I’m sure that the buyer can be expected to pay for shipping, but at the end of the day for any buyer the “price” is inclusive of all fees, and for the seller the “profit” is minus expenses. So if it’s cheaper to ship using eBay’s discount, that means the buyer pays more or the seller makes less.
In the end it’s probably worth it for the peace of mind, though. I’ve personally never been screwed on a big ticket item and I don’t mind selling stuff for under $100 on ebay. If I lose, it’s lost, right? My feelings about eBay so far are that I’m selling there as much for altruistic reasons… I don’t want the material to be landfill, someone can get a deal (I do it all the time), and I’d like to recoup some cash as well to spend on hobbies. The couple times I’ve been hassled and lost money on ebay, it totaled less that $50.
I’d be super upset if I got screwed for several hundred.
I would not be surprised to learn that you could make as much profit open sourcing the work and using Patreon instead of demanding users pay to release the shackles.
Do it your way. I will probably pay you when you come out with a widget. But I would have done that anyway. Shoving ads in my face makes me not like you.