There's no need for anything to degenerate.

It's good for people to be aware of all the parameters that relate to a seller's determined postage cost. It helps avoid unrealistic expectations.

If the seller has weighed this part, allocated a box to which he also knows the weight, and is aware that all of that is less than 1kg, then yes, it is indeed excessive. However, there is a lot of assumptions in there. I'd be curious to know how many sellers actually even own a postage scale (I know Kyle & I do! ).

Personally, I think this seller and many others simply plug .5lb or 1lb into the eBay calculator because it's just safe and not worth the effort to prepack and weigh every little gun that someone overseas might want.

However, let's give credence to all of your assumptions. Let's say this guy made the equivalent of a cardboard ring box to store it in and managed to get it under the 0.5lb Express minimum. That means the cost is $28.95.

So, based on all of that, don't you think that your expectation of $5 to $8 for such a service is a bit "excessive"?