Posted By:
bruce morelandWhat this guy means by "insuring privately" is that he simply keeps your money.
If you report a problem with the card, or if you tell him it has gone lost, perhaps it reacts differently than if you don't pay him the extra money.
From the buyer's point of view, a seller who ships an item that becomes lost in the mail, and then will not make good on it, is identical to a seller who keeps the buyer's money and ships nothing. There is absolutely no way that a buyer can tell the difference between these two cases.
If a seller is willing to risk having a buyer think he is a thief, I expect that he doesn't really care if someone thinks he is a thief. If I've learned that about a seller, I also assume that the seller also doesn't care if someone thinks that he over-grades. I bid much less on "not responsible for lost packages" raw card auctions.
If you pay the $1.10, you should get postal insurance, not a promise not to be a jerk if something goes bad. So I don't think that this is "okay".
bruce