UUuuguuhhhhh I have been dreading responding to this thread, but here we go.

I love that so many of you would buy Subeta merch. This is one of the most frequent requests we get — Discord, forums, DMs, you name it. And I get it! I want another Kumos plushie on my desk too. But I have to be honest about why this doesn't work for us right now, and I want to show the actual math instead of just saying "it's complicated."

Where we are today: Subeta runs at roughly break-even. Some months (like November during the sale) we do better; quieter months we do worse. When you buy CSC or a subscription, we keep about 97% of that. Almost every dollar goes directly to paying illustrators, servers, lawyers, support, taxes — the stuff that keeps the lights on.

What merch margins actually look like: On a print-on-demand shirt, we'd keep maybe 5–10%. On a plushie — which everyone (rightfully) wants most — margins can hit 20–30%, but only at quantities way beyond what we'd realistically sell, especially starting out. And if we use a third-party fulfillment partner to handle shipping and logistics (because nobody here has a warehouse), that margin shrinks even further.

Here's the part that really stings: Most merch purchases wouldn't be new money coming in — they'd be instead of CSC or subscriptions. If someone spends $40 on a plushie and skips their usual CSC purchase, we went from keeping ~$39 to keeping maybe $4–8. That's not a rounding error. For a site running at break-even, that kind of substitution could genuinely hurt.

I know this isn't what anyone wants to hear, and I promise I'm not saying "never." I'm saying that right now, with where Subeta's finances are, merch would likely cost us money rather than make it. If we get to a point where the site has more financial breathing room, this is absolutely something I'd love to revisit.