I usually agree on most things John Benedict says, but he is totally wrong in his last statement about insurance.

JOHN SAID, in the above post: "Always demand insurance if it's not previously
mentioned in a description, and do NOT assume it's
included in your shipping charge when dealing with
total strangers."

MY REPLY: There are many angles and variations to this. One rule of advice does not apply to all cases. Let us keep to the Jim Reilly case, the case at hand. We are talking about a chip that Jim won for about $4.00 (and let us assume it is worth $4.00, although that really does not matter much here). In 1000 such purchases, the chip will be lost in the mail about 10 times. Most of us agree (and I think it is true) that if neither the buyer nor seller mentions insurance, it is the responsibility of the seller to insure delivery (that is, the seller must insure it or self-insure it). Now let us say that in half of the 10 cases, the seller is a gentleman, he sees the light and the law -- he either returns the money or sends another chip. Let us say that in the other 5 cases, the seller refuses to make good. If John Benedict had his way, the seller would have to traipse down to the post office 1000 times and pay 85 cents per time for insurance, which would be beneficial 10 times.

So:
(1) the COST of all of this is (a) God knows how much time e-mailing back and forth about insurance and who pays for it and whether the total includes insurance or not......(b) $850.00 [i.e., 1000 x $0.85] paid by the buyer, (c) 17 hours of filling out the green postal slips for insurance [a minute per mailing, I assume], (d) untold hours going to the post office and standing in line to get the insurance slip receipted, (e) filing away the receipted postal insurance slips, and (f) untold hours putting in the claims for the 10 cases (getting the forms, getting them signed, going to the post office....); and

(2) the BENEFIT of all this insurance, time and effort is to have the post office pay for 10 $4 chips! The benefit to the buyer is getting justice in the 5 cases out of 1000 where he would otherwise be out a $4 chip!

Robert