So, I bought and paid for an item (WJPrime) on eBay, which should only be mentioned in the non-official section.

needless to say it's a good price and the seller has reasonable looking reputation/history.

A couple days after payment I get shipping notice.

A few days after that I get a notification from Paypal that the payment has been refunded with the following message from the seller:
because there is problem with payment, so we have to stop package, and refund to you, another i have resend bill to your paypal, you can go to your paypal, and accept to pay for item in time, then we can ask post office continue to send package, thanks
I have checked the Tracking number I was provided with China Post and there are no hits. I am pretty sure they are yet to send the item. I also used my Credit card which is more than adequate for value through paypal so there is no way there was actually a problem with payment.

I have just today (2 days later) received an invoice from the seller for the same amount. I'm wondering if there is still buyer protection through Paypal for something like this?
I don't think it's a gift of money since it's an Invoiced amount, but I do wonder if this is the sellers way of trying to avoid paypal fees? Would they still not be paying fees on the invoiced amount? Just no longer paying eBay fees since they had refunded the item.

I feel like making the payment and once the figure arrives, I'll report them to eBay. but that also feels a bit dirty.