Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: whackdaddy on February 06, 2013, 11:58 am

Title: Finalize Early?
Post by: whackdaddy on February 06, 2013, 11:58 am
What does Finalize Early mean?  Once I have Bitcoins in a Mt.Gox account, I then transfer them to Silk Road, right?  Then how does the actual transaction work?  Thanks.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: freelance on February 06, 2013, 12:23 pm
Yes transfer them to your bitcoin address that is located in the account link on top of the SR page. It will take some time (1-5 hrs) for coins to arrive. Once they do u can add items to your shopping cart like you would on a legal merchandise website. After your order is placed the money is put in escrow. This is like a middleground (call it purgatory like not hell or heaven just in between) where ur funds are held until you FINALIZE the order and you want to do that ONCE your package arrives. Some vendors want you to FINALIZE EARLY before they even ship your item which is not wise cuz then there is no way to get ur funds bak if pkg doesnt arrive. If u stay in escrow long enuff and ur item doesnt come in than u can go into RESOLVE stage where u discuss with SR staff and the vendor to see what steps can be taken from there.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: mindmatter on February 06, 2013, 12:33 pm
Finalize early means bad news 90% of the time.
Some vendors are completely legitimate that ask for FE. But it's when there's an issue that you become helpless after finalizing early.
It's sort of like taking an educated gamble. If you can afford to lose the money and the vendor appears trustworthy, then that might be the only option to be able to purchase some of the rarer items.
If you don't want to lose money at all I recommend only purchasing when you can stay in escrow. Even then the common resolution is 50% refund or reship.
I find the majority of vendors to deal with incredibly reasonable, friendly, and professional. Some of the vendors I've purchased from have given better service than a lot of legitimate businesses.

Good luck with your purchases, your patience and research will pay off in a lack bad experiences.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: msonder on February 06, 2013, 12:37 pm
Not always FE is bad. Should not FE with big orders or new/few feedback vendors.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: pimpr on February 06, 2013, 12:44 pm
Just read the vendor profile and make your mind up after ;)
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: tdk on February 06, 2013, 03:17 pm
FE can either be a scam flag or just a vendor's whim.
I don't mind to FE when seller has rich positive feedback both on site & forum.
Remember that sellers get scammed possibly even more often than buyers.

If there are any problems, good vendor will work them out with you even if you released escrow already.
At that case refund/reship is _fully_ on vendor's decision. Your buying stats and communication skills would do the job :)
good luck.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: ANewLife on February 06, 2013, 04:02 pm
No.... in general
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: terryakichicken on February 06, 2013, 04:17 pm
never FE early! N E V E R E V E R
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: ANewLife on February 06, 2013, 04:20 pm
trust is a two way street Vendor 2000 trans. buyer 2 trans ??? Vendor 20 Trans Buyer 100 Trans?????
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: speedie on February 06, 2013, 05:01 pm
I agree with last one.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: flaxceed on February 06, 2013, 05:09 pm
FE can either be a scam flag or just a vendor's whim.
I don't mind to FE when seller has rich positive feedback both on site & forum.
Remember that sellers get scammed possibly even more often than buyers.

If there are any problems, good vendor will work them out with you even if you released escrow already.
At that case refund/reship is _fully_ on vendor's decision. Your buying stats and communication skills would do the job :)
good luck.

Some people immediately jump on me because I require FE, but I have 99.7% positive from thousands of transactions over the last 10 months on Silk Road.  Also my history is even longer (and just as good) on bitcointalk.org.  I have been doing this for 22+ months with great feedback that is public and verifiable.  TDK is absolutely right- some vendors are as good as gold.  You can trust them to do the right thing whether or not you have finalized early. 
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: Generation Y on February 06, 2013, 09:37 pm
Not always FE is bad. Should not FE with big orders or new/few feedback vendors.
If an order is large enough, half of it should be FE'd simply to allow the vendor to keep liquidity going. Given the line of work they need cash to purchase products, and can't wait a month for the post to deliver your kilo or two of MDMA in order to get paid. On orders over 20-30K half should always be FE'd so the vendor can continue operating and supplying their other customers.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: whackdaddy on February 06, 2013, 09:42 pm
Thanks for all your fast replies, I'm fucking impressed by the community.

From what I gather, I should avoid finalize early offers but start small since I am new to the system.  You build reputation as a buyer with each successful purchase, right?  So a seller probably won't let me buy $300 of Xanax with no history.  I should start small, right?

I'm also impressed by this escrow system, I thought I would just be handing money over to people...  If there is a problem, who handles arbitration?  Is it a site administrator?

Thanks
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: Generation Y on February 06, 2013, 09:50 pm
I'm also impressed by this escrow system, I thought I would just be handing money over to people...  If there is a problem, who handles arbitration?  Is it a site administrator?
If an issue arises then it will go into 'resolution' where the buyer and seller will try to reach a compromise (ie, 50% refund/reship of order). If the two can't reach a mutually agreeable solution then SR admin step in and decide if a refund should be given or not. So before admin step in the buyer and seller do have an opportunity to work it out themselves.
Title: Re: Finalize Early?
Post by: anonho on February 06, 2013, 10:11 pm
yawn