I have interest in know.... Do you sign commercial agreements with your suppliers ?BTW, A little rant and information about importing...
In my experience, the companies that ask ridiculous amounts for a sample always seem to end up being the shitty ones. I would venture that they are shitty so they only make money by asking high prices for samples.
I usually get samples from 2-4 different vendors. Some companies will charge a reasonable $10 for a sample and some will charge $50. Then some will charge $30 for shipping and others $50. Then on top of that, some will charge a 5% paypal fee.
So I usually get a sample from whoever I like in my email exchanges and I tend to ignore the high costs because in reality, I can spend $200-$300 getting samples, because I know that when I get the correct sample, I will make alot more later on.
However, after doing this a few years. I've noticed that the high sample priced companies never delivered on quality. I have never moved forward with a company that made me pay alot for a sample. I usually got the best samples from the companies that sent the sample for free or a low price and charged reasonably for shipping.
Because I am fairly experienced at this, I usually send all the information that they need in my first email. I send my quantity, all my artwork, logos, pantone colors, header card design, packaging information and even my ship to address. What I really expect is an email that just says, we can do this at XXX price shipped to your door.
But what I usually get back is a bunch of questions that I answered in the first email. However, there will always be that one vendor that read the whole email and quoted everything perfectly, or very close to it. I usually give these guys a shot at a sample no matter their price.
Just last night, I was in talks with 5 vendors on a new product. This is a fairly simple screen print onto polyester product costing between $.50-$2.00.
Vendor #1, I sent my artwork PDF and they literally printed it and sent me back a photo of a finished product within 1 hour! And it looked good. I was like holy shit, that was fast. I paypal'd them $30 and they are sending my the sample so I can see and feel it.
Vendor #2 game me excuses like they couldn't read my file, the artwork was the wrong size, and wanted me to resize my artwork. I told them I would not do it and also told them I had samples coming already. Then magically they could do it! They want $60 setup charge to make my sample and $30 to ship it. No thanks. Their prices are 60% the price of Vendor #1.
Vendor #3 could not understand my artwork, I told them I want a 2.5cm x 2.5cm logo in the corner and they sent my a proof with dimensions showing the logo at 5cm x 4cm. Not a good sign to start with. They were priced the same as Vendor #1.
Vendor #4 and #5, were out of the ballpark in pricing. My guess is that they were not a factory.
So in this case, I only ended up with one sample coming. If it matches my current offering, I'm going with them. Even if they aren't the cheapest.
If you make that ... about what number of inventory and what terms do you put in the agreement?
I m thinking in make that the next time because ... I always have big delay for everything Can you give me some tips for not lose much time ?
Especially if you cant see the inventory , my product not come to my country and go directly to Amazon Warehouse in USA (So this can be a risk , what is the correct way to work if you can't check the product yourself ? =
PD: My supplier ask me "Telephone number of the consignee of US." He need some data to submit to FDA ... Amazon warehouse have phone ?
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