Galore

In short

Many varieties of cuttings? Put them on one list, one row per variety, so a buyer can take several and pay once.

Go to your Cuttings Galore list. You can also get there from Cuttings Galore, Sell or Your listings.
Fill in one row per variety: name, a short description, price ($5 minimum), how many you have, and 1 to 4 photos. Press + at the end of a row to add another.
Set postage once for the whole list: what the first cutting costs to send, and what each extra one adds. Or offer free shipping.
Tick any states you won't post to, then press Publish list. It goes live straight away.

Important: Where cuttings may legally go is up to you.

Ordinary listings block the states whose plant rules stop them. A Cuttings Galore list doesn't, and starts open to every state. Some states require a certificate for incoming cuttings, so tick those unless you hold what they ask for.

Not finished? Press Save as draft instead. A draft keeps everything, including rows without photos yet, and buyers don't see it until you publish.

Come back to the same page to restock, change prices or remove a variety. A sold-out variety stays on the list, so you only need to raise its quantity to sell it again. You can save up to 60 rows at a time; to add more, save and keep adding.

5. What it costs

In short

Listing is free. The selling fee is 0% until Mar 1, 2027, then 2% of the item price, never of shipping.

The card processor's fee is separate and goes to them, not to us. The rate that applies to you is always shown while you list.

6. Shipping

In short

Buy your own label (Pirate Ship is free and cheapest), add the tracking number to the sale, and price shipping for the far coast, not across town.

Buying postage

FigSteaddoesn't sell labels, so the postage money stays between you and the carrier. A free label service like Pirate Ship charges no fee and gives USPS commercial pricing, well under the post-office counter. Paste the tracking number into your sale and the buyer is told automatically. Copy addresson the sale page puts the buyer's ship-to block on your clipboard.

Pricing shipping without losing money

You charge one flat price, but the carrier charges by distance. The listing form's estimator shows both ends of that range and suggests a figure that covers every destination.

Two things catch plant sellers out, both about box size. A box over one cubic foot is billed on its size when that comes to more than its weight, so a light plant in a big box costs a surprising amount. And a box longer than 22 inches picks up an extra charge, with a bigger one past 30. Packing tighter is usually the cheapest fix.

Important: Ship with tracking, and insure anything valuable.

Tracking is your only proof a plant arrived, and it decides a card dispute. If a buyer disputes the charge and you can't show delivery, the money comes out of your balance. FigSteaddoesn't cover it.

7. Local pickup

In short

At handover, the buyer reads you their pickup code and you enter it on the sale. That code is your proof the plant was collected.

Offering pickup is worth it for big potted trees that don't ship well. The order shows a box for the code; enter it once the plant has changed hands.

8. Protecting yourself

In short

Turn on two-factor sign-in, keep every sale on FigStead, and answer any card dispute from your Stripe dashboard.

Two-factor authentication

Turn it on from settings. A seller account is a payout destination, and an account someone else can sign in to is a payout destination for them.

If a buyer disputes a payment

You'll get a notification. The dispute lives on your own Stripe account, so you answer it from your Stripe dashboard with your tracking, photos and messages. FigSteadisn't a party to it and can't decide it either way. Most disputes are avoided by replying quickly when a buyer messages about a problem.

Blocking someone

You can block a member from their profile or from a conversation. They can no longer bid on your listings, buy from you or message you.