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I understand why you are concerned, and why you hesitate to accuse him of a scam. Just be aware that this may be a delaying tactic to let the Paypal/eBay time limit on complaints expire. Keep all emails and take notes on any phone conversations.

Personally, I have not had a bad experience with eBay but I don't shop there too often. From the forum here, there are several examples of how Paypal doesn't really protect you--depending on the circumstances. If he has no money in his account, or can demonstrate that he "delivered" the goods, you're stuck. Hopefully, you backed your funds with a credit card as that's the best line of defense--the card company will take the money back from Paypal and they don't like that.

I think this post may be your best hope. Likely, someone here is relatively close to where he lives and can check out the situation first hand. Just don't let the clock tick until recourse time expires.

You also may want to post this in the "parts for sale" section as there is better traffic.