It really depends on often you plan on purchasing from them and transaction amounts.

Most buyers normally use bank transfer or western union when not purchasing in-person.

If you plan to do frequent purchases with a particular vendor, I have found the following very useful and no fees:

Setup an new personal bank account at your Bank of America or Citibank in the USA. Send the ATM card you get for the account to the vendor in Hong Kong. When the supplier recieves it, tell them to call you for the pin number. Deposit money into the account each time you make a purchase order. There are several BofA and Citibank in Hong Kong and you are not charged service fees. Only downside is that the max you can usually take out is $600 per day. (Go to your BofA banch and tell them you want to up your limit to $1000 per day). Also make sure to tell your bank that you plan to use the ATM card in Hong Kong and not to flag it as overseas fraud. If you want an atm card for yourself, add an additonal person to the bank account.

That said, I don’t understand why paying a wire fee is unappealing. As a buyer, you would want your volumes high enough to justify the fee and then factor the expense across the cost of materials – just like you would do with the shipping expense.

When I order fabrics from abroad, I almost always pay using a credit card. But, most EU companies are set up that way. The exchange fee is charged to my account – the Vendor has a fee, too (I factor those into my materials costs). There have been few situations where I’ve been asked to send a wire, which I’ve never minded. The most inconvenient part is a special trip to the counter to initiate the wire.

Some scam artists ask to be paid in cash by courier to avoid involving the US Postal Service and the associated legal consequences.

Some Asian suppliers will take credit cards, but are not shy to ask you to pay the credit card company fee which includes a internatonal processing fee.

Our TT or wire transfer fees we incur usually cost $20.00-$30.00 and many US banks are in that neighbourhood. Aside, the is the fastest, quickest, safest way to pay overseas vendors (and CDN ones too). You can also check online when the payment is received by the vendor and provides a solid payment record.

Didn’t someone in an earlier post say to stay clear of overseas vendors using Paypal. The fact your supplier overseas has a legit bank account is a good sign.

In which country/ies is it illegal to send cash in the mail?

Unfortunately, if you cannot arrange a bank wire or western union money transfer, you’re out of luck. PayPal’s withdrawal requirements on foreign accounts makes it hard for companies to accept payment that way. Not all banks charge $50 for a foreign wire transfer.

And just thinking about trim/button/zipper shopping in a place like that just puts me in a dream world. I’m with J–getting closer and closer to knowing exactly what I don’t want. Still haven’t found a fabric I would like to use for 1-2 seasons for just a black pant. It’s so frustrating.

MW says: The one thing I love about the area is that everyone is so gracious and nice and thanks you for even the smallest purchase. I can only imagine how it would be to purchase yardage on the spot. It’s nothing like what us DEs are used to dealing with here in the USA. They would make the time to service even my small requests for 10-20 meters of trims to take with me for sampling purposes.

This is the crux of why I express frustration with conventional retail fabric stores. When I was a kid, this was the exact practice of the jobbers that used to be located in Pittsburgh.

As a kid, I used to ride rolls of fabric like a hobby horse. As I got older (say, 15) I would shimmie up the shelves to locate the rolls I wanted lengths from – some the jobber didn’t know existed.

It was very easy for a designer or manufacturer to source all their product development needs within a span of several blocks. I hear that it’s equally as easy in the NY garment district – though, I have no first-hand experience, yet.

You’re right, though. As a small business sourcing remotely, it’s P*A*I*N*F*U*L. I’ve spent the majority of this year on that very activity. I’ve found more about products I don’t plan to make; but, there’s always someone else who needs the information, so I don’t mind the time spent. The problem is, every single one of us is doing the same thing – whatta waste!

Coming back to the open question of how to store headers. I’m working on that, this weekend. I got a lovely book of headers from Security Textile which will serve as my inspiration. I’m designing header cards and a system of 3-ring binders, so everything is uniform (key!).

The header card will contain information on: the source of the goods, content, price per yard, etc. I also plan to include testing results (where known) and other details. This binder system will cross-reference to an inventory tracking system as well as the sourcing directory.

Over time, I’ll refine the manual system, then begin shopping for a virutal solution – or, commission one to be built.