Bags, mugs, pens, T-shirts … Salut! Sunderland goes all sheepish

Maybe unless you work in a market, it’s a British thing to feel uncomfortable about asking anyone for money, even in return for legitimate goods or services.

Ads on sites like these can be a pain. I try to be careful about content and positioning and would remove anything that seemed – on readers’ verifiable experiences – dodgy. But ads are necessary if, to be blunt, the site can be kept going with anything like the level of commitment it currently gets. Same goes for the bits and pieces we’re now asking you to consider buying, if they appeal to you. The Salut! Sunderland Shop’s moral high ground is reached by making them all Sunderland-related, and the shop is reached by clicking here …

Courtesy of Rob Hutchison, a Sunderland-supporting voice of reason on these pages and elsewhere, what you see above is the first Salut! Sunderland mug known to have been put to its intended purpose.

Rob was ahead of all others in placing an order when the first hesitant attempts to flog off merchandise were made.

I worried, as with all other items for sale, that someone would come back and question my sanity and their judgement.

And to be fair, the tea looks a bit milky for my taste. But Rob’s verdict on its receptacle – I won’t see mine until I get home to the UK for a long weekend – is encouraging:

“Nice sized handle, doesn’t get too hot which is a common problem with some thick rimmed mugs. Logos work too. It works!”

As I am the first to recognise, a winless start to the season is hardly the best time to invite loyal readers to stump up cash for Sunderland-related things they can easily regard as highly optional.

But the mugs seem to serve their purpose. They cost £11, post-free in the UK, and if you don’t like either of my present logo slogans – “Salut! Sunderland – a site better” or “Salut! Sunderland – a million reader can’t be wrong” – tell me what you’d rather see there.

More generally, Salut! Sunderland is grateful for the healthy hit rates it attracts. The buzz they alone create, and the increasingly high quality of comments from supporters, will ensure the service is maintained as best we can. And all the while, we’ll be hoping a few more people follow the lead of Rob and others and help make the site viable.

I have today added a denim photo bag to the small but growing parade of items for sale. The suppliers say it measures 20 x 20 x 6 cm with a removable front flap, a zip, an internal pocket and adjustable straps. If you like it, it costs £13.50, post-free in the UK. I offer that description because I need to work on the inadequate photo that makes it look little bigger than the mug.

And I should mention that the Salut! Sunderland version of the Crackerjack pencil – the pen engraved “written with passion” – has at last ploughed down through the skies to its proper pricing level: £2.

Needless to say, I have reached suitable arrangements with those readers who rattled off orders expecting Sheaffer’s finest. One asked for more pens – he may regret that when a dozen arrive – and another settled for a mug.

As well as mugs, pens, T-shirts and – now – denim bags, you’ll find a computer mouse (see comment) mouse pad and shoulder bag if you were to root around at the overspill site reached by clicking as follows:

The Salut! Sunderland Shop

Once there, you may spot further options to browse and even catch up on some old postings about Roy Keane and SuperKev …