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This is such a basic issue that I don't understand why USPS or some other shipper w/ bricks-n-mortar haven't stepped up to offer some sort of package shipping c

This is such a basic issue that I don't understand why USPS or some other shipper w/ bricks-n-mortar haven't stepped up to offer some sort of package shipping certification. If I was the seller it could work as simply as me bringing the item to a shipper who would take their own photos and weigh the items being packaged up as well as some check that the item is as being described to the recipient. In turn the shipper would get an extra fee. For high value items (i.e. like OP's camera) it would certainly be in everyone's best interest and platforms like ebay, Facebook, Amazon could insist that all parties use this type of service or relinquish their ability to dispute. Too over simplified??

dharmab 7y ago
Isn't this a form of escrow service? Those are sometimes used when buying very expensive items via auction/real world.
- mjevans 7y ago
  Sounds closer to a notory service combined with shipping and insurance to me.
- briandear 7y ago
  That’s exactly what this is.
- canada_dry 7y ago
  > Isn't this a form of escrow service? Sort of, except the agent wouldn't be handling (receive and/or disburse) money. They just certify and record a part of the transaction (i.e. shipment).
giarc 7y ago
At a Purolator (Canadian retailer) mailing centre near me, they have this system that weighs the box but also measures the dimensions. The whole rig is ceiling mounted (while the scale is on a counter). I suspect like this could also incorporate a camera that takes a photo of the inside contents.
- 8note 7y ago
  probably x-rays and not photos
  - joshspankit 7y ago
    Actually that’s probably an excellent idea as well.
- CamelCaseName 7y ago
  Amazon has these as well, they are called cubiscans.
CobrastanJorji 7y ago
You know, I'm surprised that those mailbox stores don't offer exactly this sort of service. Buyer and seller give a deposit to a postal store, the seller mails product to the store, the buyer inspects the product at the store and decides whether to keep it, and, if so, pays the balance to the store and walks out with the product, and presumably there could be a process for undoing it by returning the product to that same store later if a serious problem has emerged. I guess it's a lot of overhead for buying a video game or something, but it would make sense for $500+ transactions. Those stores already have notaries, help with shipping, provide mailboxes, and the like. It'd fit pretty well into their wheelhouse.
- gen3 7y ago
  You just described exactly what Stockx does with everything sold on their site. I think it’s good for everyone, because of the chance of getting fake items.
- S_A_P 7y ago
  Ive just started putting a mental business plan together on this. A few obstacles I see: 1) in the high end, is a UPS store or equivalent going to have a staff member on hand with enough expertise to vouch for a product? 2) condition is sometimes a bit subjective. One persons "Mint" is another persons "Very Good". When you have quality disputes, what are going to do? cancel the transaction? that is an expensive and painful process for all involved. I think if you shoot for the least common denominator and can do the following there is some value to be added: a) is it not a brick (unless he is selling an actual brick :) ) b) is it the brand and model that the listing advertises c) if it is easy to do can you verify it is in working order when the item is packed and sent away. I still see some wiggle room for problems, but I do think that being able to prove you shipped the item is important. Furthermore, if the seller sold an expensive item, didnt he insure it? If the item "didnt arrive" then we have a different problem. The seller keeps his money, and the buyer works with the insurer(who has a vested interest in not paying so will likely investigate a bit) to get made whole again.
- Paul-ish 7y ago
  I would guess that in 99.9% of purchases even over $500, both sides of the transaction are happy. Requiring the buyer to go to the store adds a significant transaction cost to the buyer, and is likely unnecessary.
S_A_P 7y ago
I sell quite a bit of vintage music gear on Reverb. I initially had some struggles with customers, but they seem to have mostly kept riff raff out. I think the fact that its still slightly a niche site keeps the volume down low enough to keep humans involved. As they were recently purchased by ETSY, Im wondering if this sort of service will start to drop off. Fingers crossed, Im selling a vintage Oberheim right now that I would be sick if a similar circumstance happened... I stopped using ebay for the reason that most of the sellers just werent trustworthy enough. Amazon keeps trying to blur the line between marketplace and the company, which IMO is a bad move. I think they should run it in a similar manner than reverb, charge higher fees to pay for it(within reason) and actually do something to scammers on both sides of the transaction...
- brightball 7y ago
  I worked for Audiogon a long time ago and I always wanted them to start a shipping escrow service for this reason. If you do it for a niche you have access to expertise.
graylights 7y ago
Would that service be indemnifying the seller from fraud? Or is your assumption that the platform would just make the right call? Probably it's because the platforms don't want to make services to root out fraud because then they become more responsible for owning it. Outside services can't break in because the platforms aren't going to put trust in them. Those services would have to own the cost of fraud.
