According to Haja at TopVanilla.com,

Our Vanilla beans comes from the North East Coast of Madagascar. The Sambava Region. We have a local inspector who checks the quality of the beans before they are shipped to us. — Haja, email, April 2, 2008.

The beans arrived super fast. They were vacuum packed.

Madagascar Planifolia Grade A 6-6.5 inches - 25 for $9.95 (~3 ounces)
TopVanilla.com’s beans are oily and black to black-brown. The beans are longer than advertised, none of the beans reviewed are under 17 cm (~6.7 inches).

The skin is extremely soft and supple. The beans are very flexible, to the point of being a bit floppy. All the beans are moderately plump; none are thin, scrawny, or flat. I could make out tattoos on about half of the beans.

The beans have a strong, bright, and spicy Madagascar aroma. The aroma is very strong — room filling. A high yield of rich, velvety caviar.

I sampled some of the beans in a custard. They have a rich, traditional Madagascar flavor. At less than $10 for 25, these are very reasonably priced Madagascar vanilla beans.