Cost per unit, cost per case, cost per kilogram
Buying one item and buying forty are different problems, and GTbuy is built for the second. This page works in three units at once — what one piece costs, what a full case costs once minimums and pack-out are met, and what a kilogram costs to move — because a per-unit saving that vanishes into freight was never a saving. The calculator below takes quantity, so you can see the three figures move together.
← Back to overviewThree numbers, one decision
Unit price, case price after the minimum is met, and landed freight per kilo. Optimise any one in isolation and you will lose money on another, which is why we will not hand you a single rate card.
- Per unitwhat the factory charges once you clear the minimum order quantity
- Per caseunit price times pack-out, plus the case-level handling that makes consolidation worthwhile
- Per kilothe freight figure that decides whether a cheap unit was actually cheap
- Why no rate cardbecause quantity, route and destination move these numbers too much to print honestly
Minimums, pack-out and GTbuy's fee schedule all shift. GTbuy's own pages are authoritative; this is the explanation around them.
Inspecting a case is not inspecting a sample
At volume, warehouse photographs do a different job. You are not checking whether one item is nice — you are checking whether forty are consistent. Read across units for colour drift, count the pieces, confirm size tags match the order, and look for the defect that repeats rather than the one that happens once.
- · Colour consistency across units — drift between dye lots is the classic bulk failure
- · Actual piece count against the quantity you paid for
- · Size tags, checked against the size breakdown in your order
- · Repeated defects, which matter far more than an isolated flaw
- · Stitch and seam work sampled across several units rather than one
- · Carton pack-out and whether the factory packed what the listing described
- · Whether a defect rate of two in forty is acceptable for your channel
- · Fabric hand feel and how it performs after washing
- · Odour across a carton, which concentrates in sealed packaging
- · How the goods survive your own fulfilment handling
- · Long-term durability of seams, prints and hardware
What photographs settle for a full case on the left; what only opening the carton will tell you on the right.
- Sample before you scale.One unit through GTbuy first tells you more than forty photographs of a case.
- Ask for a count shot.A photo of all units laid out settles quantity disputes instantly.
- Watch for drift, not flaws.A single bad unit is noise; three units in slightly different colours is a pattern.
- Photograph the carton before it is opened for consolidation.Pack-out disputes need the sealed state on record.
Freight is where wholesale is won or lost
Route selection follows inspection, and at case level it dominates the maths. GTbuy's lines differ on price, speed and accepted cargo, and cost follows weight plus volume far harder than it follows unit count — which is precisely why carton pack-out deserves attention before you order.
A carton full of empty space is billed as if it were full of product. Compress before you ship.
Several part-boxes cost more than one sealed carton of the same total weight.
For heavy, non-urgent stock the slow line can be an order of magnitude cheaper.
Batteries, liquids and magnets are refused by some lines and accepted by others.
Commercial quantities attract scrutiny that a personal parcel would not.
The exposed value is the whole case, not one unit.
Anatomy of a bulk total
A wholesale landed cost has the same parts as a single order, scaled by quantity and reshaped by pack-out:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
No rates here: quantity, line and destination set them. Take live numbers from GTbuy's estimator and treat GTbuy's pages as the source of truth.
Fees, line by line
Model a case before you buy one
Enter unit price and quantity, the domestic leg, packed weight, the international rate, GTbuy's service fee and the exchange rate. Every line recalculates live so you can watch per-unit cost fall as quantity rises.
A planning model, not a quotation. Chargeable weight, destination, customs classification and carrier pricing all move the real figure, and GTbuy's estimator may show something else at checkout.
Returns, minimums and GTbuy's prohibited list
GTbuy publishes after-sales terms alongside a prohibited-goods list. For a bulk order, read both — a restricted carton that has already crossed an ocean is expensive to unwind.
GTbuy's own wording
Everything above is our reading of GTbuy's published material. The originals: