Besides, it's not like escrow can't be gamed. The seller ships a box of full of nothing to the buyer and provides a tracking number. Or the buyer claims that he/she received a box of nothing when they actually got the item.
Doesn't the seller send the box to bitmit, which verifies the product and only then forwards to the buyer ? I understand paying a premium for that, not otherwise.
No, with escrow the buyer sends the money to the escrow company. The escrow company then tells the seller "okay, we got the money, send the item." Buyer receives the item and tells the escrow company "everything is good, send the money to the seller." If the buyer doesn't receive the item, then the escrow service sends the money back to the buyer.
But the system is easily gamed. The seller can send an empty box, and provide a tracking number to the escrow company to "prove" that they sent the item and then it is the seller's word against the buyers word about what was in the box.
I think it is better to just build up a reputable auction site that doesn't get shut down every year for offering escrow without a license. Have that site build up user reputations via an ebay like user rating/review system. If users want to sell with escrow for an item, then they can use a 3rd party escrow site that is licensed to provide escrow services.