as a buyer paypal is pretty safe... pay directly from your credit card throught paypal and if you want to make a reverse transaction, just call up your CC company.
if the seller doesnt do international shipping you could try to look for a warehouse company in the US and have the item sent there, then have a freight company to pick it up for delivery to you

you could use escrow.com as a safetrader.... but fees gonna cost a bit
asa buyer i can say that it's quite safe la.... paypal is kinda shit for sellers... but for buyer as long as u direct credit from your credit card you wont have any risk
if you fund ure paypal from your bank account...or buy credit through someone else.. you wont be able to file a chargeback... so for any online purchases... use CC