FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
General FAQ
Many sellers from China try to solicit business directly. While some have the best intentions, many would choose to "walk away" whenever an issue arises - leaving customers holding the bag on their own. Certain China sourcing sites are populated with agents who won't take responsibility for anything.
We are not specific to any particular industry - businesses that may need printing products are our natural customers.
We are a U.S. company with our own operations in China. We have our legal team, QC team, sourcing team, and operations team working under a domestic Chinese company. Our contracts with the native Chinese factories are legally binding on their domestic terms. This is something that no foreign buyer will be able to achieve; international commercial law and courts are just not there to protect overseas buyers.
If you are receiving the printed goods inside the borders of the state of California, we will be collecting sales tax on behalf of the state. No sales tax is applicable for printed goods delivered elsewhere.
It depends on the nature of the job. Usually, for jobs with over 48 letter-sized pages, we recommend customer to print at least 1,000 units to make it worthwhile. For jobs under 48 pages, there is a recommended minimum of 5,000 units. As a rule of thumb, anything that’s quoted domestically for $3,000 or under is not a good fit as cost of shipping will take up over 33%.
Our company has been around since 1999. However, the company founder have over 30 years of experience in the printing industry. We've been doing overseas printing since 1999. All of our factories under contract go through an annual inspection and training on the quality standard.
Prepress FAQ
Our standard proofing is a digitally printed proof. On certain jobs, customer can specify that a PDF proof be used in order to save time.
Digitally printed proof can take up from 11 to 14 days to turn-around; this includes the time for file transit, production, and priority delivery.
No. We do not do any design work. Our prepress staff can help to fix certain mechanical aspects of your files so that they'll print as expected.
We only accept "print quality" PDF. Best way to send your files is to share them on cloud drives (i.e. OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc).
Press proofs are proofs printed off a specialized offset printing press using the actual ink, plates, and paper. Press proofs have become a luxury and are only offered as an additional option as it is very pricy.
Printing FAQ
Unfortunately, to specify a particular paper stock would mean that our overseas factories will need to use "imported paper" from either the States or Europe. Specifying paper defeats the cost-saving potential of overseas printing. We are more than happy to supply customers with paper samples that are comparable to domestic paper stock; however, to use the exact same paper stock will not be cost-effective.
Yes. We have the capability to print as many as 8-colors.
Yes. These are done on a routine basis. If you like a sample, please see our company catalog and folder, which uses both. If you don’t have our company catalog, please ask for one.
We have access to 70-inch offset presses and have done a few jobs with this.
On-site press check is purely optional and not included in our standard quotes unless otherwise specified. Years of experiences have proven to us that the quality of our overseas printing is as good as domestic printing. Only a very, very small fraction of our customers actually bother to go on-site, very color critical jobs may not be best suited for overseas.
A proof is something you see before the printing starts. An advanced copy is an actual product after the production has been completed. Our price includes one set of advanced copy sent to you via air express. Additional copies will be optional and quoted separately.
Shipping FAQ
No. Our minimum service includes port-to-port freight and customs clearance. Customer can arrange pick-up once it clears the Customs at the local port of entry. Please be advised, if inexperienced, the act of picking-up from local port of entry can be a time-consuming and frustrating endeavor.
Yes. However, the only way to fulfill such a request is to ship jobs from our overseas factories via air freight or through common carriers such as FedEx or UPS. This shipping method will be very expensive and totally defeats the purpose of going overseas. Please note, cost to ship by air is always optional and will need to be quoted separately.
Yes. As part of our integrated door-to-door service, we can import, ship or deliver any allocation of the job to one or many destinations that you specify. Please note, our standard price only includes delivery to one single location. Deliveries to multiple locations will be quoted separately.
A local port of entry means U.S. Customs designated warehouses around the country where they accept and clear imported goods. There may be multiple ports for larger states while one central port may serve several smaller states.
Our standard quotes are DDP your receiving address. DDP means Delivered Duty Paid. It's an all-inclusive price for manufacturing and delivering your order. On the other hand, FOB means Freight Onboard. This means that we'll deliver the goods to the designated port of export and have you take over. You're to be responsible for dealing with Customs on both sides and all the transportation issues. Unless you are extremely experienced doing export/import, we do not recommend FOB quotes.
We usually designate our delivery by using INCOTERM 2000 developed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). However, to make the process as simple as possible, we only offer the following selected terms of delivery: FOB, CIF, or DDP. Our standard quote is usually based on DDP (Delivered Duty Paid).
Yes, this is an optional service at an additional cost. Partial delivery via air cargo or international air express must be requested and cost be agreed to prior to the completion of manufacturing.
Turn-Around Time FAQ
Yes, but it will not be efficient. Since we do not have complete control over ocean shipping, customs clearance, and inland trucking, we will easily miss any deadline being set by the customer. We can guarantee you a number of days for production, but we have no control if an ocean freighter should break-down, the U.S. Customs decides to surprise inspect your shipment, or if the truckers go on strike... If a hard deadline is needed for the job, we recommend doing partial shipment via air cargo. This will have a higher likelihood of success.
Advanced copy is a copy taken from the finished products. It should be sent to you in about two to three weeks from final approval, or about a week after the production is done. When you receive the advanced copies, it means that the job has been finished and is more than likely on a cargo ship destined for U.S. So you can’t make any more modification. Our terms of payment usually dictates that a second payment to be made upon the receipt of advanced copy.
Upon proof approval, production time is one to two weeks (depending on quantity, complexity, and customization). Two weeks on the ocean. One week to clear customs. And another few days to load it on a truck and delivery if you are on the west coast. For central and eastern states, please add an additional week.
LET'S WORK TOGETHER
CONTACT NOW
We are based in L.A. Send us your contact info along with description of your next print project.
We'll be in touch within 24 hours.