Especially with Gox, I am looking for alternatives.  This thread led me to the BitSimple website - wondering how they worked.  The suggestion is that they are a broker - which in my world means they are not in the middle of a transaction, but rather somehow generate a commission from the transaction. 

This seemed incredible unless you operated with some control of the wallet, which they say they don't.  In the future, I know this can technically occur when BIP 70-2 comes out in  bitcoin-d in 0.9, but not today.  I went to the BitSimple user agreement and read this:

3.6 When buying or selling bitcoin, you are buying or selling with BitSimple, LLC. BitSimple profits from the differences in the exchange rate offered to you and the exchange rate available to BitSimple. The rate offered to you is not guaranteed to be the best possible exchange rate available. BitSimple does not act as an intermediary or marketplace between other buyers and sellers of bitcoins.

So if I get this right, BitSimple is not a broker at all, but is a principal in a trade, and sets the buy sell prices at which BitSimple will purchase or sell bitcoin, not some third party for whom BitSimple is acting as a broker....

I note the 'spread' I saw was currently $20 per btc.  So if I sell 10btc through BitSimple - I'm really paying $200 implicit in the price?  It does not sound likey they are not a broker at all?  What am I missing?