I would have to agree with the general sentiment that it would depend on the value of the chip(s). I would also add, it's uniqueness. If you are referring to a rare antique chip that a.) has a lot of value, or b.) requires added protection of a box rather than the standard bubble pack than Priority or Express mail might be warrented. For example, you could wrap the chip in some bubble wrap and put it in one of those small Priority Mail Video Cassette type mailers. That would provide optimum protection and if adding insurance you would have a very safe package. However, on the other hand, if you are talking about a $10 or $15 recent $5 LE or house chip than I would consider it an excessive requirement. Not that your price was unreasonable as you explain you are talking real costs but that the Priority or Insured requirement is unreasonable.

I may differ from the average buyer with the amount of risk I am willing to assume but I figure if the value of the chip is under, say, $20, then I would rather risk the loss and forgo all the extra insurance etc. Like was mentiond, over the course of time, that money can add up to a lot of chips. My experience is that in 3 yrs of chip buying, and only maybe twice having insurance, I have never received a broken chip or had one lost in transit. I would guess that I have probably bought about 100 chips via mail in that time. Your first and best attention to protect your chips would probably be wrapping them in paper or putting them in coin envelopes or flips etc to protect them from scuffing or rubbing against each other. Then put them in an adequate bubble mailer and the correct postage(as one person mentioned in the other recent thread)and get them treated properly with a hand sort. That should be all you need under most circumstances. In all the mail purchases I have ever made the only problems I ever had were due to the seller forgetting to mail the envelope or mailing the wrong chip(s) to me causing delays.