Who would (have their customer) pay $40 for insurance on under $100 (retail) of product?

They think everywhere outside the US is a 4th world country.

International shipping does require a bit of a knack for risk assessment. There are countries that most think are fine, but with terrible postal systems. Or annoying customs. Or people that flip out when a package takes more than 3 days to arrive.

Shipping to Sweden is fine. Shipping to Italy isn’t. German Customs will inspect a lot and send a bill, Canadian customs often doesn’t bother with American packages.

Potentially a seller who a) doesn't really care about customers outside the US or b) is used to shipping $1000+ complete products and doesn't do enough volume of small spare parts to make it worth investing in a separate process for those orders.

Probably the former. As a Canadian, I would ship anywhere and generally made enough off the extra demand to pay for any losses.

And I was happy to make some Super Nintendo collector in Sweden happy.