what can reasonably be expected of a seller?

Very good points 2psyop!

If an item is truly untested for whatever possibly genuine reason then it should be priced accordingly, not within a couple of cents of guaranteed top flight item.

Now wait a second, I can't speak for those second rate carriers but if you mail something through the Post Office, either the sender or addressee can initiate the claim.You can designate which should be the payee. I would always advise customers though, insist on a refund from the seller first. The buyer, if pursuing the claim in hope of recompense, may face a denied claim and be left holding the bag. A seller that says you, the buyer, should file the claim, is dismissing his responsibility and leaving the onus on the buyer. Don't fall for that.The last thing you want is both a broken or lost item and the headache of a claim. Have the seller refund and file the claim.

I did not take the time to read the entire thread.  So, if the following is duplicative of one or more previous posts, I apologize.  Unless I am looking for parts, I don't bother with any "ambiguous" listings as a matter of course - no matter how interested I might be in a particular piece of kit.  If something looks like trouble, odds are it is.  Fortunately, the Audiogon feedback and rating system offers pretty good protection against bad transactions (when coupled with a PayPal facilitated payment).  In sum, if an offering smells a little fishy or looks to good to be true, run, don't walk, away.  My $0.02.

i can tell you of several horror stories i have experienced with shipping issues, sellers and packaging issueswith electronic equipment.
1.  unit was in a high end motorhome that had a fire, units have some smoke damage, but functional... ya right... got both units and when opened up they looked like there was a thermonuclear event contained within the case.. probably what caused the motorhome fire!
2.  such poor packaging that one of the inverter units was hanging half out the corner of the carton/box the main unit was shipped in.
3. my favorite...  a $10k inverter system, well packaged,  i witness the fedex driver show up at my house, walk to the back of the truck, slide open the door, climb in and pitch the box out onto the pavement, clearly about 6ft at the apex of trajectory before slamming down on the asphalt, flat on the bottom.... i was horrified!  and of course chewed the driver up so bad that from then on she would come to my door with packages carefully in hand to personally hand them to me...   thanks to the sellers overly careful packaging, the unit was not damaged and worked just fine.
my thinking now, that i am on fixed income and not making as much as i did back then, if i want to buy something of serious value, i am going to buy a plane ticket is need be to personally inspect and test before i buy it, then i will package it for shipping myself!
bob g

I think it's sad that nowadays, one has to be careful not to get screwed over. It would never occur to me to do that to someone else. Anyone I've dealt with has been of the same mind. I guess I've been lucky so far. 

One time I had a CDP for sale and I was (as always) meticulous in it's care and storage. It looked brand new and a couple of times I'd check it out to make sure it worked, and to make sure I really wanted to sell it.

When I got an offer I had almost packed it when it occurred to me to try it out one more time. One channel was inexplicably dead and I could never get it to work. I expect anyone I deal with to do the same for me.
But then, that's me.

All the best,
Nonoise