We do that with a CafePress account. See
http://www.cafepress.com/wikipedia
I still like this idea. I think we should consider a proper
production run of one or two nice items, from a much cheaper
manufacturer than cafe-press. They won't go to waste; among other
things, we can send some of them to donors who give over a certain
amount.
Perhaps a new design contest is in order?
As for myself, I love the tile coasters offered via cafepress, but
wish the image were updated to reflect the new logo and skin. Erik,
are you still maintaining this account? A water bottle and
winter-suitable jacket would also be good additions to our list.
IIRC we haven't broke $1000 profit yet for our
CafePress account. Yet we took
in well over $50,000 the first half this year in pure donations.
On the other hand, distributing physical items with our logo is a gift
that keeps on giving... as friends (even people who rarely use the
web) see you wearing your shirt around, or guests admire your bizarre
drink coasters at a party.
When I wrote in favor of having "100,000 physical instances of WM
products distributed", this is the kind of product I was thinking of.
(The upcoming CD & DVD distributions are a fantastic start -- but
unless you have an obnoxious brightly-colored CD-case design like AOL
does, those kinds of products don't "keep giving" in quite the same
way.)
--
+sj+