Sorry, I've been convalescing for the past few 
days, being confined mostly to my bed for much 
needed rest.  I'm still feeling very weak and 
will have to visit the doctor repeatedly over the 
next couple of weeks.

Looking over the replies to my thread this 
morning, I am very grateful for all the 
feedback.  Whether or not you agreed with my 
handling of the situation, ALL of you have agreed 
that what this seller did with the insurance and 
how they have behaved towards me in the past few 
months has been irresponsible, unethical, and 
just about criminal.  Many of you have even 
raised stronger points that I hadn't thought 
about, and now I'm much more confident that I 
have always been in the right all along.

After months of butting heads with this 
individual, however... after weeks of having this 
dealer (whom I really respected greatly 
beforehand) needling me, questioning my 
integrity, and threatening me ... and weakened by 
illness to the point I just couldn't fight back 
anymore ... I have allowed myself to be 
brainwashed into thinking that I was perhaps 
being too unreasonable in my request for a 
claim.  You CANNOT begin to realize how much it 
meant to me to finally hear a group of my peers 
(with 100% consensus) tell me that I was not 
crazy or paranoid after all and that I was 
absolutely justified in my protests so far.  My 
self-esteem and energy were shot to hell by this 
guy and in that position it's hard to think 
rationally any more.

As for the critcisms from people like Chi and 
Munch, I will have to say that they were fair 
albeit pretty strong comments.  While there's not 
much you can really do when you've just been 
hospitalized (even carrying a conversation with 
this seller takes a lot out of me now), I will 
consider your suggestions.  You should know, 
however, that I have fought back and forth with 
this seller tooth and nail for weeks on end, but 
unfortunately it finally got to the point where I 
reached my breaking point first (my illness a 
major contributor) and had no strength left.

I'm also not obsessed with this hobby as you may 
think.  The package in question was the 
culmination of almost of an entire year of 
different items that I have ordered through this 
dealer.  I'm basically a bargain shopper; I do 
not blow my money away heedlessly nor do I feel 
the need to acquire something every week.  And I 
have largely distanced myself from this hobby 
(and consequently, this problem) because I 
realized that the effort just wasn't worth my 
health.

It's also not as if I'm running back to this 
dealer with open arms, either.  I have largely 
given up on collecting in general for the time 
being (for obvious reasons) and will avoid this 
dealer as much as possible in the future.  But to 
further illustrate how nearly impossible it will 
be for ANY collector to avoid dealing with this 
person completely, let me better illustrate:

Maybe 3-4 years ago, there were maybe 5-6 top 
anime cel dealers in the USA; this seller would 
have already been in the top 3.  But now, there 
are maybe only 4 regularly active top-tier 
dealers left; and now this seller would be in the 
top 1 or 2.  I am not exaggerating when probably 
90% of the collectors here deal with this person, 
and most likely on a regular basis, due to how 
much business this individual conducts now 
compared to the other dealers.  Although you 
still won't be able to identify who this seller 
is (for the sake of decorum, please don't post 
any guesses), you can probably imagine the short 
list of possibilities and begin to see how not-so-
easy it would be to completely walk away from 
them without probably walking away from the hobby 
altogether.

But I will stay true to my word, however, and not 
give you any substantial clues about their 
identity, unless my hand gets forced and it 
becomes absolutely necessary.

I need to take another rest right now, but I will 
post an update on what the seller has said since 
then (and I don't think they have seen this 
thread yet; maybe I should direct them to it) and 
what I have decided to do (for now) AND what I 
would like to ask people who would know best... 
sometime this morning.