Poor change. I'll continue to require signatures for anything over $250 personally.

Years ago a Nikkor-M 450mm was never received. Seller shipped it with no tracking. His loss, had to eat the whole $600 I think it was. Of course that's a whole other issue, not sending it w/ tracking, but with signature I can at least feel like it's not going to get stolen off someone's porch.

I'll respectfully disagree with your comment about "not giving you any added protection," due to that porch issue. Many times when I've sold to major metropolitan areas, signature is expressly requested...