The hint about how to resolve the absence of a free shipping option is buried in this page about Ebay's Business Policies. I'll bet you didn't know about them; I've been a seller for like, more than a decade and I sure didn't.
You have to resolve your Business Policies pertaining to shipping before you can use shipping options. On my Managing Business Policies page, Ebay generated more than 200 such policies for me, which is odd because I have only a few dozen listings, many of them with free shipping.
One way to resolve your Business Policies is to opt out of the dang things, which slippinjimmy mentioned above. This is a teeny tiny link on your Managing Business Policies page, which I'll be you didn't know about, either, because Ebay dropped this on sellers in a recent "improvement" without notice or explanation.
This clue is buried in the FAQs at the bottom of the new Business Policies page, which goes yadda yadda yadda about this important, essential feature before revealing
What happens if I want to opt out of business policies?
You can opt out any time by selecting the Opt out link on the Manage business policies page. Your active listings won't be affected, but if you want to make changes to payment, shipping, and return terms, you'll need to do that individually on each future listing. You can also opt back in to business policies at any time; the policies you already created will still be there, ready for you to use again.
(I must note that nowhere on Ebay is it explained how you do stuff on the Manage business policies page or what happens when you change things.)
Oh, dear, making changes to payment, shipping, and return terms for individual items sounds like what I, as a small seller, have been doing all along. I think I can live without the profound PITA that is Business Policies.
PS I hope it's true that if I opt-out, my active listings won't be affected, because otherwise, I'd have to set up shipping for each other all over again.
