The first order

A first order is a series of small decisions, and the expensive mistakes are all the same shape: money moves before the protection is in place. The walkthrough below is the order of operations that keeps the protection ahead of the money at every step.

Before the cart, not after

Do the things that only work while the account is still new. The password goes on paper now, because the market has no reset channel and a forgotten password is a forgotten account. Two factor authentication gets switched on now, so that a stolen password alone stops being enough. Then the seller: open the profile, read the newest feedback first, and look for a pattern, not a score. Ten recent entries all praising delivery times is information; a 97% rating is marketing.

The purchase itself

1. The product page. Price, quantity, delivery method, and the seller link. Check the delivery options and the price of each one before adding; shipping choices are made here, not at checkout.
2. The cart and checkout. The order summary shows the item, the delivery fee, and the total. Nothing is paid yet; the total on this screen is the number the market will ask for next.
3. The payment window. The market generates a one-time address, an exact amount, and a network. You send the amount from your own wallet to that address. The exact amount, with all its decimals: the market matches the payment to the order by the number, and a rounded amount is a payment the market cannot match.
4. The confirmations. After the send, the order sits as awaiting confirmations while the network settles. The count of confirmations is shown; the order moves to escrow when enough arrive. This can take minutes, and on some networks longer. The waiting state is not an error and does not need a second payment.

After the payment, the seller works

The order flips to in escrow, the seller sees the payment, and the clock on the shipping side starts. A tracking number appears on the order when the parcel is handed over; from that point the order page is a live document, and the states change without anyone asking. The chat thread is where questions go: a customs form, an address detail, a "will you split the shipment". Keep it in the thread, because the thread is what a ticket will quote.

The confirm button, and the week around it

The parcel arrives. The order is still in escrow. Now is the moment the entire mechanism depends on: open the box before you confirm. Check the contents against the listing, the quantity, the condition; take photos of the item and the packaging while everything is still arranged. Then press confirm, and the money releases to the seller and the order closes.

Pressing early is the classic first-order loss: the parcel is confirmed, the box is opened, the item is wrong, and the escrow is already gone. A ticket can still be opened after a confirm, and it can still win, but it now argues from photos instead of from a held balance, which is a weaker position. The rule is one sentence: confirm after opening, never before.

When the order goes wrong

The tracking number stops updating past the stated window, a parcel comes back to the sender, an item does not match: open the ticket from the order page while the escrow is still live. Attach the tracking number, the photos, the relevant chat messages. The market mediates, and the money moves on its decision, not on anyone's tone. How the seller side of all this works, and what the feedback on a profile actually proves: how the market works.