How much SDMB stuff would we have to buy to make SDMB profitable?

In My Humble Opinion
1

After reading in one of the threads that SDMB operates at a loss, I decided to check out the “Buy Stuff” link.

I think I’m going to get a couple of the books and maybe a coffee mug, but will it make that much difference? How many Dopers would have to buy a coffee mug to get SDMB operating in the black? Has anyone bought anything?

2

General Questions Answer

I think it would be a simple matter of finding out how much the SDMB costs to run per month and the profit margin on various items for purchase. But I doubt that any of the staff would go public with the information.

IMHO Answer

A whole bunch of stuff.

3

Several hundred tons of books.

4

I bought a T-shirt and mug months ago, around the same time I finally de-lurked and registered. I wish the mug were larger, I might actually use it then, but I adore the feeling of smug superiority I get wearing the T-shirt. I’ve had lots of folks ask me what the illustration means, and then I wind up explaining and showing them the URL and inviting them to have a look. It’d be cool to somehow know if any of them had ever actually made it here and signed up.

Since the books come out so infrequently, maybe they could offer a new mug/mouse pad/sweatshirt/t-shirt design yearly. Generate more revenue if we all decided that having SD-wear was the coolest thing to show off at dopefests.

5

There is no SDMB merchandise, just SD merchandise. Which is what you’re talking about, so I’ll stop being pedantic.

AFAIK, they don’t have any way of tracking whether a purchaser of SD merchandise is registered here on the MB. And they’ve got no reason to attribute a portion of revenues from SD merchandise to the SDMB, or allocate a portion of the profits to the SDMB.

So buying an infinite quantity might not make the SDMB profitable, for all we know.

6

Why, Kim!

How cynical of you.

7

So that means that if an infinite number of posters bought an infinite amount of merchandise the hamster might run infinitely long on a wheel of infinite diameter.

Ouch. I think I just hurt my brain…

8

We could take an infinite number of dopers and put them before a computer keyboard for an infinte amount of time and we would still talk about pie, boobies and LoTR’s.
I’d like to see SDMB window decal that read SDMB: Fighting Ignorance since 1973 .

9

They had the internet in 1973?

10

Now see, there ya go again.

11

Sort of. It was originally manufactured out of cork and installed primarily in laundromats.