What people do now

None of these is stupid. Each is a rational response to the same missing piece, and each pays for it in a different currency.

What each workaround actually costs

Meeting in person Reach Both parties must be in the same city
Marketplace escrow Money A percentage of every sale, inside one platform
Reputation scores Nothing, for most Useless for someone selling one camera once
Someone goes first Safety One party carries the entire risk

Every one of these is somebody working around a gap rather than solving it, and the gap is the same in all four.

Meeting in person

Free, safe, and it means a seller in Surabaya cannot sell to a buyer in Medan. The item's market is whoever can travel.

Marketplace escrow

Works, takes a percentage of every sale, and only exists inside one platform's walls for items that platform lists.

Reputation scores

Useful for repeat sellers, useless for the person selling one camera once, which is most of these sales.

Paying by instalment

Half now and half on arrival leaves both parties half exposed and doubles the transfers.

The gap is not honesty and it is not technology. It is that no arrangement available to two strangers makes both legs happen together.

None of these is stupid. Each is a rational response to the same missing piece, and each pays for it in a different currency.

Have you walked away from a sale because somebody had to go first?

neitherfirst@neitherfirst.site
Neither First does not
  • Hold funds at any point
  • Take custody of goods
  • List, sell or advertise anything
  • Charge a percentage of a sale
  • Judge who was right when a deal goes wrong