kube-system 7y ago
> Too over simplified?? Probably. These shipping services don't really have any expertise to accurately judge the quality of many of the items they ship. They just move boxes around. Some rando at FexEx Office doesn't really know how to determine that your DSLR has the advertised shutter count, nor do they know how to verify the SMART status of those hard drives you shipped, nor would they be able to validate the authenticity of your designer handbag. There are specialized consignors popping up online that do have the ability to do these things, though.
- canada_dry 7y ago
  > ...someone at FedEx doesn't really know how to... Yes, this is true. I think a basic service offering might just record the weight and photo of each item being packaged up.
  - mgiampapa 7y ago
    Even a low tech photo record weeds out a lot of fraud. Oh you aren't returning a thing that resembles the photo that was shipped to you? This won't eliminate fraud, but it will move the bar in a non trivial way. Combine this with a photo ID check at the store for the person doing the shipping and your halfway there.
    - bcrosby95 7y ago
      Lots of objects have serial numbers or model numbers visible on the outside too. That would raise the bar even higher.
    - kube-system 7y ago
      Maybe for return fraud that’s an issue. But for buyers, the issue is usually more subtle problems with quality. (DOA, poor quality, counterfeit) The question is, can a platform protect sellers in this way and still afford to compete with other services? Most buyers like buying from Amazon/eBay where they always get their money back. It’ll be a tough sell to get them to use a platform with higher barriers to making a return and higher overhead costs. I think that you need to address the concerns that buyers have in order to be successful in attracting buyers.
bonestamp2 7y ago
Sounds reasonable and it could be fairly automated too. You can already take amazon returns to UPS stores, Whole Foods or Kohls and they will box it for you. All they need is a camera system to video the boxing and then associate the shipping label/tracking number with that video. The boxing video could be made available on the courier's site for any interested party to see (when enabled by the shipper). Sure, it may not capture the quality of an item, but that's a fairly small detail that can be resolved with a return/partial refund and it would at least put an end to the rampant fraud that goes on.
- bathtub365 7y ago
  Now employees of these stores have to consent to being recorded on video and their videos shared with strangers?
  - nitrogen 7y ago
    You think retail employers aren't using security cameras already?
    - bathtub365 7y ago
      Yes, they are. The footage isn’t being shared with strangers as part of their job, however.
  - bonestamp2 7y ago
    I had envisioned a close up overhead rig where it would mostly be their forearms/hands that are recorded as the primary subject of the recording would be the box.
clSTophEjUdRanu 7y ago
There is already registered mail via USPS. The Hope Diamond was delivered to the Smithsonian via registered mail.
- ficklepickle 7y ago
  I wasn't aware of that story, thanks for mentioning it! For anyone else that is curious, it was in 1958 and here[0] is a link to a PDF [0] https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamond.pdf https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamon...
- devilbunny 7y ago
  It's still the preferred shipping method of jewelers, last I checked. The government takes the security of the mail very seriously, and you can insure registered mail packages for up to $50k.
gnopgnip 7y ago
Fedex weighs packages at multiple stages and this is accessible for the shipper. I suspect USPS and UPS weigh packages at least once and this could be requested if there is a dispute. These don't do a lot to prevent fraud, and it would be difficult to provide authentication without specialized training. There are services that provide authentication with more expertise. StockX does it for new sneakers. The real real and a few others do it for luxury goods. Even with authentication by experts it is not 100% certain that you are getting authentic goods and there will be some dispute process. In practice few buyers would use a platform that completely blocks returns. You could sell your camera to a company like KEH, and they take on nearly all of the seller side risk when dealing with consumers. The real problem here is that Amazon is not following their own policies, and refunded the buyer when the buyer did not provide proof of delivery for the returned item, not anything else about the system in general. The recourse for that is small claims(or arbitration, but small claims is probably better for you, and it is allowed as an exception to the required arbitration)
tyingq 7y ago
"Screw the seller" is a proven winner for eBay, shipping services, credit card companies, etc. They are just following tradition.
- FDSGSG 7y ago
  Amazon, eBay & Co. are kind of forced to inherit this from the credit card companies in any case.
harikb 7y ago
There is a certain risk associated with buying used items. Even a item exchanged for cash via Craigslist can have issues - say a lens issue that only shows up in certain lighting. Too bad, we can’t solve that. However these platforms can solve anonymity - may be UPS can verify ID and address in addition to basic checks with item photo and weight. That is, make it equivalent to an in person exchange.
jrockway 7y ago
