So are you saying I shouldn't put tracking or insurance on anything below 500grams, no matter its value?
It's more complicated than that.
But isn't everything?
On items under 500 grams and 2cm thickness, you can use LetterPost/LightPacket shipping.
This is cheap and fast, but is not electronically trackable.
If the item is over 500grams or more than 2cm thick you must use a Parcel** service.
These are fast and trackable, but may not be cheap*.
So your $90 sale could have been sent by LP, provided it was thin and light enough.
Or it could have been sent Parcel, most of which are trackable, but it would cost you more.
Now.
Here's the Cookie Jar Insurance part.
You can choose to use LP shipping, which is not trackable, but it relatively cheap.
Most people are honest.
To avoid losses to scammers***, you add a few pennies to the asking or shipping price of each item you list.
Those virtural pennies go in your virtual Cookie Jar.
When you get a complaint about non-delivery on an untracked item, you go to the Cookie Jar and refund the unhappy buyer from all those pennies.
As mr. elmwood points out, you will probably take in more pennies than you will pay out. Just like a Real World insurance company.
Because most people are honest.
With the refund you send a polite note apologizing for the customer's disappointment and asking that the customer return the refund using Paypal's Send Money service when the item arrives.
And most of the time they will, because most people are honest.
There are some categories where honesty is overwhelmed by testosterone (games, motorcycle parts, sports cards and coins for example).
In those categories, the virtual pennies might have to turn into virtual nickels.
But this is business, not a urine production contest.
Just a final note. Although the selling price of your games was $90, that is not what you lost.
You lost the cost of shipping, the cost of eBay and Paypal fees, the original cost of the games (which should be discounted if the games were used personal property), and an amount for your time spent listing.
If this is not substantially less that $90, you are doing eBay wrong.
*Worth checking though since some services are surprisingly cheaper than others although they are faster.
** There are several Parcel services.
*** And it should be noted, sometimes, very rarely, the package really did not arrive.
