An industrial buyer does not choose a supplier from a catalogue entry. They choose after material has been tested against the specification. Grade, purity, tolerance, whatever the standard calls for. That step is treated as a record of its own here: the sample, its fee, who pays the shipping, and the certificate of analysis that travels with it.
What you bring is the specification. Grade and standard, the tolerance you can live with, quantity and unit, where it has to arrive and by when. What comes back is suppliers qualified against that, not everyone who happens to list the category.
Sample fees are settled alongside minimum order quantity and lead time, never on their own. A free sample attached to a minimum order you cannot use is not the better offer, and quoting the three separately is how that gets hidden.
At a glance
- Where the decision happens
- The sample, and the certificate of analysis that comes with it
- What you bring
- Grade, standard, tolerance, quantity and unit, destination, required date
- What a quote must state
- Unit price, currency, quantity basis, minimum order, lead time, Incoterm and named place, validity date
- How sample fees are agreed
- Together with the minimum order and the lead time, never alone
How it runs
- State the specificationThe standard and the tolerance matter more than the quantity at this stage. A request that says aluminium takes longer than one that names the alloy.
- Suppliers are qualified against itAgainst what the specification requires, and against what their record already shows they make and export.
- A sample, with its certificate of analysisThe fee, the shipping terms and the certificate are agreed as one thing, so a cheap sample cannot hide an unusable minimum order.
- You negotiate and order directlySooqban is not a party to what you sign. The introduction is the product; the contract is yours.
Who this is for
- A factory buying its own inputs, where the wrong grade stops a line rather than merely disappointing.
- A formulator or processor who cannot accept a substitution without testing it first.
- A trading company reselling to a specification it has to meet exactly.
Questions
What is a certificate of analysis?
The document that states what the material actually is. The tested values against the specification, from the batch the sample came from. Without it a sample is a piece of metal in a box.
Who pays for the sample?
It is negotiated, along with the minimum order and the lead time. Some suppliers waive the fee and charge shipping; some do the opposite. What matters is that the three are agreed together.
Do you buy the material on my behalf?
No. Sooqban does not contract, take title, or hold money. You buy from the supplier directly and the agreement is between the two of you.
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