At least for camera equipment, this does exist. You can take your camera to B&H's used department, and they will buy it from you. You can also go to B&H's used department and buy a used camera from them. The advantage of this over Amazon is that as a seller, you know B&H isn't going to screw you over in any way, and if they do, you know where to serve your lawsuit. A trusted business with a physical location is the counterparty in your transaction, which makes it pretty low risk. As a buyer, you know B&H is trustworthy and you can come back to the store and have a problem resolved. Amazon offers nothing in a typical Amazon.com transaction beyond matching buyer and seller. They can't trust the buyer, and they can't trust the seller. So they can't really help with the transaction in any way, they are just there to take a cut for basically nothing. B&H takes a larger cut, but they actually do something. Of course, people like money, so Amazon is rolling in it while most people don't even know that they can sell their camera to B&H. (I've bought used stuff from them because I don't trust random eBay listings, but never sold anything because the amount of money they offer wasn't worth it to me.)
- akurilin 7y ago
  This is actually what Sweetwater does too when it comes to music gear. I've gotten a few duds from Amazon in the past, but smaller, focused online stores like Sweetwater will inspect your gear for you before shipping it out to you, will give you a direct line to a sales+support person. In fact they'll even give you the email of the entire executive team of the company if you want to contact them directly. As much as I like free Prime shipping, for higher end gear I'd much rather have access to a real person with expertise in the gear I'm purchasing, and a brand name and reputation to protect. I was not a believer at first, staunchly sticking to Amazon, but everything I've gotten from them has been top notch and without any defects, so I became a convert.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  > Of course, people like money, so Amazon is rolling in it while most people don't even know that they can sell their camera to B&H. But people don't like risk, either. To choose one of very many examples: consumers will often pay more for "safe" brands they're sure will be good than take a risk on something new that's significantly cheaper. Obviously, Amazon is doing better than B&H, but there's other explanations for that, and it's not like B&H is doing poorly.
joshspankit 7y ago
There’s one risk that seems to be being missed: Fraud by delivery company staff. Someone might choose to risk their job for a verified $2k+ package. Moreso if they ended up with a truck full...
- schoen 7y ago
  Maybe the delivery company would store the information about the verification in a database that only the sender could initially access (but also including an ID that the recipient could verify after the sender provided the appropriate URL). So shipping company staff other than the one who performed the verification wouldn't easily be able to learn about its results. (Maybe this, in turn, would create some other bad incentive or opportunity for fraud.) Another random idea: law enforcement agencies could conduct sting operations where they buy and sell valuable items online (with extremely thorough documentation of the shipments sent or received), and then criminally prosecute counterparties who commit outright frauds. E.g. maybe 0.05% of the people buying or selling expensive cameras would be police and prosecutors who would try hard to send you to prison if you tried one of these scams against them.
tikiman163 7y ago
That's called the eskrow process. It's highly complicated, expensive and it requires the 3rd party is verifiable trustworthy because they effectively have all the power.
sizzle 7y ago
Isn't this how mortgage escrow essentially works?
bufferoverflow 7y ago
You can still fool that system by shipping a broken camera. USPS won't be checking the functionality.
kazinator 7y ago
Too over complicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_on_delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_on_delivery COD is so old, it's the name of an AC!DC song. (Well, there it stands for "care of the devil", never mind).
sas41 7y ago
This is exactly how it works in Bulgaria, most second hand marketplaces use a courier who offers the following process: You describe what you are shipping, how much you want for it and who covers the shipping costs. The buyer will go to the courier office and inspect the item, if they agree to buy it, they sign off on it, pay the price + shipping (if they are the one who's supposed to pay for shipping) and the seller can get their cash from an office near them the next day. Important bit is, the buyer inspects the item and signs on it, if they buy it, if they refuse, they cannot keep the item.
dwnvoted2hell 7y ago
Once again, it could be the post office to the rescue, if only the post office decided to do a basic extension of the services they already offer. However, even if this came to pass, you would still have a new requirement - that is to show the product exactly as it was originally sold. And for highly technical products there is absolutely no way to efficiently do this without hiring technicians for specific product types. Most products would need some kind of established rubric for how close to original condition they currently are, and nothing like this exists that I know of. The amount of money to process and run a system like this would require approximately 10-20% of the cost which is not unfeasible, but most people already balk at sales fees of 5%.

