I’ve just chucked a few quid in the pot.
My thoughts on the selling fees: I completely agree with the charge for advertising a bus for sale. Whilst there is Facebook where it could be advertised for free, the audience is very different to a website advert. I’ve sold a small handful of cars in recent years, and I got so fed up with the repeated messages asking for my ‘best price’ or ‘I can pay immediately and send my shipping agent to collect as I’m currently on a ship serving the Royal Navy...’ when using Facebook, that I will now only use a site like Pistonheads which mainly isn’t full of scammers. Obviously, this comes at a cost, but at £15 per ad, I’ve never had any bother and always had very easy sales. I see this site in a similar way, a group of enthusiasts with a common interest, so by all means, I’d pay to advertise a vehicle.
However, I can’t say I feel the same about parts, and there has been a noticeable drop off in ads since the fees came in. Previously, people would just dip into this site to advertise bits and pieces that were surplus to requirements, or had maybe been kicking about in the garage for some time. It’s nice as an active member to be able to have ‘first dibs’ at these before they ended up on FB or eBay. Unfortunately, the audience here is much smaller, and as soon as people see a price associated with it, it is going to put them off and they’ll go and spend that money to sell somewhere with a higher likelihood of getting rid. There’s also the consideration that you are paying upfront for an ad with no guarantee of a sale, whereas eBay will only charge once it has gone - possibly something else that is contributing to the downturn. I will hold my hands up as advertising parts recently on FB because the zero fees means I haven’t lost anything if something doesn’t sell, or the low value of the items means I just want rid as cheaply and easily as possible to help someone else out and have them out of my way.
I think the donation route is a great way to bring in some cash. There will always be a ‘hardcore’ of users who will be willing to dip into their pockets, and this will keep the site largely free for new members to be more willing to sign up. My belief is that FB will eventually run its course. It is a pretty useless platform for getting help from others as there are very few people who will willingly type a useful response (very much the opposite of here), and that just leaves it as a place for posting up nice photos or selling (if that always stays as free). It’d be great to win back some of that crowd, and the Internet forum certainly has the niche market of build threads and technical resource. I often think that it is favourable that there isn’t a massive audience like FB has, therefore posts don’t immediately get bumped miles down the page.