Escrow
Escrow was the predecessor to the current contracts system.
The system worked in much the same ways as the current contracts system, but in a much more cluttered manner. The system was seemingly easy to use, and a lot easier to get scammed on.
The items you would put into escrow would appear on a screen, which color matched your current theme. You had various ways of listing items, but there were no catetories. You could view items by price or by the name in descending or ascending order.
When clicking a contract the items would show up in a seperate box which listed everything in escrow. You had to verify the items were accessable to you, and that the items were in fact what you thought they were. Many scams were launched with a description that falsly represented the actual items in escrow.
Although the escrow system worked, it was in need of a change. CCP responded and came to the rescue with the current contracts system. The new system is much improved and is a fitting replacement to escrow.