basically the buyer gives the money to escrow.com and the seller ships the item. once it arrives and is inspected to satisfaction by the buyer, he will aloow the money to be released to the seller. If there is a problem no one gets any money until it is resolved. For this service, the escrow service takes a % based on the amount of the transactions.
But be careful, I was reading somewhere that there are a few bogus escrow companies out there.
