A China factory quote is honest about exactly one thing: the product. It is silent on a dozen costs that are just as real. Experienced buyers budget for them from the first conversation; first-timers discover them one invoice at a time. Here is what to plan for.
Tooling and Moulds
If your product is custom-moulded or stamped, it needs tooling — a one-off cost that is separate from the unit price and is rarely volunteered in an opening quote. It can be modest or it can be a large upfront sum. Ask early, and settle in writing who owns the mould once you have paid for it.
Samples and Pre-Production
Samples are rarely free, and the bigger cost is often the courier: air-expressing samples back and forth across several rounds of revision adds up quickly. Build a realistic sample budget that includes a few iterations, because the first sample is almost never the last.
Quality Inspection
A third-party inspection — pre-shipment or during production — is a per-order cost that pays for itself the first time it catches a problem before the container sails. Treat it as a standing line item, not an optional extra.
Defects, Rework and Returns
No production run is perfect. A realistic defect allowance, and the cost of shipping or reworking replacements, belongs in your model. The replacement batch that has to go by air freight because the defective one shipped by sea is one of the most expensive surprises in sourcing.
Payment and Currency Costs
International wire transfers carry fees on both ends, and the currency conversion spread is a real cost on every payment. So is the financing cost of a 30% deposit sitting with the supplier for weeks before you have anything to sell — that is your capital, tied up.
Compliance and Certification
Lab testing, certification marks and the documentation behind them cost money, and they are non-negotiable for regulated products. Scope them before production, not after a shipment is held at the border.
Logistics Surprises
Demurrage and detention charges when a container is not cleared in time, peak-season freight surcharges, and re-delivery fees all sit outside the headline freight quote. They are avoidable with planning — and expensive without it.
How to Budget for Them
Add a line for each of these in your costing template, even if some are zero for a given order. Carry a contingency for the ones you cannot predict precisely. A sourcing budget that only contains the factory quote is not a budget — it is a hope.
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