Factory sourcing · Comparable quotes · Inspection · Order follow-up · One desk
I work out of Qingdao, China — goods ship via the Port of Qingdao, one of the world's busiest container ports. Within an hour are Jiaozhou and Gaomi; within two and a half, Weifang and Zhucheng — the densest cluster of factories in Shandong. You send one specification; I visit the plants, get three comparable quotes on it, inspect the goods and follow the order through. I take the project, not the category: knitwear, caps, bedding, towels, machined parts, bearings — whatever sits inside a day's reach.
You pay the factory. We charge for the work.
First-round research and price enquiries are free — I ring the factories myself and come back with rough price, MOQ and lead time. Paid work starts at the kick-off deposit: half the quoted fee, USD 200 minimum, credited in full if you order.
01
What is included, what is not, and what belongs to someone else. Most disputes begin where a scope was never written down, so ours is on the first page.
Shortlist of three factories that fit your specification, volume and export posture — drawn from ones we have visited, plus new ones we visit before quoting.
IncludedOne specification sent to all three, prices normalised to FOB, test figures printed beside each price; the quote states what it includes and what it does not — tax, packing, delivery to port, tooling — and one line per factory on what would go wrong if you picked it.
IncludedWe bring a phone onto the floor and film what the factory allows: the production line, work in progress, storage. Some plants restrict filming; when that happens, we tell you what could and could not be filmed before you draw conclusions.
IncludedWe read the proforma invoice and the purchase order before you sign, and flag the three clauses that cause most disputes.
IncludedOne final inspection against an approved AQL plan, with instrument readings and timestamped photographs. Report within 24 hours. Included in the service fee — not billed separately; travel within a day's return of Qingdao is on us.
IncludedWe introduce a forwarder and check the quotation for the fees that arrive later. Booking, declaration and carriage remain the forwarder's contract with you.
ReferralNo agency for any single category, no exclusivity, and no running one factory's order book. In the same week I can take a towel buyer to Gaomi and a cap buyer to Jiaozhou without either affecting the other.
ExcludedWe can specify what a market requires and obtain quotes from accredited laboratories. We never issue, alter or “produce” a certificate.
ExcludedDeposit and balance move between you and the factory against their invoice. We do not advance, collect or hold goods funds — and we hold no stock and do no inventory trading.
Excluded02
Shandong is not one industrial belt — it is a dozen, each city with its own trade. I sit in Qingdao: an hour to Jiaozhou and Gaomi, two and a half to Weifang and Zhucheng, all of them day returns. The cities further out on the map are reachable too, with travel itemised at cost and prepaid. I do not pick the category: you buy something, and I go to that city to look at that category.
Shandong's sixteen cities and the near ring · trades and drive times from the Qingdao desk
Travel rules · one-way drive from the Qingdao desk
Everything on this map is quoted on request. Bearings and steel balls in Liaocheng are a regional industry we can discuss — not a category we inspect on a day trip: four hours one-way, so a visit is quoted with travel at cost, prepaid, or handled by a named third party. Where we cannot inspect a batch ourselves, we say so before you pay.
The trades of the province, in photographs — indicative of each trade; the video we bring back from the floor shows the plant you would actually be buying from.
03
Not a catalogue and not a list of forty suppliers you still have to call. Three artefacts you can act on, each with a reference number so nothing is lost between emails.
QS-Q · Quotation pack
The same specification to all three, test figures beside each price. Two notes under every price: what it includes and what it does not — tax, packing, delivery to port, tooling — and the one thing most likely to go wrong if you choose that factory. Who is cheap, who is steady, where the trap is, on one page.
Deliverable · comparison table
Turnaround · 48 hours
Identity · F1 / F2 / F3
QS-V · Visual record
Video from the visit: the production line, work in progress and storage — whatever the factory allows on the day. A plain phone video shows more than a polished one; where filming is restricted, we say so and back it up with photos and the written report.
Deliverable · 3–5 min video
Scope · what the factory allows
Purpose · see the operation yourself
QS-I · Inspection report
Textiles: GSM by weighing, dimensions after wash, colour fastness to rubbing and light. Balls: diameter by micrometer, roundness deviation, hardness, material spectrum. Photographs carry timestamps; conclusions carry numbers.
Deliverable · report + photo set
Turnaround · 24 h after visit
Standard · AQL plan you approve
04
Every phase ends in a document. If a phase is going to overrun, you hear it from us before you notice it yourself.
4.1
Day 0 · free
You send category, quantity, target landed cost and destination. The first round is free: I ring a few factories myself, get rough price, MOQ and lead time, and give you a straight feasibility read — before you pay anything. If all you have is a photo or a competitor's product, I turn it into a specification you can send to factories.
Output: spec sheet
4.2
48 h after the kick-off deposit clears · USD 200 minimum
The deposit clears, then three factories are contacted, prices normalised to FOB, unvisited candidates visited before they quote. You get one recommendation, and for the other two a single line each on why not: booked out for three months, grammage only to ±8%, MOQ three times your order, export paperwork left to you.
Output: QS-Q
4.3
5–12 days
Samples produced and shipped, proforma invoice reviewed before signature, contract clauses checked for inspection approval and balance release.
Output: signed PI
4.4
Per schedule · weekly
A weekly written update with photographs, and an early warning if material, capacity or the order book moves. You should never have to ask where your order is.
Output: weekly note
4.5
24 h after visit
One final inspection against the approved plan. Pass: balance released and the forwarder confirmed. Fail: rework list, re-inspection within 3–7 days, balance held.
Output: QS-I
05
The reason agencies are vague about fees is that the fee is not where they earn. Here it is, so the numbers can be published.
Example. A USD 8,000 order at 8% is a USD 640 fee: USD 320 to start, USD 320 when the goods pass inspection. The inspection, its report and travel within a day's return of Qingdao sit inside that USD 640. A job at the minimum is a USD 400 fee and a USD 200 kick-off.
Basis. The percentage applies to factory FOB goods value only. International freight and insurance, moulds, development and sampling, third-party testing and certification, buyer-supplied materials and packaging, and domestic trucking or customs extras are outside the base and quoted separately — a percentage of a larger number is not a larger service.
Floor. Order management starts at USD 5,000 FOB: on that order 8% is USD 400, and USD 400 is the real floor — the fee is always the higher of the percentage and USD 400. Below USD 5,000 we quote only, with no order management and no follow-up; the three-factory comparison still begins once the USD 200 kick-off clears. USD 300 is the price of an inspection-only visit, not a discount on order management.
Goods funds. We never collect, advance, hold or pass through goods funds, at any order size. The buyer pays the factory directly, and there is no proxy export. Third-party costs are never advanced by the desk: payment can be arranged only after you prepay, against receipts.
06
Plain commercial language. Your accepted written quotation controls the engagement; these are the positions we start from.
07
Six refusals, so you can calibrate everything else. A supplier who never declines is not being agreeable; they are being unclear about what you are buying.
Open an enquiry
Happy to talk feasibility by email before any formal quote or paid work: send what you buy and you get a straight read in one reply. If the desk cannot serve you, you will hear that too, with a suggestion of where to go instead. It costs you one email.
Backup mailbox · 17915804@qq.com — use it if the first address does not answer.
Four lines is enough: what it is, how many, roughly what it should cost, and where it is going. You will hear back within one working day.
Four lines, thirty seconds. The desk replies within one working day with a price range — and the detailed three-factory quotation starts once the kick-off deposit — half the fee, USD 200 minimum — clears.