Erik has updated all Wikipedia merchandise at CafePress and added US$5 to the
price of everything so that this can now generate money for the foundation.
But before I place a link to
http://www.cafeshops.com/wikipedia on our
fundraising page, I think it would be a good idea for some members of this
list to purchase an item or two and report back on the quality of the service
and item(s). It would also be interesting to hear from people who have bought
things from CafePress before and learn about their experiences.
If we determine that CafePress makes quality products and gives good service,
then I'll go ahead and link
http://www.cafeshops.com/wikipedia on our
fundraising page.
Knowing about other places that perform the same service as CafePress but who
do so at lower prices and/or accept payments in other currencies, would also
be nice. Of course we will have to be reasonably sure of their quality as
well.
NOTE: According to Jimbo, we plan to eventually set-up a secure server to
handle direct donations (this would be in addition to PayPal and probably one
other service). If and when that is set-up we would be able to order bulk
shipments from a variety of vendors and handle orders on our own. But that
would require a staff to fill orders and storage area (two things the
foundation does not have). Those two things might negate the cost savings of
doing this on our own. So for now at least, we will probably have to depend
on services like CafePress and deal with fairly expensive base prices.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)