How To: Middleman

Please note, this was written by me back in the Community Assistant days so it may be off a bit with the pricing. I will go back and double check it it make sure it is still "to date".

Middlemaning is a HUGE part of trading here on Sythe. Hopefully this will clear up any questions newcomers, or experienced users alike may have.​

How to: Choose the right Middleman for you.​

There are mass amounts of middlemen here on Sythe, when going for a quick trade many may wonder "Who should I choose?" or "What do I look for?" ​

One thing to look for is the size of the trade. Is it small? Go with a trusted middleman. Is it large? Go with an OMM. The reasons for this are simple. You don't want to have to pay a fee on a small trade, where a regular middleman could have been trusted. If it is large, a regular middleman could still be trusted, but this is the position where an OMM would be best because their vigorous application proved them to be trusted in these situations.

When looking for a middleman, you should have strict criteria, as the whole trade rests in their hands. Things to look for are relatively simple, vouches, and quality of them. Some people might have 143 vouches from Account upgrades, which is good and all, but it doesn't prove much. I say this because it can show this person can complete trades, but not necessarily be trusted with amounts over $10. Optional criteria to differentiate between two similar middleman can be simple things from post count, to quality of posts.

How to: Be a Middleman​

I've been on Sythe for a while now, would people use me as a Middleman? ​

Depends. Before you start to act as a Middleman you want to meet a few simple, but very crucial criteria.

• Vouches. Do you have a reasonable amount, from trades varying in range, some over $100?
• Have you been on Sythe for more then a month or two? Sometimes time is the best indicator of trust along with vouches.
• Are you active / well known? People will come to you who you have previously helped and ask you to MM for them based on a previous relationship.
• Do you have friends who will "put in a good word" for you? It always looks good before you start to make a thread that you know some people WILL use you. This also looks good when the first page of your MM thread is filled with good things about you.

These are just some basic examples of what one should have before attempting to middleman. You want to be significantly more trusted than both parties, or else there wouldn't be a point to using you right?

Alright, I'm trusted, how do I actually middleman a trade? ​

Well first thing to get straight is you're not going to be making money off of this, at least not yet. If someone is going to pay for a middleman, they are going to go and use either a moderator or an OMM, so don't charge for your services, just keep track of all of the trades so you can apply for OMM in the future, but we'll talk about that later.

*** Remember, all of these methods DO NOT involve you receiving money through paypal. DO NOT do that as you can possibly get scammed, if the buyer charges back. ***

Before The Trade Occurs.

Receive a PM from both parties stating "You are MMing a (Insert type) For me worth (Insert value). My MSN is (Insert MSN Here.)" PM both back and in the MSN chat have everyone confirm a PM was received. This prevents impostors, and will play a role in an OMM application.
Also, Create a form of some sort in your MM thread. Also require both parties to fill this out. An example of this would be

Code:

Type of trade:
Value of trade:
Are you Buyer/Seller:
Your Email Address:
Other persons Email address:

(Thanks N4n0 for the template)
​

How To....

RSGP / Items
Seller gives you exact amount of RSGP. Buyer sends the seller exact amount through the desired funding. Once seller confirms he has received the money, give the buyer the gold.
This works for RSGP for other items such as other game items or real life items. Hold the gold until the item(s) have been received, then give the gold to the buyer.

Accounts
These are VERY risky, as no matter what the original owner CAN recover the account. Be sure to let the buyer be aware of this, and give them the opportunity to back out if they don't have 100% confidence that the seller can be trusted. Gather ALL of the account information from the seller, and immediately change the password. (Recovery Check is done here, but it is very time consuming and not many people will do this). Then log onto the account. Make sure all of the skills are as advertised, and same with the wealth. Most importantly make sure there aren't any recovery questions or email addresses set. After this is done, request for the buyer to give the currency of choice to the seller, then give the account information along with the new password to the buyer.

Everything Else
Everything pretty much follows the same format, keeping YOU in control of the trade. Make sure that if a scam attempt occurs, that you are in control, and you can easily give the items back. If you can't figure out how to MM a certain trade post it here and I will attempt to give you a method to do it.

Cool! I just was a Middleman, what now?
Screenshot the whole MSN chat and save it in a folder. Even if you do not plan on applying for OMM in the future, it is better to have it and not want it, then to not have it and want it. Keep doing this, and in no time you will realize that you are closer and closer to your goal of becoming an OMM!


I think I'm ready to fill out an OMM application!
Great! By now you probably have completed most of your smaller trades, and have a few of those pesky $100 and $200+ trades. What you're going to do is post the application here in this section. Make sure to follow this guide on point, as you do not want the reason for you to be rejected from the OMM position to be a sloppy written application. Make sure before you submit it to ask for tips and for people to critique your application here for insight from staff and OMM's.

Remember, don't give up if your first application is denied! Create another thread, and try to continue to be a trusted user, middlemanning and preforming large trades. Don't forget that if you give up after getting denied, then the staff did make the right decision.


Example of a trade and what to take screenshots of.
Before I post this, I do want to say there was a misunderstanding in the trade, but everything was worked out.
[PM Exchange.][1][2][3][4][5][6][7][Receiving the Gold][Giving the Gold][Proof of Giving the Gold]


Thanks for reading my guide! Please post any comments or concerns. If you have any suggestions to be added please let me know and I will add it in. ​

 

Thanks for the guide Toast! Very nice layout and easy to read. I think you make a good point in that the amount of vouches shouldn't be a deciding factor of the legitimacy but rather the quality. I mostly deal with steam trades and occasional gold but I probably have more $$ exchanged then people with 50+ vouches(mostly directed at the RS section).

 

Very nice guide. I will keep this within reach in case I ever get trusted enough to start MM'ing.

 

I was MMing a trade the other day and the person got scammed for a DOTA 2 Key because i didnt know how to mm it. The person gave him the wrong pin/password idk but something like that

 

Nice to see you brought this back. I remember the last one you made. It looks good man.

 

Yeah, I took it down a while ago and forgot all about it and put it back yesterday.

 

Neat & Organized, guide looks great for any future MM!

 

Bookmarked. I'm gonna use this.

 

Nice guide Toasty pie
I'll be using this in the future, I've wanted to MM for a while, I just haven't had the time with uni and all.

 

Yeah never middleman something you don't know how. The purpose of a middleman is to keep the safety of a trade. Getting people to MM for may be tough when you're trying to establish yourself as a Middleman, but if you don't know how to do something, just say no.

 

Very well constructed guide. It's very useful for those who want to become an mm, it lays down the basics but very useful.

 

Bumping this, been seeing some things about "how to mm" or "mm guides" and thought this would be useful, despite it being over 4 years old.

 

Since your bumping this you might wanna update it, Email and msn are not the common forms of communication for trading nowadays


You can rip anything you'd like off of here for less effort/work:
http://www.sythe.org/computing/1891843-safe-middleman-guide.html


edit: also some of your links direct to nowhere

 

Was just bumping it because I saw this topic was becoming a bit more relevant with the thread you posted in the suggestions page.

I'm not going to bother updating it at this time since your guide pretty much covers everything this one does, in a much better layout . Just thought it was relevant since it seems like a hot topic now .

 

Wow thanks for the guide man! This guide helped me how to choose a middleman as well as becoming a middleman.