It seems like there's always a story going on here about a seller that hasn't received an item that they purchased and the conversation always seems to lead towards filing a PayPal complaint.

What I'd like to know Is if everyone thinks that its necessarily fair to automatically expect the seller to refund a payment when an item is legitimately lost in shipping and the seller didn't purchase the optional insurance

Actually, the same can be asked whether it's fair to give someone a negative feedback if an item is lost in transit.

Again, this is all based on the fact that the seller can provide a tracking number or delivery confirmation number to prove that the item was actually shipped.