I think I have bought and sold a few items on CGN over the years. I have received phone calls from potential buyers, but have never initiated one as the buyer - as mentioned above, I am one of those "deaf as a post" type people - as a result, I MUCH prefer to communicate via email or text message, versus voice phone call - for various reasons. I suspect for any Internet purchase from a non-retail entity, there is going to be some "trust" required - perhaps why I find the feedback system on CGN to be so useful - although I have bought and sold to/from people on their very first transaction - someone had to do so for my first purchase / first sale on CGN.
For the past several years, I do not ship and do not expect an item purchased by me to be shipped, until it is paid for - although, in some cases, the item has been put in the mail, before payment is received. I have sent Money Orders - paid for them, plus paid for the registered letter they were mailed in - the Seller could have received that money if they would have accepted EMT payment, but I guess Canada Post and Royal Bank needed their piece of the pie, more than the seller did. There is a guy in this province that I have sold to several times - he pays by mailing his personal cheque - one of the guys that I send the item, before I receive the letter from him. Most people do not rate that, from me. I have also mailed cash bills in a letter to one buyer - it worked, that time.
PAL - is odd - some will act as if it is most private thing in the world - others just do not care. I have received ammo and firearms on face-to-face deals where I forgot to show and Seller forgot to ask to see my PAL. My PAL has been verified circa 20 times with RCMP Firearms Centre - sort of thought that was what I paid for when I renewed it - apparently not - not really "useful" for much, until Seller has "verified it". I am sure someone is happy about how that system works. I am one of those dudes with guns here that I am sure I owned before gov't paper was even in play - before PAL, before FAC. But that was then; this is now.
When purchasing a firearm, I do NOT send payment until the private Seller tells me that the Seller is okay with my PAL. So that means they get my PAL information, to "verify", long before they receive money from me.
As per our local head honcho at Post Office - is the Post Office's view that the contents of the parcel belong to the Sender, until they deliver it to the Receiver. As a result, there is NO WAY for a parcel Receiver to get insurance coverage on a package. They will not allow the Receiver to buy insurance coverage on someone else's goods. The Canada Post insurance is paid out to their customer - the person that bought the insurance coverage and has the receipt - not to the parcel Receiver. You may have paid for the item and think it is yours - that is not how they view the matter - according to her. A Buyer might send extra money to a Seller to pay for "insurance" premiums - that Sender may or may not actually buy insurance coverage - you, the Receiver, will never know - you will get NOTHING from Canada Post to indicate whether the parcel was insured or not. The Sender might tell you that it is insured, but that is what the parcel Sender told to the parcel Receiver - Canada Post documentation to the Parcel Receiver was not involved, at all. For several years, I have NOT paid for insurance on items that I buy (receive) - on items that I sell (send), that is between me and the Post Office - the receiver will never know whether it is insured or not. I have sent and received probably over 1,000 pieces of mail over the past 10 years or so - I do not recall even one that did not eventually show up where addressed to - two recent instances (that I sent, with correct address) where it got delivered to next door house, but both recipients eventually got them - some arrived a day or two late, but all got where they were going to - even one item eventually arrived, where the person, who had just moved, gave me a not existing house number to mail to.
You will run into many "making it up" "wanna be helpful" types that insist on PAL and Driver Licence - "to confirm shipping address" - B.S.! Maybe in cities - in Canada, a Driver licence usually shows the house location - a land location, many of which are NOT mailing addresses. Many of us have Postal Mailing addresses that are Post Box number, or Rural Route, or we use Canada Post Flex mail address for mail. In Manitoba, for example, is a Provincial Law that DL must show house location - in our case that is NOT a mailing address - is a lot more to Canada than "city".
