I have messaged this guy and he is unwilling to use a escrow.
I honestly don' think this really matters. I don't think anyone in their right mind would accept the OP's offer/rates as they are significantly less then other convenient, ways for people to acquire bitcoin that are anonymous. Even if the OP was to use escrow the buyer would be getting scammed for at least 25% of their money as this is how much lower of a rate he is offering then what others can easily buy bitcoin at.
As far as the OP's concerns regarding getting scammed from escrow, I don't think they are valid as deep web sites tend to be much less secure from a trading point of view because deep web sites can be more easily faked, there are more attack vectors to attack either the site or the escrow provider, and it would be more difficult to tell that either has been hacked due to the anonymous nature of the deep web.
There are generally much more ways to link someone's identity to specific escrow providers and it is generally easier to tell when an escrow provider's account has been compromised. Yes, it should be said that a person's identity is not worth very much, however if/when someone scams if their identity can be obtained then criminal charges can be brought against them, plus they do have a certain value in their reputation which would disappear if they were to scam