Buyer Protection will in fact protect you. In my experience, a seller tried to rip me off. I kept my cool, contacted PayPal, provided plenty of communication to support my claim and I got my money back in 12 hours.

It sounds like he is trying to pull out of the sale and is being a (insert appendage here) about it.

Ebay/PayPal is focused on protecting buyers and I think however this plays out, you wont lose.