Silk Road recommends that you do not finalize an order before you receive it. If you do, there is no way to help you if your order does not arrive as you will no longer be in escrow. To answer your query, an item cannot be finalized until it has been marked 'in transit' by the vendor. Again though, please understand that you are taking a risk by FE'ing and Silk Road will not be able to help you if there is an issue with your order. Libertas