A trim unit price without a quantity, an Incoterm and a finish is a rumour. Accessories look cheap next to fabric until you amortise a zinc tool, a lace warp set or a third-party nickel report.
What sits inside a unit price
On a typical Guangdong mid-market trim, materials are still the largest slice (often around half of FOB on metal and on yarn-heavy lace). Labour, packing, and QC take the rest. Recycled metals and documented recycled polyester move the material line; they do not magically delete it.
Open-line colours on an existing Raschel or an existing button mould have no NRE. A private logo in Zamak, a new galloon on a mechanical Raschel, or a custom aglet mould does. At 300 pieces that NRE can exceed the goods. At 5,000 pieces it disappears into the unit. Neither quote is “wrong.”
MOQ is a dye-lot and a set-up, not a personality
A mill’s 500-piece MOQ on a nylon cord is often a dye-lot and a braider set-up. A 3,000-metre lace MOQ is a warp and a colour. Asking for 80 metres of a new Raschel in a lab-dip colour is asking someone to lose money or to dip a leftover yarn. Both happen. Only one of them repeats in bulk.
Landed cost
FOB Guangzhou is not DDP Los Angeles. Freight, duty, insurance, brokerage, and the brand’s own testing sit on top. A 35% “uplift” is a rough planning factor some importers still use for small cartons; your broker will beat that number or miss it. The only honest comparison is the same Incoterm, same destination, same tests.
Incoterms to keep straight: EXW (you pick up and you know nothing about export), FOB (the mill gets the goods over the ship’s rail or the agreed point), CIF/CFR (they have bought ocean freight), DDP (someone is the importer of record). A “cheap” EXW button with your own forwarder can beat a sloppy CIF.
Tests are a line item
EN 1811, NSS, STANDARD 100, CPSIA lead — each is a lab invoice and a sample that will not be sold. If the quote is silent, you will pay later or skip the test and inherit the risk.
Send quantity, colour count, finish, tests, Incoterm and calendar in the first RFQ. You will get fewer quotes, and the ones you get will be usable.