I guess what I'm saying is that contributing a little extra here and there through purchases makes the donating less obvious and easier to swallow than looking at a specific amount of dollars you pay for a subscription. Or am I not correctly interpreting how this crowd fund idea would work?
To me, it's totally situational.
In this instance (40th Anniv Wave 2 Case of 8 @ Dorkside and EE), it looks like this:
A) you're willing to spend $165. You buy from Dorkside @ $160 and kick $5 to JD
B) you're willing to spend $165. You buy from EE @ $165 and EE kicks 10% back to JD ($16.50)
In this case, for this product, buying from EE helps us a lot more than just kicking us $5 in crowdfunding/donation. But that's not always going to be the case. Not everyone wants to drop $165 on a full case - maybe they only want one figure or two from the box and are waiting for regular retail or HasbroToyShop or something.
What if the only thing you buy is the Walmart 3.75" SA stuff? There is no EE/Amazon click through for those. Or LEGO - I'm not expecting anyone to pay full price for LEGO at EE just to get us a cut when they can get great deals at Target clearances or TRU BOGOs.
What Nick was suggesting with crowdfunding (and again, full disclosure, this was something we were already looking into - something that Adam Pawlus at GH has already started doing) was just offering another option for helping the site. Some people would rather kick money directly to us than buy over-priced toys from Amazon secondary sellers or Brian's Toys or other scalpery-style etailers.
The "scalpery" thing is a big reason that opening a crowdfunding option is tempting to me. I'd much rather get some monthly donations from JediDefender users as opposed to searching out another sponsor who
thinks $35 is a fair price for BS 6" figures or
$15 for 5POA figures is OK. I've held my nose and dealt with a number of sponsors over the years because in all honesty, we needed their help to stay open. If crowdfunding opens up a new door and lets me drop some of those unsavory places, it's a win in my book.