Yes, of course you are paying first. Your business partners are in a whole different jurisdiction, where neither you or them can count on legal means if it comes to a scam.
You will find that the general level of trust between sellers and customers is zero. You will always have to go first, and no sellers offers refundable payment methods, certainly not for first time customers. The reason is that offering refundable payment methods would allow customers to do chargeback-scams on sellers.
added: 6/26/2023