dharmab 7y ago

Isn't this a form of escrow service? Those are sometimes used when buying very expensive items via auction/real world.

mjevans 7y ago
Sounds closer to a notory service combined with shipping and insurance to me.
briandear 7y ago
That’s exactly what this is.
canada_dry 7y ago
> Isn't this a form of escrow service? Sort of, except the agent wouldn't be handling (receive and/or disburse) money. They just certify and record a part of the transaction (i.e. shipment).

giarc 7y ago

At a Purolator (Canadian retailer) mailing centre near me, they have this system that weighs the box but also measures the dimensions. The whole rig is ceiling mounted (while the scale is on a counter). I suspect like this could also incorporate a camera that takes a photo of the inside contents.

8note 7y ago
probably x-rays and not photos
- joshspankit 7y ago
  Actually that’s probably an excellent idea as well.
CamelCaseName 7y ago
Amazon has these as well, they are called cubiscans.

CobrastanJorji 7y ago

You know, I'm surprised that those mailbox stores don't offer exactly this sort of service. Buyer and seller give a deposit to a postal store, the seller mails product to the store, the buyer inspects the product at the store and decides whether to keep it, and, if so, pays the balance to the store and walks out with the product, and presumably there could be a process for undoing it by returning the product to that same store later if a serious problem has emerged. I guess it's a lot of overhead for buying a video game or something, but it would make sense for $500+ transactions. Those stores already have notaries, help with shipping, provide mailboxes, and the like. It'd fit pretty well into their wheelhouse.

gen3 7y ago
You just described exactly what Stockx does with everything sold on their site. I think it’s good for everyone, because of the chance of getting fake items.
S_A_P 7y ago
Ive just started putting a mental business plan together on this. A few obstacles I see: 1) in the high end, is a UPS store or equivalent going to have a staff member on hand with enough expertise to vouch for a product? 2) condition is sometimes a bit subjective. One persons "Mint" is another persons "Very Good". When you have quality disputes, what are going to do? cancel the transaction? that is an expensive and painful process for all involved. I think if you shoot for the least common denominator and can do the following there is some value to be added: a) is it not a brick (unless he is selling an actual brick :) ) b) is it the brand and model that the listing advertises c) if it is easy to do can you verify it is in working order when the item is packed and sent away. I still see some wiggle room for problems, but I do think that being able to prove you shipped the item is important. Furthermore, if the seller sold an expensive item, didnt he insure it? If the item "didnt arrive" then we have a different problem. The seller keeps his money, and the buyer works with the insurer(who has a vested interest in not paying so will likely investigate a bit) to get made whole again.
Paul-ish 7y ago
I would guess that in 99.9% of purchases even over $500, both sides of the transaction are happy. Requiring the buyer to go to the store adds a significant transaction cost to the buyer, and is likely unnecessary.

S_A_P 7y ago

I sell quite a bit of vintage music gear on Reverb. I initially had some struggles with customers, but they seem to have mostly kept riff raff out. I think the fact that its still slightly a niche site keeps the volume down low enough to keep humans involved. As they were recently purchased by ETSY, Im wondering if this sort of service will start to drop off. Fingers crossed, Im selling a vintage Oberheim right now that I would be sick if a similar circumstance happened... I stopped using ebay for the reason that most of the sellers just werent trustworthy enough. Amazon keeps trying to blur the line between marketplace and the company, which IMO is a bad move. I think they should run it in a similar manner than reverb, charge higher fees to pay for it(within reason) and actually do something to scammers on both sides of the transaction...

brightball 7y ago
I worked for Audiogon a long time ago and I always wanted them to start a shipping escrow service for this reason. If you do it for a niche you have access to expertise.

graylights 7y ago

Would that service be indemnifying the seller from fraud? Or is your assumption that the platform would just make the right call? Probably it's because the platforms don't want to make services to root out fraud because then they become more responsible for owning it. Outside services can't break in because the platforms aren't going to put trust in them. Those services would have to own the cost of fraud.

