I'm in a bit of a dilemma here. I'm a seller on eBay and turns out one of my buyers wants me to ship his item to a different address than the one stated on his PayPal account. Is it safe to ship to an address which is not registered with PayPal?

I wouldn't recommend it. Shipping to an unregistered address could leave you unprotected. PayPal provides Seller Protection, this shields you from claims like a package not arriving or items not being as described or an unauthorized payment. To be eligible for Seller Protection, your item must have proof of shipment and proof of delivery, which is why it is important that you send your package to an address registered on PayPal (note that Seller Protection is only available for transactions on eBay).

First, let's clarify the difference between a "registered" address and a "confirmed" address. A "confirmed" address is an address that matches both the provided billing and shipping addresses (note that a confirmed address is only valid in the US, Canada and the UK). Whereas a "registered" address is the address which is displayed on the PayPal "Transaction Details" page, this is the address you must ship to. If the buyer is requesting you to deliver to a different address, this might be an indication of fraud (in most cases).

The buyer has the opportunity to provide or correct the shipping address before he makes his payment. But, if the payment has been made and he has just discovered that the shipping address is wrong, then there is still a chance to correct it. If you (the seller) have not yet accepted the payment, you can refund the money, your buyer can correct his address and then re-submit the payment.

If you have accepted the payment already then there's no turning back. Your buyer will just have to pick up his parcel at the established address or advise someone who lives at that address, to receive the parcel for him and either resend it or keep it until he can go pick it up. There are really not many options here.

Only if the buyer is a regular customer of yours and you've done business with him for a long time, then you might consider making an exception, but only if this is the case.

If the case is that the item is supposed to be a gift, then the buyer should register that address as a "gift address" in his PayPal account. To do so he needs to Go to Profile > Postal Address under Account Information > Add Address > Select Add a gift address enter your information > Save.

For further information on the subject, you can go to the following link of PayPal's website https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=security/seller_protection_faq