Questions about middlemen.

(Before we begin, I have indeed read the "SR Guides" articles. These are questions I feel I could use a bit more info on.)

1: Alright, so looking at the middlemen page I see there are currently 14 middlemen. Is this merely the current number of middlemen online or the number of total middlemen recognized by SteamRep?

2: Since it appears that the middlemen have only one assigned middleman "tag" (e.g.: MCT Middleman, SR Middleman, ROK Middleman), does this mean that they can only effectively act as middlemen for the site they have been "tagged" onto, or can they easily cross over onto other sites and act as middlemen for sites that have not been "tagged" onto their status?

For pure example: say I wanted to sell a Bill's Hat on SourceOP or TF2Unusual for twenty U.S. dollars. Looking at the current list of middlemen, I can see that there are currently no middlemen "tagged" for those sites. Would I be able to inquire to one of the MCT Middlemen or other middlemen to act as middleman for a trade that has been posted on one of those two sites or are they strictly unable to act outside of their "tagged" jurisdiction?

3: How does one go about asking a middleman to preside over a transaction? Simply add them on Steam and bring it up there?

Also, if there is any other information about middlemen that you think would be useful to know before going into a transaction, please don't hesitate to elaborate. I'm contemplating selling something and want to glean as much information as I can before actually going through with it.

1. Total number of MM's recognized
2. Any MM should be able to help you out, even if the trade didn't originate on their community. The community tag is to flag which community their base is. Not a limit on which trades they are able to MM.
3a. Indeed, add them. often they ask to make a comment on their profile with why one adds them. Once added, bring up the trade and let the trade partner add him too.
3b. MM's will guide in how to do things.

Three basic rules:
- The person holding the items must request to trade the intended recipient. Never the one to receive it!!
- Do exactly as told, and nothing before.
- Check out the MM's rep on SR independently.

On that 2nd rule, ppl have been scammed because they didn't follow the instructions right. Examples:
- Seller traded items to buyer, instead of MM
- Buyer send money as soon as MM asked the seller to trade him the item.
- Scammer injection, check always who exactly you trade with from within the trade window (clicking avatar or nickname in trade window will open the steam browser to their profile, check it in SR if its the right one)

Excellent! Thanks for the confirmation and extra info. Thanks for the quick response, too!

The list on SR is nothing special in itself, it simply MM who happen to be part of the Community associated with SR, and by virtue of that you should be able to use them with complete faith.

When you require an MM, often the easiest thing to do, is use an Admin of whatever server or network you know and trust. The only issue often is actual experience, and a MM with experience will check out both parties (profiles/sr pages and other factors), and generally try to ensure that both parties are fully protected.

Irrespective of where you find an MM you trust, I strongly recommend you use an MM in any situation where a scam is possible. Remember a legitimate buyer or seller will ALWAYS agree to a reputable MM, if you find anyone who refuses, or suggests some "friend", ignore and run away as fast as you damn well can

Right, as has been stated before, it's simply a good faith list of representatives from their respective communities who have a record of extremely clean and trustworthy trading. There can be certain advantages to working with a specific community. By using a regional middleman such as someone representing Russia or Korea, you might be able to get bi-lingual service, for example. If you are familiar with a community, you may also personally know the middlemen or admins and might be able to get help in case anything goes wrong.

Technically anyone can act as a middleman, and I would say any person with a decent amount of real world $ trade experience on SourceOP would do the job fine, however, you need to watch out for people that attempt to use fake middlemen, unknown middlemen, or demand a specific middleman be used (generally speaking anyone legit will agree to a reputable middleman of mutual choosing if you do not prefer their choice).

One final thing about middlemen is to choose one that will go to bat for you in case of a PayPal dispute. It's worth paying someone a few keys extra to document the agreements and screenshot everything, and is willing to go to bat if PayPal charges you back and you find yourself in the middle of a dispute. I was thinking myself of starting a service where the entire details of the trade were verbally agreed to in-game in voice chat, while recording to a twitch.tv account, so that could be submitted as evidence in the event of PayPal shenanigans.

A reputable Middle Man will NEVER ask for any kind of fee or payment, EVER.

A reputable Middle Man will ALWAYS check BOTH parties for any tags or warning signs, and will ALWAYS be willing to hold items and address any form of problem if Paypal transactions do not go smoothly. For Paypal I always retain screenshots, and I advise both parties to properly save them BEFORE any deal takes place.

Certainly an MM is always happy if you tip them, I certainly am, but I can tell you 95% of people do not tip me, and when they do it often a craft hat or something (often for an hours work), and every single time I simply say "Thanks and I am just glad two people got a deal done in safety" (or words similar to that effect).

Yeah, what I mean is if you ask a middleman to do any services above and beyond what they normally do, or if you expect them to go to bat for you for PayPal, you should definitely pay because their time is valuable.