kube-system 7y ago

> Too over simplified?? Probably. These shipping services don't really have any expertise to accurately judge the quality of many of the items they ship. They just move boxes around. Some rando at FexEx Office doesn't really know how to determine that your DSLR has the advertised shutter count, nor do they know how to verify the SMART status of those hard drives you shipped, nor would they be able to validate the authenticity of your designer handbag. There are specialized consignors popping up online that do have the ability to do these things, though.

canada_dry 7y ago
> ...someone at FedEx doesn't really know how to... Yes, this is true. I think a basic service offering might just record the weight and photo of each item being packaged up.
- mgiampapa 7y ago
  Even a low tech photo record weeds out a lot of fraud. Oh you aren't returning a thing that resembles the photo that was shipped to you? This won't eliminate fraud, but it will move the bar in a non trivial way. Combine this with a photo ID check at the store for the person doing the shipping and your halfway there.
  - bcrosby95 7y ago
    Lots of objects have serial numbers or model numbers visible on the outside too. That would raise the bar even higher.
  - kube-system 7y ago
    Maybe for return fraud that’s an issue. But for buyers, the issue is usually more subtle problems with quality. (DOA, poor quality, counterfeit) The question is, can a platform protect sellers in this way and still afford to compete with other services? Most buyers like buying from Amazon/eBay where they always get their money back. It’ll be a tough sell to get them to use a platform with higher barriers to making a return and higher overhead costs. I think that you need to address the concerns that buyers have in order to be successful in attracting buyers.

bonestamp2 7y ago

Sounds reasonable and it could be fairly automated too. You can already take amazon returns to UPS stores, Whole Foods or Kohls and they will box it for you. All they need is a camera system to video the boxing and then associate the shipping label/tracking number with that video. The boxing video could be made available on the courier's site for any interested party to see (when enabled by the shipper). Sure, it may not capture the quality of an item, but that's a fairly small detail that can be resolved with a return/partial refund and it would at least put an end to the rampant fraud that goes on.

bathtub365 7y ago
Now employees of these stores have to consent to being recorded on video and their videos shared with strangers?
- nitrogen 7y ago
  You think retail employers aren't using security cameras already?
  - bathtub365 7y ago
    Yes, they are. The footage isn’t being shared with strangers as part of their job, however.
- bonestamp2 7y ago
  I had envisioned a close up overhead rig where it would mostly be their forearms/hands that are recorded as the primary subject of the recording would be the box.

clSTophEjUdRanu 7y ago

There is already registered mail via USPS. The Hope Diamond was delivered to the Smithsonian via registered mail.

ficklepickle 7y ago
I wasn't aware of that story, thanks for mentioning it! For anyone else that is curious, it was in 1958 and here[0] is a link to a PDF [0] https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamond.pdf https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamon...
devilbunny 7y ago
It's still the preferred shipping method of jewelers, last I checked. The government takes the security of the mail very seriously, and you can insure registered mail packages for up to $50k.

gnopgnip 7y ago

Fedex weighs packages at multiple stages and this is accessible for the shipper. I suspect USPS and UPS weigh packages at least once and this could be requested if there is a dispute. These don't do a lot to prevent fraud, and it would be difficult to provide authentication without specialized training. There are services that provide authentication with more expertise. StockX does it for new sneakers. The real real and a few others do it for luxury goods. Even with authentication by experts it is not 100% certain that you are getting authentic goods and there will be some dispute process. In practice few buyers would use a platform that completely blocks returns. You could sell your camera to a company like KEH, and they take on nearly all of the seller side risk when dealing with consumers. The real problem here is that Amazon is not following their own policies, and refunded the buyer when the buyer did not provide proof of delivery for the returned item, not anything else about the system in general. The recourse for that is small claims(or arbitration, but small claims is probably better for you, and it is allowed as an exception to the required arbitration)

tyingq 7y ago

"Screw the seller" is a proven winner for eBay, shipping services, credit card companies, etc. They are just following tradition.

