Why factories charge for samples
A supplier who wants your order will still charge you for the sample. First-time buyers read the fee as a brush-off. It is the opposite: it is a filter. A sales rep at a mid-size Dongguan electronics factory fields twenty or thirty sample requests a week, and most come from people who will never place an order. A small fee clears them out of the queue.
The convention that comes with the fee: it is credited back against your first production order. Factories agree to this readily, because it costs them nothing if you buy and protects them if you vanish. Get the credit written on the sample invoice. One line is enough.
The invoice itself tells you something. A supplier who issues a proper sample invoice, from a company name that matches their business license, is showing you their paperwork works before real money moves. A supplier who wants the fee sent to a personal account, or quotes a three-figure "sample fee" for a catalog product, is running a different business than the one you think you are talking to. Sample-fee fraud is small-stakes but common, and it is a preview of how they would handle your deposit.
Stock sample or custom sample: ask for the right one
Suppliers make three kinds of samples, and requesting the wrong one wastes weeks.
- A stock sample is a unit of something the factory already makes, pulled off the shelf. It answers two questions: what their standard quality looks like, and whether they can get a box to your address on time.
- A modified sample is their existing product with your changes, usually branding and packaging. Most private-label and ODM orders sample this way.
- A custom sample is built from your drawings; factories call the later versions pre-production samples. If the design needs a mold, the mold has to exist first, and you pay for it. Tooling, not the sample itself, is the real cost decision there.
On first contact, order the stock sample even when you want custom work later. It is the cheapest look you will get at the factory's real output, and it commits you to nothing. If custom work is where you are heading, put a bilingual NNN agreement in place before any drawing leaves your inbox.
How much does a sample from China cost?
For stock items, expect $20 to $150. Factories commonly quote two to three times the unit price, so a $6 product samples at $12 to $18, with a floor that covers the rep's time. Modified samples usually run $50 to $300, because someone has to stop a line and set up your logo or color. A full custom sample is quoted as sample-making labor, and if tooling is needed the mold is quoted separately, often a few thousand dollars for injection molding.
Shipping is yours. A small parcel by DHL, FedEx, UPS or SF Express costs $30 to $80 from mainland China, billed on the sample invoice or shipped on your own courier account if you give the number. Give the number: it is faster, and the freight cannot be padded.
Do Chinese suppliers send free samples? Sometimes, for cheap stock goods, and you still pay the courier. Asking for free samples does you more harm than the $40 saved: it marks you as a hobbyist, and hobbyists go to the bottom of the reply pile. Pay the small invoice without haggling and negotiate the credit-back instead. That is what a buyer preparing an order looks like.
Pay small sample fees by card, PayPal or Alibaba Trade Assurance where offered; a bank wire for a $60 fee can cost another $30 in wire charges. For larger custom-sample invoices the usual rule applies: the account name must match the registered company.
How long does sampling take?
A stock sample dispatches in two to five days and lands three to seven days later by express courier, so under two weeks door to door almost anywhere. A modified sample adds several days of setup. A custom sample takes seven to twenty days to build, and if new tooling is involved the first one arrives after the mold does, which adds two to five weeks.
Then there are rounds. First custom samples are rarely right. Two or three revision rounds are normal, and each round costs a build plus a courier leg. Budget one to three months for the sampling phase of a custom product, before the 15 to 45 day production clock even starts.
You can cut a full round out of that schedule with one habit: ask for photos and a short video of the finished sample before it ships. A wrong color spotted on video costs a message. The same color spotted in the box costs a week and a courier fee.
How to request a sample so the right thing arrives
The difference between a useful sample and an expensive paperweight is what you send with the request.
Write a spec, even for a stock item. One line does it for stock: model number, color, size, quantity. For custom work, a one-page sheet: material and grade (virgin ABS, 304 stainless), dimensions with tolerances, Pantone color codes, weight, and packaging. Send the same sheet to every supplier you sample from, so the boxes that come back are comparable.
Ask for a sample invoice. Some suppliers issue it as a proforma invoice. It should state the sample price, the freight, the dispatch date, and the credit-back line. Then give your delivery address and courier account, and ask for the pre-shipment photos and video.
Sample a shortlist, not the whole field. Two or three suppliers is the useful number once your search has produced quotes. Samples at $80 each with courier are how a $200 comparison quietly becomes an $800 one.
When the sample arrives, check it like production depends on it
Check the unit against the spec sheet, not against your memory of what you hoped for. Measure the dimensions and weigh it. Compare the color to the Pantone reference in daylight, test it the way an unhappy customer would in the first hour, and photograph everything, including the defects.
Label what you keep: supplier, date, version number. By round three of sampling from three suppliers you are otherwise holding nine near-identical units and guessing which was which.
When a sample finally passes, it stops being a sample and becomes the standard. Sign and date two units of the approved version: one stays with you, one stays sealed at the factory. That is the golden sample, and it is what your production run and your pre-shipment inspection will be judged against.
Carry one warning into production: the sample is the factory's best work, made slowly by senior hands. The production run is their average work. A perfect sample means you can proceed. The inspection still happens.
Where Mila Sourcing fits
Sampling is where buyers usually feel the difference first. Your Mila agent writes the spec sheet with you, collects sample invoices from the shortlisted factories, films every sample before dispatch, and consolidates them into one box so you compare candidates side by side in a single delivery. Approved units are sealed as golden samples on the factory side, and the production order is written against them. That work sits inside Sourcing Activation and Full Production Management.
Related, if you are at this stage: