Met the guy in CA and even visited his home.....he's a decent guy who has been dealing records for a long, long time.
I presume the payment was to be made via paypal, and so although you are happy to take the risk on cheaper postage and take the hit if anything goes wrong during shipping, he may well have been burned by other buyers in the past and is thus reluctant to take the chance again.
Have you suggested paying by paypal gift or bank transfer, so that he can be 100% sure you cannot attempt to reclaim funds if the 45 goes missing or gets broken in transit.
I'm sure that he would be happy to ship standard post if this was the case?