This issue comes up from time to time, and while it has been answered in various scattered posts over the years, it seems we should have a post we can point to that tries to explain it as best as can be done.

Unlike many sites, our Classifieds are not a free-for-all. They are provided as a service to participating community members. The forums are here to encourage early Fox enthusiasts to help one another and be a support system for the early Fox cars. The Classifieds are structured with this in mind.

We require a location in all ads so interested parties do not have to keep asking for locations over and over. Having a location present already lets the other party know whether the item is worth further interest. Some folks don't want to have to deal with shipping, some folks don't want to have to drive more than a certain number of miles. We don't ask for addresses or phone numbers, just a city and state (or city and province in Canada). The city and state can be removed after the ad is no longer needed.

We do not require a post count to buy or sell a car as we want these cars to have the best chance possible to find a good owner.

We limit what cars can be sold or traded for here in order to avoid having random folks use us as just another site to try to pawn off their vehicles that have nothing to do with the interests of this site and its general membership.

We don't allow anyone and everyone to post parts for sale because we want to avoid the massive amounts of scammers, thieves and folks who refuse to read the guidelines we have in place for our Parts - For Sale area. The limit is at 100 posts, which may seem high, but after a long study of what sorts of members wound up causing trouble in our PFS area, it was discovered that the one common denominator was a post count of less than 100.

Posting items for sale is a privilege that is given to those who contribute to the site. One may choose to either give to the community by participating and earn the privilege in that manner, or by making a small contribution to the site that goes towards hosting, domain name charges, software, material to be added to the site, etc., which allows the 100 post count requirement to be bypassed.

We don't allow complete/good/reasonably reparable cars to be parted out here as that is counterproductive to our purpose. We are here to help keep these cars on the road, and if possible, to get cars back on the road. Removing complete cars from the population winds up hurting the hobby in the long run, and is already hurting us now. In order for us to have a good chance at aftermarket reproduction support, we need to keep as many of these cars in one piece as possible. Destroying good cars does NOT make the remainder of cars more valuable. In fact, it proves the opposite. It cheapens the overall value of these cars in the automotive market by effectively showing that the cars are not worth anything as a whole.

We have a Free/Trade area that has no restrictions other than location to allow folks who want nothing more than to help someone out by giving away some parts to have an outlet for those parts. It also helps folks that may otherwise not have a chance to get a certain part to perhaps pick something up, and hopefully they will return the favor at some point in the future.

In short, we're not overly concerned about the needs or wants of those who just want to stop by the site, turn a buck and walk away. We understand that perhaps not everyone who has something to sell is interested in participating in a message board or does not have the time to do so. For that reason, we started the 30 Day Parts for Sale Pass in case they were willing to take out an ad, just like listing something in a newspaper or putting an item up on Ebay. Unlike those places, the ads here do not have a solid expiration date. The ads are allowed to remain active until the parts are sold. They only drop off of our Parts - For Sale forum 120 days after the last post is made in the thread.

Yes, this site is different than most in many ways, but it has worked for us and kept this community going and growing for several years. I hope this post has shed some light on some things. I'll come back to this post and add material as it becomes apparent that I need to do so.

Thanks for your understanding.