Just to document some of the background work. I was looking for a manufacturer that like a print on demand book seller would allow the creation of a Ardupilot store that users could buy products, they would be manufactured and shipped to the customer directly and Ardupilot would receive a check each month for the difference in the wholesale cost to manufacture and the retail price set by Ardupilot. Kinda a win win. No staff, no overhead, no capital investment.
I have looked at 10 or more manufacturers. My first was Vistaprint which offers a group like Ardupilot a 40% margin on their retail cost of products. They will produce and ship product directly to the end users but they can’t provide the web interface to collect payments from the end users.
The other manufacturers I looked at like Staples have programs to create the webstore and do exact what is needed but all required $50,000 yearly product sales.
James found Zazzle and Redbubble but Zazzle does not offer the organization a discount so the retail price must be built on Zazzles already high costs. Redbubble was too difficult to figure out their margins very touch me feel me artist oriented.
With Zazzle the retail price of something like a mug would have to be around $18 which seems too high for the average users to swallow. Same with TShirts ending up over $20.
Amazon has a program for just TShirts that might be worth it. Exactly what I was looking for but you must be invited to join. Fill out paperwork, including financial stuff and they let you know if you are invited.
There may be a vendor like Vistaprint with the ability to do the checkout too but I have not found them.