I have been reading some of the responses here and would say to Michael, in my opinion, it would be your choice whether to refund or not. You did give the buyer a choice and he/she declined. The buyer then assumed some if not all the risk. If that buyer then gets upset and files a neg feedback or something you can simply rebut that you offered insurance but the buyer declined. Point out that it is an expensive lesson and gamble to not opt for insurance. If goodwill is important to you or you don't want any of the potential hastles when the buyer files a complaint or something than you might give the refund and watch out for this buyer in the future in case he/she tries it again. Chalk up the loss as a learning experience and considering the cost, not too much if you ask me, make a policy that you will automatically add insurance for ALL sales over $X and add that into your P/H fees. As was mentioned I would clearly declare that as an added REQUIRED expense in the auctions discriptions. If someone then decides to bid over the $X than they have the knowlege and can decide if they want to advance that bid.

My feeling toward taking insurance, as a buyer, is that I usually take the risk on most purchases about $20 or $30 or less. If the price is over that than I would consider that hard to take so I would take insurance if offered. I figure of all the chips I have bought on *ebay* if I were to get burned on $30 that is a very small %. I have been buying on *ebay* for about 3 years now and of all the chips I have bought have never had one come damaged or not come at all. I have had a few late ones though where I started to get concerned but they all have eventually arrived safely.