Over on another specialist hobby type forum I frequent, what they do is basically take orders over the course of a 4-6 week period or so to give everybody a chance to order, then they send off the whole order to be made (so they don't have to stock a million of each different size of shirt, etc). Then when they come back, they ship 'em all out.
People order knowing in advance that they won't see anything for little while, but it helps to support the site, and eventually we get stuff. They do this a couple of times a year.
Personally, I'd be completely happy with that arrangement.
