How to compare two custom merch suppliers using the same artwork

Most supplier comparisons fail before anyone reads a quote — because the two suppliers were never asked for the same thing. One quotes 3 mm acrylic with an epoxy dome; the other quotes 2 mm with a gloss finish. One includes shipping; one doesn’t. The prices look 30% apart and mean nothing.

I compared suppliers for years on the buying side, and the single habit that separated useful comparisons from useless ones was this: both suppliers get the identical brief, and the comparison happens on paper before anyone gets emotional about a price.

Here’s the process I use now, written down.

Step 1 — Freeze one test design

Pick one design, one product, one size, one finish. Production-ready if you have it; a clean draft is enough to start. Don’t send five designs to each supplier — you’ll get five prices per supplier and no clarity.

If you genuinely produce multiple designs, still test with one first. Multi-design pricing can come later, once you know who you’re dealing with.

Step 2 — Write one spec sentence and send it to everyone, word for word

Something like:

Acrylic keychain, 50 mm, 3 mm cast acrylic, single-sided full-colour print, epoxy dome, ball chain, 100 pcs, individual opp bag, shipped to [country]. Please quote unit price at 100 / 300 / 500 pcs, sample cost and time, and production lead time.

Sending identical wording matters more than the wording itself. If Supplier A answers the question you asked and Supplier B answers a different question, that’s already data.

Step 3 — Require three quantities on every quote

Unit price means nothing at one quantity. Ask for 100 / 300 / 500 (or your own three points) and you’ll see each supplier’s cost curve: who’s cheap at small volume, who only gets competitive at scale, and where the volume breaks are.

Step 4 — Score ten dimensions, not one

Price is one row of ten. The rest predict what the order will actually feel like.

#	Dimension	What to compare
1	Quote completeness	Does the reply come back as a spec sheet (material, thickness, finish, size, attachment, packaging), or just a number?
2	Unit price curve	Price at all three quantities, not the best single number.
3	MOQ & mixed designs	MOQ per design or per order? Can you mix designs in one run without a penalty?
4	Sample policy	Physical sample of your design? Cost, time, and whether sample cost is credited back.
5	Communication	Hours to first reply. Do they flag problems in your artwork unprompted, or say “ok” to everything?
6	Lead time & freight	Production days plus shipping options to your door — a 7-day production with 40-day freight is a 47-day promise.
7	Packaging	Standard OPP bag? Backing card? Retail-ready options and their cost?
8	Proof & approval process	Digital proof? Physical sample approval? What exactly gets your sign-off before the run?
9	Repeatability	What system exists so reorder #2 matches order #1? (Kept sample? Kept print file? Batch records?)
10	Failure handling	Ask directly: “If the run comes out wrong, what happens?” Vague answers are answers.

Score each supplier 1–3 per row, weighted however suits your business. A supplier who wins on price and loses on rows 4, 8 and 9 is expensive in year two.

Red flags I’ve learned to take seriously

• A quote with no spec sheet. You can’t compare what isn’t written.
• “It depends” with no follow-up question. Good suppliers ask about your artwork, size and quantity before quoting; bad ones throw a number and hope.
• Everything is “yes”. Real suppliers push back sometimes — on line weights, dome edges, hole placement. A supplier who agrees to everything hasn’t read your files.
• No physical sample of your own design. Stock-photo samples and digital mockups hide the two things that actually go wrong: colour and finish.

What a complete quote looks like

A quote you can hold someone to includes: material and grade, thickness, size, printing method, finish, attachment/hardware, packaging, quantity breaks, sample cost and time, production time, freight options, and total landed cost for at least one scenario. Anything missing will be “discussed” after you’ve paid.

Using this yourself

You don’t need to tell suppliers they’re being compared — just run the same brief past two or three, including the one you already use. Benchmarking your incumbent supplier is the cheapest negotiation there is, and it needs no commitment from either side.

This is the exact process we run on the supply side at OFFPRESS — written spec sheet, three-quantity quote, physical sample of your design. If you’re comparing suppliers, send the same brief to us too; it’s designed to be scored.

Want the scoring sheet as a working tool? Use the supplier comparison checklist — it walks through the ten dimensions and produces a printout you can put next to another supplier’s.

Then read when it actually makes sense to test a second supplier, or what to send a supplier for an accurate quote before you start.