Am I Being Scammed?

[robw1959]

My spider sense is really tingling over this deal. The seller, Kent Allison, agreed to sell me a '33 Goudey Ruth SGC 2 card directly through PayPal at a discount of around 6% under what he was asking on eBay. He said he had three of these Goudey Ruth cards and needed money due to a recent kidney replacement. I paid him on 1/5/23, and he supposedly shipped the card. He provided me with two USPS tracking numbers, one of which was supposedly for insurance purposes (weird!). On 1/10/23, I got a tracking notice letting me know a delivery had been attempted earlier that day when I wasn't home. The next day, around 11:30 am on 1/11/23, he emailed me saying that the tracking showed me missing the delivery and to update him once I have gone to the Post Office to pick up the package.

Here's where it gets really strange. At about 5:10 on 1/11/23, the postal clerk told me the package was gone, and that Kent paid USPS to intercept it earlier in the day and send it back to him. I then emailed him that evening to ask for an explanation, but I didn't hear back from him that evening or the next morning, so at around 1:30 pm on 1/12/23, I initiated a PayPal dispute, since I purchased the card via PP Goods & Services. Immediately after I opened the dispute, I got this email message from Kent: "Deal if off. You wasted my time and money. I don't believe you are who you say you are."
I replied that I am the one who feels cheated since he now has my money and soon will have the card as well.

My question is if I am being scammed, what do you think will be his next move, and what is he going to tell PayPal to get them to side with him? Thanks for any help.
--Rob