If you are buying toys in bulk for the first time, the hard part is not finding suppliers — it is working out what a realistic minimum actually looks like, and what the unit price does not tell you. This page covers both, using live numbers from our own catalogue in Chenghai.
| Route | Realistic minimum | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| B2B marketplaces (Alibaba etc.) | Varies wildly | Most listings are resellers, not factories. Prices often 15–30% above cluster level. |
| Domestic wholesalers (in your country) | 1 carton | Fastest, but you are buying at second or third hand. Margin is already gone. |
| Direct from one factory | Often 3,000–5,000 pcs per SKU | Best unit price on deep runs. Impossible for an assortment. |
| Trading company inside the cluster | 120–600 pcs per SKU | Slightly above single-factory price, but you get mixed categories in one container. |
If you are ordering 50,000 pieces of one item, go direct to a factory — you will win on price and you do not need us. If you are building an assortment, coordinating six factories usually costs more than the margin you would save.
| Category | MOQ per SKU | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Battery operated / R-C | 120–360 pcs | Motors and PCBs already tooled in the cluster |
| Educational / STEM / DIY | 120–500 pcs | Printed components push the floor up |
| Vinyl dolls | 180–500 pcs | |
| Plush | 300–600 pcs | Fabric roll minimums, not assembly |
| Summer inflatables | 500–1000 pcs | PVC welding setup dominates cost |
| Electric water blasters | 120–360 pcs | Behaves like B/O — often misfiled under summer |
These floors drop in a mixed container. Factories price on total order value, not per-SKU heroics.
Sea freight on toys is charged by volume, not weight. A 40HQ gives roughly 68 CBM of usable space. If your freight bill is USD 2,600 and you load 60 CBM, that is about USD 43 per CBM.
Two orders at the same unit price can land 15–20% apart purely on packing efficiency. This is the single most common thing first-time bulk buyers miss.
If a quote only gives you a unit price, you cannot calculate landed cost. Insist on all of this:
Every line we quote carries all seven. It drops straight into a landed-cost sheet.
| Market | Required | Who issues it |
|---|---|---|
| USA | ASTM F963 + CPSIA testing | CPC is issued by you, the importer — supplier provides test reports |
| EU | EN 71 parts 1–3 + CE marking | EU Declaration of Conformity by importer |
| Great Britain | UKCA, BS EN 71 | Importer |
| Brazil | INMETRO, ABNT NBR NM 300 | OCP accredited by INMETRO |
| Mexico | NOM-015-SCFI | EMA-accredited verification unit |
Watch for this: any Chinese supplier telling you “we issue the CPC” is describing the process incorrectly. The CPC is the importer’s document. A supplier who gets this wrong probably has not shipped much to the US.
| Category | After confirmation |
|---|---|
| Battery operated / R-C | 25–40 days |
| Educational / STEM | 25–40 days |
| Summer / inflatables | 25–35 days + transit |
| Ex-stock samples | 3–7 days |
Delays rarely come from the production line. They come from: test report turnaround (7–14 days if the SKU has no valid report), artwork sign-off on custom packaging, and the August–October Christmas queue. The same SKU quoting 25 days in March quotes 40+ in September.
A 20′ container across three or four categories is the practical entry point. Below that, per-SKU minimums dominate and freight per unit climbs sharply. Most first orders we handle are one 40HQ across four to six categories.
Yes — that is the standard model here. Combining dolls, battery operated, educational and summer lines lets you test a wide assortment without committing deep on any single item.
Yes, and it is the fastest route to a comparable number. Send the image or listing link; we identify the equivalent item in the cluster and quote it with full carton data. If the spec differs — material, weight, motor, packaging — we say so rather than quoting a cheaper item as a match.
30% deposit, 70% before shipment by T/T is standard in Chenghai. For first orders some buyers prefer paying the balance against a copy of the B/L.
Yes — window boxes, hang tags, multilingual packaging, custom sound chips on most B/O lines. Artwork approval is the usual bottleneck; lock it before production starts.
You already have a list, a spreadsheet, competitor links, or photos from a fair. Send whatever you have — no need to format anything.
WhatsApp: +86 137 2926 5640 | allen@letintoys.com | Quote form
Shantou LeTin Toys Trading Co., Ltd. — Chenghai District, Shantou, Guangdong, China. Established 2018, amfori BSCI member.
See also: Full catalogue · Country import guides · B/O toys · Dolls & plush