So, I've been having trouble meeting up IG with someone to complete a sale made on a forum, I had an idea for a new town service. I'm not going to speculate on how difficult it would be to make happen, but each part of what it would do is already done by other systems in the game. For lack of a better name for the service, I'll just call it a "Middleman" and it would work like this:

-two players arrange the sale of an item via the platform of their choice (amunet, Lich, forums, Discuss, etc)

-The seller takes the item to the Middleman NPC in their town, who takes the item after being told the buyer's name and the price owed

-The buyer then has X amount of time to get to the Middleman with the required amount of silvers and pick up the item

-Once the item has been picked up, the Middleman gives the silvers to the seller (either direct bank deposit or the seller going back and getting it), minus a percentage for his services

-If the buyer and seller are in different towns, the Middleman could move the item from the seller's town to the buyer's for a slightly higher percentage

-If the buyer fails to pick up the item in the required time, the seller may retrieve the item from the Middleman


Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.

I have made essentially the same suggestion, several times, over several years, both for normal town shops (basically there is an NPC or game mechanic that exists to be a third operator involved in handing over silvers-for-item, to get around that whole "you cannot possibly handle more weight!" issue) and between characters (to include the RSN 'mail' system being done to send packages C.O.D.).
I expanded this to the 'urchin' commands--since there is, you know... a third party standing there!--once those came out.

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Still waiting....

<I have made essentially the same suggestion...>

Yer, I know similar, if not nearly identical ideas have been floated before. I didn't have as much time to type and think through the post as I'd have liked since I thought of it while in the shower getting ready for work. My intention was to present it in more of a way to say "each of these parts exists in game already, but if they were put together in this way they could fill this other need"... which I don't think I was as clear about as I ment to be.

One of the reasons that's been given for not having a mail system or game-wide auction system like other games was that it would require on-site changes. However, the game is already able to transfer items from one character to another without both of them being online (smuggling bags), take silver payments from one character on behalf of another in exchange for an item (player shops), store and move items from one town to another (lockers). So, my thinking is that if these things are possible individually, surely a way can be found to combine them that would facilitate the way players are already buying/selling their stuff AND could be available to everyone.

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.