Hello,
I agree whole heartily with Diesel that Hobbywing ESC's are the only way to go, I use them in both my boat and trucks.

How much for shipping on the 180A unit on you saw on eBay?? HobbyPartz has them for $92.70 with free shipping and they take PayPal too.

About the programming card... some yes, some say no. There's only 4 settings for the boat ESC's, but i've run into situations where the card made first time setup much easier.

Goto HW's website and get the manual, at the beginning it talks about training your tx and esc to understand each other. There's been several times when I've had to connect the card and set it up for both forward & reverse (item #1) until I finished that process, then go back to forward only.

Think about it this way... If you can't get the esc & tx to work together,then how can you use the tx to program the esc?? Classic case of what came first - thechicken or the egg??Program card solves that problem thus reducing frustration.

Another nice thing about the card it that it makes it real easy to precisely setup the lipo cutoff voltage. the company that made your batteries should supply that info on the box / package / there website,what-ever.