Ryan, you are the man. I plugged that code in over the original uc_paypal_complete function (minus the php tag) and it did the charm.

I think that's actually the last problem that I had with my shop. Wow, I'm ecstatic.

Just to explain a little further the problem (now that it's gone), I had continued to try different auto return settings in paypal, but you were right. If things are working properly, you won't need it. At checkout I've checked the code before submitting an order, and it showed the return url as being site.com/uc_paypal/wps/complete (with the order number added). when clicking the button to return to my site after submitting payment, that is the address it goes to. But then my site couldn't make use of that so it would bring me to the cart. The issue was with how ubercart was handling the return as it was received. And this fixed that.

Thanks a bunch
cassidy