I'm probably tempting fate here, but Paypal is actually not that bad, apart from the heavy fees.
There are basically a few hoops you have to jump through, if you have jumped through them, you will be fine. A rough summary:
As long as you can prove that you sent the item, and it was received, with some online evidence (i.e. tracking number on DHL, etc. website) you will be protected.
Above a certain value (£150 in the UK, might be different in DE) you have to additionally have a signature upon delivery.
If the item is low value, don't worry at all. Most people are honest and things rarely get lost in the post. For items of small value, even if sent by regular mail, you can generally claim back from the post office if the worst happens.
This is not really a problem, because for higher value items you will not be sending by regular post anyway...
Confirmed addresses apply only to a very few countries, UK and USA for sure, no idea about Canada. So basically it's irrelevant, especially if you are selling on ebay.de where many customers will be from the EU in general, out of which only British residents could possibly have confirmed addresses, and it's not like the UK has a monopoly on honesty in the EU 😉
Personally, I don't worry about it - usually, I get things sent to my work address (UK) because someone will always be there to receive a parcel, and this is an unconfirmed address - only my home address, where my cards a registered, is confirmed (confirmed address basically just means paypal has checked the delivery address is where the bank a/c, card etc. is registered to). Many people do the same as me, and request delivery to an unconfirmed address. If a member is not verified, then it is a bit more worrying.
The main things to avoid would be things like the buyer arranging their own courier, or paying by paypal but collecting in person. In both cases, you wouldn't be able to provide paypal with proof the item was shipped and received - likely, the buyer is honest, but if not...
When I moved to Germany I was really amazed by how easy bank transfer payments are - in the UK it is very awkward to make such payments. I envy the system but Paypal isn't the empire of evil it is often presented as. When I was active on ebay.de, as a seller it was great to be able to avoid paypal fees, but fairly often I received an item as a buyer not really as wonderful as it was described, and could do nothing about it. Plus you may get more international bids, pushing the price up for your items - bidders from e.g. the UK would be very unfamiliar with bank transfers, and wary of them, especially as they also cost us a lot in bank fees. Now you accept Paypal, they may bid...
