Sorry to hear that Sarge. It always pains me when a fellow collector has been ripped off when buying, selling, or trading Star Wars stuff. There's just some real dishonest jerks out there who will always be looking to con someone out of their hard earned dollars.
I've
fortunately never been shafted on the boards or eBay yet (knock on wood), but have been pretty close several times. I've never had to go through the Paypal claim routine, but if what you're saying is true, that's a completely assinine rule on the part of Paypal! There are many auctions or deals that tend to drag out for one reason or another for quite a while, so for Paypal to invoke a 30 day limit on claims is
absolutely LUDICROUS!
Other than sharing your pain, I wish there was something more that I could do or some advice I could give to rectify your situation, but unfortunately there is not.
The baseball bat idea might not be too bad of an idea though...

Good luck.