Wooden Puzzle Wholesale Prices: What FOB Bands Look Like

Most buyers arrive at a price question with a number in mind and leave with a range. That is not evasion. A wooden puzzle has five cost inputs that move independently, and a quotation is only meaningful once all five are fixed. This article sets out what moves the price, the bands we typically quote, and why two quotes for the "same" puzzle can differ by 40 percent.

What FOB includes, and what it does not

FOB Ningbo or Shanghai means the price covers the goods, the export packing, inland transport to the port and export clearance. It stops when the container is loaded on the vessel.

It does not cover:

• Freight and insurance to the destination port.
• Import duty, VAT or sales tax.
• Destination charges — THC, documentation, delivery order, customs broker.
• Testing, if you require a report in your own name on a model we have not tested.
• Tooling for a custom box or a custom die, which is usually quoted separately and once.
• Payment charges on a letter of credit or a transfer.

A quote that says "US$2.10" without an Incoterm is not a quote. Ask for FOB, and ask which port.

The five things that move a price

Material. Species and thickness. Birch plywood costs more than basswood or pine, and 4 mm costs more than 3 mm across every piece in the box. Sometimes MDF is used where weight and cost matter more than feel, and that should be declared rather than assumed.

Piece count and cut length. Cost tracks the length of the cut, not just the number of pieces. A 24-piece puzzle full of tight curves can cost more to cut than a 36-piece puzzle of simple shapes. Laser time is real time.

Print and finish. Bare wood with a painted design, water-based paint over a base coat, or UV print direct to board are three different cost levels. More colours mean more passes. A sealed finish on both faces costs more than a single face.

Packaging. A stock box with a label, a printed folding box, a window box, a gift box with an insert and a sleeve are all different products. For entry-price puzzles the box can be the second-largest cost line, which is why packaging decisions change the price more than buyers expect.

Order size. Setup, plates, dies and test allocation are spread across the run. This is the input buyers most often try to negotiate and least often understand.

Typical bands by product type

The bands below are indicative, based on the range we quote, and they assume a stock box and a run of a few hundred pieces. They are not a price list, and a specific drawing will land somewhere inside or occasionally outside a band.

Product	Typical FOB band (US$)
Chunky and peg puzzles, 3–9 pieces, small board	0.50–1.50
Peg puzzles, 6–12 pieces	0.80–2.00
Jigsaw, 12–24 pieces	1.00–2.50
Jigsaw, 24–48 pieces	1.50–3.50
Jigsaw, 48–100 pieces	2.50–5.00
Shape sorter and tangram sets	1.00–3.50
Alphabet and number boards	1.50–4.00
3D, layered and brain teaser sets	2.00–5.00
Boxed gift set (several puzzles, printed box)	10.00–20.00
Adult jigsaw, 500 pieces	10.00–18.00
Adult jigsaw, 1,000 pieces	14.00–30.00
Adult jigsaw, 2,000 pieces	25.00–60.00

Two things follow from the table. First, most of our range sits between US$0.50 and US$5.00 FOB, and the width of that band is a specification story, not a pricing tactic. Second, the gift and adult segment runs from US$10 to US$60, where board area, piece count and box quality dominate.

Why two quotes for the same puzzle differ

Send the same drawing to three suppliers and you will get three prices. The differences are usually traceable to one of these:

• Board thickness. 3 mm versus 4 mm is a material difference and a weight difference, and it changes the carton count.
• Print method. "Full colour" can mean UV print, four-colour print on a laminated face, or a printed label stuck to a painted board. Only one of those is what you thought you ordered.
• Stock versus custom box. A stock box with a sticker is not the same product as a printed box, and the price gap is often larger than the gap in the puzzle itself.
• Ex-works versus FOB. A number quoted ex-works is not comparable with FOB; the difference is inland freight and clearance.
• Test allocation. A supplier who has already tested that exact model may not charge for it. A supplier who has not may include the cost, or may quietly not test.
• Payment terms. A price with 30 days credit is not the same offer as a deposit-only price.
• Date and currency. Board prices and freight move. A quote without a validity date is a draft.

MOQ and the price curve

Our standard terms start at 10 pieces per SKU, typically 16, and custom colour or box runs start at 100–300 pieces. Samples take 3–7 days and production 15–35 days.

The price curve is steep at the bottom and flat at the top. Going from 16 to 200 pieces removes most of the setup cost per unit. Going from 1,000 to 2,000 removes much less, because by then you are paying for material and labour, which scale linearly. Two practical consequences:

• If you are testing a listing, order at the low end and accept the higher unit price as a research cost.
• If you are building a range, consolidate SKUs onto one box size and one board thickness so that a single larger run covers several products. That is usually worth more than negotiating a few cents off.

Do not ask a factory to quote 10 pieces with a custom printed box at a landed price. The setup cannot disappear, and a quote that pretends otherwise will reappear as a change order.

Comparing quotes fairly

A short checklist before you compare numbers:

• Give every supplier the same specification sheet: board, thickness, piece count, finished size, print method, box, packing, quantity.
• Require the Incoterm and port on the quotation.
• Ask what is included in the price and what is quoted separately — tooling, testing, samples, artwork.
• Ask for the carton dimensions and quantity per carton, because freight is priced on volume as well as weight.
• Ask for the quote validity and the payment terms.
• Ask for a sample price and whether it is deducted from the order.

The takeaway: treat the FOB number as an output, not an input. Fix the five drivers, get the same specification to every supplier, and the comparison becomes meaningful. A price that is 30 percent lower on an unfixed specification is usually 30 percent less product.