FDSGSG 7y ago
Amazon, eBay & Co. are kind of forced to inherit this from the credit card companies in any case.

harikb 7y ago

There is a certain risk associated with buying used items. Even a item exchanged for cash via Craigslist can have issues - say a lens issue that only shows up in certain lighting. Too bad, we can’t solve that. However these platforms can solve anonymity - may be UPS can verify ID and address in addition to basic checks with item photo and weight. That is, make it equivalent to an in person exchange.

jrockway 7y ago

At least for camera equipment, this does exist. You can take your camera to B&H's used department, and they will buy it from you. You can also go to B&H's used department and buy a used camera from them. The advantage of this over Amazon is that as a seller, you know B&H isn't going to screw you over in any way, and if they do, you know where to serve your lawsuit. A trusted business with a physical location is the counterparty in your transaction, which makes it pretty low risk. As a buyer, you know B&H is trustworthy and you can come back to the store and have a problem resolved. Amazon offers nothing in a typical Amazon.com transaction beyond matching buyer and seller. They can't trust the buyer, and they can't trust the seller. So they can't really help with the transaction in any way, they are just there to take a cut for basically nothing. B&H takes a larger cut, but they actually do something. Of course, people like money, so Amazon is rolling in it while most people don't even know that they can sell their camera to B&H. (I've bought used stuff from them because I don't trust random eBay listings, but never sold anything because the amount of money they offer wasn't worth it to me.)

akurilin 7y ago
This is actually what Sweetwater does too when it comes to music gear. I've gotten a few duds from Amazon in the past, but smaller, focused online stores like Sweetwater will inspect your gear for you before shipping it out to you, will give you a direct line to a sales+support person. In fact they'll even give you the email of the entire executive team of the company if you want to contact them directly. As much as I like free Prime shipping, for higher end gear I'd much rather have access to a real person with expertise in the gear I'm purchasing, and a brand name and reputation to protect. I was not a believer at first, staunchly sticking to Amazon, but everything I've gotten from them has been top notch and without any defects, so I became a convert.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
> Of course, people like money, so Amazon is rolling in it while most people don't even know that they can sell their camera to B&H. But people don't like risk, either. To choose one of very many examples: consumers will often pay more for "safe" brands they're sure will be good than take a risk on something new that's significantly cheaper. Obviously, Amazon is doing better than B&H, but there's other explanations for that, and it's not like B&H is doing poorly.

joshspankit 7y ago

There’s one risk that seems to be being missed: Fraud by delivery company staff. Someone might choose to risk their job for a verified $2k+ package. Moreso if they ended up with a truck full...

schoen 7y ago
Maybe the delivery company would store the information about the verification in a database that only the sender could initially access (but also including an ID that the recipient could verify after the sender provided the appropriate URL). So shipping company staff other than the one who performed the verification wouldn't easily be able to learn about its results. (Maybe this, in turn, would create some other bad incentive or opportunity for fraud.) Another random idea: law enforcement agencies could conduct sting operations where they buy and sell valuable items online (with extremely thorough documentation of the shipments sent or received), and then criminally prosecute counterparties who commit outright frauds. E.g. maybe 0.05% of the people buying or selling expensive cameras would be police and prosecutors who would try hard to send you to prison if you tried one of these scams against them.

tikiman163 7y ago

That's called the eskrow process. It's highly complicated, expensive and it requires the 3rd party is verifiable trustworthy because they effectively have all the power.

sizzle 7y ago

Isn't this how mortgage escrow essentially works?

bufferoverflow 7y ago

You can still fool that system by shipping a broken camera. USPS won't be checking the functionality.

kazinator 7y ago

Too over complicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_on_delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_on_delivery COD is so old, it's the name of an AC!DC song. (Well, there it stands for "care of the devil", never mind).

sas41 7y ago

This is exactly how it works in Bulgaria, most second hand marketplaces use a courier who offers the following process: You describe what you are shipping, how much you want for it and who covers the shipping costs. The buyer will go to the courier office and inspect the item, if they agree to buy it, they sign off on it, pay the price + shipping (if they are the one who's supposed to pay for shipping) and the seller can get their cash from an office near them the next day. Important bit is, the buyer inspects the item and signs on it, if they buy it, if they refuse, they cannot keep the item.

dwnvoted2hell 7y ago

Once again, it could be the post office to the rescue, if only the post office decided to do a basic extension of the services they already offer. However, even if this came to pass, you would still have a new requirement - that is to show the product exactly as it was originally sold. And for highly technical products there is absolutely no way to efficiently do this without hiring technicians for specific product types. Most products would need some kind of established rubric for how close to original condition they currently are, and nothing like this exists that I know of. The amount of money to process and run a system like this would require approximately 10-20% of the cost which is not unfeasible, but most people already balk at sales fees of 5%.