Selling things on FreelyWheely

All the details

Hi everyone, We're going to be making a BIG change to FreelyWheely shortly - soon you'll be able to sell things! I'm sure this is going to get quite a strong reaction, so I wanted to explain why we've done it. At the moment we get quite a few posts in the free section that advertise items that are for sale. They are hard to spot, sometime people only find out that the things are for sale when they make a request for them. This causes lots of problems and we get a lot of complaints because of it. We have been trying to tackle this by filtering items, adding posting rules and with more moderation, but it just isn't working. So we've decided to stop fighting it. We are going to be introducing a separate category for things that are for sale. If you want to only be emailed about free things then you can set your preferences exactly like that, but you will also be able to be emailed things that are locally for sale. This is an experiment, and so please bear with us - we are trying to see if this will make things better, we are bound to be trying several different ways of making it work, and, as always, if you have any feedback, we would love to hear it - so either post below or email us at admin@freelywheely.com Jon Vaughan FreelyWheely Admin

Comments

cwrwmawr , 8 years, 3 months ago

Sounds like a great idea. I have noticed a few items that seemed to be for sale and then they disappeared. It will certainly give more scope to the site for people who want to dispose of more valuable items, perhaps cars or motorbikes. Will it still be free to post items on the site even if they are for sale? What about payment for items, how does FreelyWheely HQ figure that will work?

jsvaughan , 8 years, 3 months ago

Hi, - It will still be free to post things for sale, no commission or anything like that. - For now, at least, we aren't going to have any payment facility, because this is a trial and we are keeping things simple, so you will need to pay cash on collection. Hope this helps Jon Vaughan

antstuff , 8 years, 3 months ago

cwrwmawr , 8 years, 3 months ago

Thanks Jon - sounds good and I hope it takes off. Look forward to seeing the tab in the headers. Will the tab be a different colour?

sourgecko2010 , 8 years, 3 months ago

Whatever it takes to keep this great service going!

mandytox , 8 years, 3 months ago

There are plenty of sites that sell things so why change it? What you could of done is said if people try to post things for sale they will be banned. There will probably be less free stuff soon as people will just sell it. I know this site has helped lots of people who cannot afford to buy new or second hand things for their home and children. I hope this doesn't change the site too much. Just my opinion and I guess lots of people may disagree with me.

joelx , 8 years, 3 months ago

HI , I came onto this site because it is about giving things I do not need anymore for free. I am reluctant to give certain things to charity shops because they are then sold on. I am sad that you could not fin d another solution. I think banning people who try to sell something would have been a good start. Why not have a banner with each email reminding people of the ethos of the site. I have both received and given things to other people and it has always been a great experience. I leave things I do not want outside my door but not everything can be left outside. Please keep the site for free giving.

david57banks , 8 years, 3 months ago

Does this mean that you will have to change the name? BuyWheely? I'm afraid that selling stuff defeats the object of having a "Free" site.....

cwrwmawr , 8 years, 3 months ago

I've heard that organisers will keep it available for free stuff as that's how it started. It's a great site that, in many ways, provides a public service.

emmajane74ej , 8 years, 3 months ago

Agree with many others, just ban people that try to sell.. Not a difficult solution. I have given a lot of things away on here and selling things does not make you freely wheely anymore. Bad idea!

petem , 8 years, 3 months ago

Not happy about this,change you wiil get taken advantage of by traders,and,chancers for me it was always about recycling and,helping each other but much better run than freecycle guess I'll have to go back there very bad move sellers have only moved in on you coz its free to list if I want to sell something I use ebay!Dont be conned stop it now!

pattiunsworth , 8 years, 3 months ago

I agree with above comments - surely the ethos is to help other people and stop items ending up in landfill too. I have given away items and received items too - will not be the same at all if items are for sale. I will stick to buying items on other sites such as Ebay or Gumtree. Pat.

brokenbranchranch62 , 8 years, 3 months ago

I will be looking forward to this as I have just moved into our new home and would like to get rid of tons of stuff. Also I will be putting thing up for free too. when it gets rolling just let us all know. great Idea...

petem , 8 years, 3 months ago

The more you give away the more likely you are to win free things for your new house exchange is no robbery! There's tons of other places to sell stuff and people come to freecycle looking for free stuff and to give away stuff not to buy and sell !

phillipmoores73 , 8 years, 3 months ago

I think it is a very good idea if your doing freewheely then you might as well sell it

hoganloraine , 8 years, 3 months ago

Yes Jon, hard to please everyone. Ethos of the site is good but more people might put better things on if they can even get a fiver for them ( a fiver they might need from an unwanted Christmas present or something) so there is different things that please different people. Great site so keep going whatever. It is great!

chrissienolan1 , 8 years, 3 months ago

Sorry Jon, but don't agree with now selling stuff on here I joined because it was free stuff, I have recently had a free item from you which I am really grateful for and I was hoping in the near future to put something on here to help someone else, if people want to buy and sell we would use eBay etc, this site is freely wheely so please please keep it for free items only as this really is to help people who cannot afford to buy which is a much better reason for keeping this site free, if not people will get greedy and they will only sell stuff and not give anything for free in the future, please don't of it.

maunbatters , 8 years, 3 months ago

I agree with the above comment, that this site should remain true to the ethos it was set up for and not offer items for sale. In 2015, after a year of homelessness, I was rehoused and being unable work, I was able to partly furnish my home through this site and the generosity of its users. Without these items being offered for free my home would not feel as comfortable or homely as it does, I would be struggling even more financially and my quality of life would not have improved much from when I was homeless. In the past, I have ignored items for sale and will continue to do so as there are plenty of other sites suitable for selling and it contravenes the 'free' part of the site name and the recycling and land free aspect.