Further update, I got a notice from Paypal that the seller provided a tracking#, no mention of the refunded shipping cost that was promised.
Also, the tracking# has now been a dead-end for 2 days, a shipping label has been created but there's been no pickup of a parcel of any sort. It appears the tracking# may be a stall tactic to satisfy Paypal's investigation and buy time as it was about to be decided in my favour for a refund on February 9th.
** UPDATE ** I have now received my paints in good order... December 27 until February 17... and he never refunded the shipping cost to me as he promised to... but I'm not going to bother asking about that. Seems like he is suffering enough right now. I hope he sorts things out, can't wait to try my paints out... I guess if you are ordering from him, just expect a 2 month delivery time for the time being.