This is a common practice. I have both bought and sold physical coins, and bitcoin miners using escrow. In all cases, everyone involved wanted the shipment to be sent directly to the buyer by the seller. As an escrow agent, I had facilitated the sale of physical goods, and all parties had always wanted the goods to be sent directly from the seller to the buyer.
How does that protect the buyer if the seller sends a fake? Or how that it protect the seller if the buyer claims he received a fake?