If you didnt and they were not a actual company, you could have lost all your money. A credit card will stand up for you. In a dispute situation, the cc will request on your behalf for a refund to be issued, if refused, the cc will get info from both sides and if the screwed buyer is in fact getting screwed, the cc will cover the lose (at no cost to the buyer) and allow the seller to keep the ill gotten gains because the cc can only take them to court to get it back. Now the fun part, on the next purchace made to the screwing seller with (lets just say) mastercard, mc will hold back the amount of the former screw amount, then it is up to the seller to sue mastercard... Think they will get it????? Its all part of the sellers terms of use and to top it off, if the seller dont like it, mastercard will gladly come and pickup thier card swiper and scrape off the logo from the door. Now, what happens if they f... around with Visa? Then Discover? Dont take long and its a cash, money order or paypal only busness. Those are the type that are the ones to steer clear of, think paypal is gonna help?
Anyway, keep using a credit card, they are the only real protection (other than face to face transaction) that you have.