On Mon, 5 Mar 2012 23:48:55 -0500
Kristopher Gamrat <chaotickjg@...> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 11:37 PM, Calvin Morrison <mutantturkey@...> wrote:
> <snip>
> > What about Coffee Mugs? it's easier than t-shirts (sizes, types,
> > custom imprints, a whole mess). We could ask for a minimum X dollars
> > for a mug, and allow users to bump it higher. plus most people rely on
> > a trusty coffee mug at work, making it rather useful.
> >
> > What do you guys think?
> 
> I think we should do both the t-shirts and the mugs. How many types of
> t-shirts are there? Regular t-shirts and polos? Heck, if I had the
> money and TDE had the coffee mugs and polo shirts, I'd definitely
> donate for both, that way I could walk around promoting TDE with a
> flashy logo that people would be interested in, perhaps look up or ask
> me about 8-)
> 
> The biggest problem with the shirts is finding a reliable and
> trustworthy silk-screener, but that's what social networking, Google,
> and real-life contacts are for, right? :-)

There's always the option of using one of the on-line drop-shipping
item-printers--basically, companies that will print and ship the item
for you and give you a cut of the sale price.  There are about a half-
dozen of them out there:

Zazzle currently offers the widest selection of things-you-can-
print-on (apparel, mugs, mouse pads, stickers, iPod cases, etc etc ad
nauseum), but their contract contains a nasty little clause with a rights-grab 
for any correspondence you have with them, any posts on their forums, etc. 
(it doesn't extend to designs you print with them, but I find it a bit
disturbing on principle).

Spreadshirt has a better contract, but they only do fabric goods, so no 
coffee mugs.

There's also CafePress (requires a monthly fee, IIRC), Redbubble (based
in Australia, so the shipping fees to US/Canada/Europe are likely to be
high), one that does mostly organic/free-trade apparel whose name I 
can't remember, and a couple that are like Spreadshirt but with contract
clauses similar to Zazzle.

I've done silkscreening on shirts before, but I'm not good enough that
I think it's a good idea to have our fundraising efforts rest on me, and
there are a bunch of logistical problems anyway--it's very difficult for
me to get supplies here, and they're expensive enough that I would
want cost remitted to me, and . . . well, you get the idea.

There's also the option of hiring a commercial screen-printer for a short
run, but they're likely to want payment up-front and have a minimum
run size of 200 items or so, which someone then has to store and arrange
to ship out.

I would say the minimum-effort option is to go with Zazzle or Spreadshirt.