My advice is a little different. I say call the guy & work it out. Speak on the phone or in person. Explain your concerns. Don't accuse him of anything shady, but state you are looking to protect the both of you. Do not do anything that can be thought of as shady. Don't rely on email to communicate. Remember, email is not always your friend when communicating with others. Things you type can often be interpreted in different ways.

Bitcoins is the only non reversible online currency that I know of.

Anything involving plastic might be reversible, and thus a huge risk. A giant company can afford to lose a few transactions as "the cost of doing business" , you can't.

Ok Ive sold plenty of larger items on ebay and accept paypal all the time in your auction it should state item does not ship until funds have cleared through paypal. if item is to be picked up it will need to be cash at the time of pickup,
If you accept paypal you be sure to register a tracking number or delivery confirmation through ebay or paypal for the item sold then they cant claim they didnt receive the item.
In the case the buyer wanted to pick the item up it is cash or send the money under the personal-bill money option then he has no recall on funds.

I have a special savings account for at the bank for paypal always empty with the exception of $5 to keep it open unless i purchase something. if paypal was to get hacked or a transaction reversed i simply goto to the bank and close the account and they would not be able to to get the funds back the debit card on file with paypal has a paypal restriction so i they tried to use it it would get denighed.
I got burnt one time and becouse the tracking numbers showed item returned to me but they didnt care it wasnt the same item i sold to the guy basicly seller swapped my item for a busted different one. so i safeguared the account so if it would accure again i just shut the savings account down
But due to insurance i had on the shipping I got a check from UPS for $1500 for a item I got $450 for originaly on the ebay sale so in the end i just made more $$

But honestly personaly if the transaction is to be in person cash only, if to be shipped with paypal use all tracking info and over insure for replacement

Easy - tell the buyer to take his card to the bank and get a cash advance using it. Give you the cash and then he can pay the bank at his leisure leaving you secure with FOLDING!

PayPal is and always was GREAT for $10 transactions BUT the minute the value of transactions started to climb - out of the woodwork came the scammers and scum and those tricks have filtered down to the everyday user. Not ALL buyers are trying to scam you BUT it is amazing just how many are - I would put them about 25% of all buyers are trying to scam the item from you for free.

One example - I sell a repair rubber button for car remotes for $20. I had the mold made so it can't be purchased from anyone else. I was posting it in an envelope and about one in four buyers would claim it never arrived and (because of the flawed eBay feedback system) I had no choice but to post them another.

Now I sell them for $20 PLUS $5 registered post (they have to sign on delivery) - in the past 12 months since I started this I have not had a single one go 'missing' in the post - NOT ONE!

25% of eBay buyers are out to scam you!!!

Don't let this buyer trick you - just don't!!!

You don't cancel it via eBay. You log into paypal and refund it there.

This is not true.

Did you get this resolved?

I personally like paypal, I just PP'd Shredso for a swe1 kit for my RFM cabinet and it worked out great.....please do update on how this turned out!

sure pp is great for people that you CAN TRUST

Agreed, but we didnt really know we could trust each other, all I knew he was a pinside member thats been around for a bit, we took the leap of faith.

Well said

As I mentioned in an earlier post PP is fine for SMALL transactions where the seller is very unlikely to be scamming you and the buyer is also not interested because of the small amount.

When you get to thousands of $$$'s however - alarm bells start ringing for me. It is too easy to get ripped of both as a buyer AND a seller with big amounts.

The PP system has some serious flaws.

This alone makes the person 1000 time more trustworthy than the average eBay user.