"(because reasonably intelligent people factor in the shipping charge). "

The problem with your example is that you give credit to "reasonably intelligent people" to factor in the shipping charges when bidding on an auction and yet you don't give those same people enough credit to factor in auctions that have insurance as an optional cost...

Here is your example:

Now for the case of the seller providing an "Opportunity" to save money. Same chip goes on eBay. $1.5 shipping with ins optional. Chip sells for $5.5 (a reasonable assumption since the cheaper shipping allows for a larger bid). Many choose to save money by not choosing ins. Something happens to package. Screwed

If your same intelligent person can figure out the difference between $3.00 shipping charges with insurance built into that cost and $1.5 shipping charges without insurance, it's silly to think they can't figure out the difference in value between the two. Give me a break!