Fair play for exercising caution, I can’t blame you but he is totally legit.
I got stung posting internationally after payment via PayPal. The tracking with the Royal Mail service I used was a bit random once it left the uk so PayPal paid straight out to buyer. It was only 50 quid or so, but now anything international either goes via eBay’s GSP where I post to their distribution centre and they send/track internationally or it’s bank transfer. As a seller, it’s not worth the risk/hassle of using PayPal internationally.
Plus at least if I get scammed in the UK it’s not far to go to drive a car through someone’s living room window as revenge.