Protection

You fly to where the guy selling the item lives and inspect the item first before paying him with a certified cashier check. That's real protection from getting screwed.

Plus $10,000 is a lot of money to pay upfront for a piece of equipment sight unseen.

Ask the guy to send it COD and see what he says.
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Agree with Jea.
Also you can send an upraiser for certain price so you can save the time traveling and perhaps transportation fare.

Easy, peasy. Send me 10 payments of $1000 each and I personally guarantee that I will deliver the cash to the seller. Promise ;-)

You're nuts if you trust Paypal to handle a sale for that kind of money. If somethings happens and you need buyer protection, Paypal is not going to help you. They're scumbags that could care less. You'll need to get a lawyer to both deal with the seller and Paypal.

Agree with Zd all the way. If possible, make the trip there to see the item.

I would pay the lawyer to handle the transaction.

I have done pay pal for 10,000 plus to a dealer, They set it up as 2 separated payments or sells. and had no problems.
Pete

I would be willing to bet the OP could buy a round trip plane ticket and spend 1 night in a hotel cheaper than what a lawyer will cost him if the deal goes bad.

Do you know/trust this seller?
If so you will have to make multiple payments through PP.
I have done this in the past - But you had better know whom you are sending $10K+ to.

What Jea48's first two sentences said, plus one.

An escrow service would be the way to go.

I bought a $10,000 85" UHD TV via Paypal and the it arrived with a broken screen.
Paypal was useless with helping me to resolve it.

"11-09-15: Paladin
Do you know/trust this seller?
If so you will have to make multiple payments through PP.
I have done this in the past - But you had better know whom you are sending $10K+ to."

Not only that, but given the fact that a PayPal transaction is limited to 10k would suggest that they don't want to get involved with anything more and/or they may be obligated to report the transaction to the IRS. Any sale over $10,000 in cash has to be reported (or structuring more than 1 lesser payments adding up to 10k or more). I'm not 100% sure, but most likely PayPal payments may be treated as cash given the nature of how their system works.

Either way, it can be an excuse for them not to offer buyer protection.

I just looked it up out of curiosity. PayPal is listed as a money transmitter. Normal consumer protection laws don't always apply, so there is a much greater risk of loss using them.

You could send a card with payment; Have Gun Will Travel.