importing furniture and home decor from china

Try googling it, Jim. Never done this particular one but I've noticed lots of hits for Chinese companies for a lot of other products.

alibaba.com is the biggest B2B exchange for Chinese manufacturers on the web, that is a good place to start any Chinese manufacturer search.

Be ready to order by the pallet. And go thru a lot of long-distanced paperwork and language barriers.

Most successful furniture stores around here are carrying old or vintage, well made American classic furniture. He gets the pieces fom estate sales.

Stein.com has some nice imported pieces. They wholesale to dealers. I think that's what you want: a wholesaler.

Watch it dealing with main land Chinese companies. You could easily lose your shirt. They usually send over good stuff the first time then utter **** the next, or short ship goods. Never release your money until the goods are sitting on a US dock and you or your agents have examined the goods or you WILL get burned. You will find out that the Chinese will suddenly forget English once you lodge a complant and they will show no understanding of ethics.

As to furniture, you better watch what the Chinese send to you. Likely, the dyes will crock off as soon as someone sits on the cushions and you will have a claim from the customer for damages. You MUST get them to sign a contract that such claims against you will be paid by the Chinese, AND they must accept that any lawsuits will be done in US courts or you will go out of business the first month or so you begin moving Chinese merchandize.

I spent over two decades buying and selling chemicals, textiles, and furiture from mainland China. They are, without any doubt the most dishonest people I have ever come across in business. They make Shylock look like a Presbyetian.

My advice is not to deal with the Chinese because of their dishonesty. You don't need the headaches.

That's some pretty ugly stereotyping there kuvaz. While that kind of thing is something to be careful for, and is probably more prevalent with Chinese businesses than elsewhere your warning goes way overboard. I've imported millions of dollars of merchandise from Chinese manufacturers without having these problems.

No, it is not stereotyping. It is based upon direct experience in the economic market that was in question, and I doubt, unlike either me or what the original poster asked about that you bought "millions of dollars" in furniture or fabric for such. I have, so your opinion is frankly a non-sequiter because your experience has nothing to do with the particular market in question.

You came close to calling me a racist but it has nothing to do with skin color. It has everything to do with a bandit mentality in the Chinese textile market.

Yes it is. Whether it is against all Chinese or just a particular market it's still stereotyping. You are paining with a rather broad brush either way.

I do some "picking" in the antiques market and the Chinese and Indonesian "Repro manufacturers" do send mostly poorly made stuff that winds up in "Motel auction sales".

Primary and secondary woods arent chosen for durability but for quick assembly. Usually in furniture the primary woods are for show AND astructural strength. Secondary woods are more mmalleable. Chinese and Indonesian import "repro" stuff is usually made of solid plantation mahogany with huige growth rings because its speedy grown . My reccomendation as one whose been buying and selling good quality antique furmiture since I got involved in the racket in the mid 1970's. "Until you learn the issues in import furniture, learn your lessons by not sticking your wallet out to get fleeced.

There is much repro antique junk and most all of it comes from China and Indonesia. Fortunately stuff like "Buddy L" repro plate toys and cast iron toys are easily seen. SO is fake Lalique glass, Roseville and Fulper pottery, Depression glass, and tin advertising signs. (Not to mention all the fake baseball memorabilia including fake catchers mitts, signed balls, baseballcards, and autographed pix. MOst all of which comes from Chinas and Indonesia. The resale laws of fake material that is purposely made to decieve, are quite explicit in that we dont allow stuff to be sold as original if it has a makers hallmark. (Such as enscribed LCT on piees of glassware thats made to be fake Tiffany). What the chinese do is they put on paper labels and sell it as honest repros, then the stuff is releved of its paper lables and often auctioned as "Tiffant style" or "after Tiffany".

However, furniture, like knock of Rollex watches, have much to be desired in the quality department.

QUALITY is everything in the antiques market. Its easy to spot fakes and most all the fakes are coming from China and Indonesia.
Thats a fact Robt.

Nobody is looking to import from China to find "antiques" farmerman. They are looking for cheap and more often than not that means of lesser quality and is understood by all involved.

Yes, quality is an important concern with Chinese products, and yes you need to be very careful when buying from across the globe (or when buying antiques for that matter). But that's not what kuvaz said and not what I objected to. He said not to do business with Chinese because they are dishonest.

There is a very active fake and repro antiques market where many beginners are suckered into parting with their money and theres a sizable manufacture chain from China and Indonesia.

As far as the "cheap" label, Id agree, I haventseen any really good Chinese and Indonesain furniture to date. Ive seen a Fake George Nakashima split top craftsmans table that was being hawked for 12K and it was made in China by craftsmen who were supplied with American Quilted Maple boards and construction plans. The Chinese interpreted as best they could and the piece almost made itr into an antique auction until it went under close scrutiny by several possible dealer/buyers.

The antiques trades papers (like MAine Antiques Digest) are loaded each month with astory bout a new fake that was made purposely to decieve. The Chinese makers and the US sellers were both complicit in trying to pull off a scam.

Nope, it is called experience. If my experience tells me not to trust the people selling in a market because I have personal experience that most of them are dishonest and that dishonesty cost me large sums of money it is no different than your own experience where you have seen them to be honest in other markets. Simply put, according to your tenuous definition, you are stereotyping them as honest because of your experience as much as I am stereotyping them as dishonest for the same reason, personal experience.

The fundamental difference is that I have direct experience in the matter under discussion, viz., textiles and furniture while you have failed to show that you do.

The Europeans (Swiss, Germans, and British) and the Americans essentially developed the modern textile industry we know today. The techniques used to manufacture, bleach, dye and finish textiles are well established processes in the West going back a century. In these markets there is a history of competence in the applications of the aforementioned techniques so that in the States and Europe the local textile processes have about 2-3% waste. In China, which had no previous history using these technologies and has only recently established itself in the world market, the waste is substantially higher and like true students of Adam Smith and capitalism they try to pass on their manufacturing mistakes to increase profit . I have inspected fabrics that come from China where only one shipping container out of five gets accepted as "up to spec" for shade or fastness. I have also had to sue the Chinese exporter for the four off-spec container loads that cost me tens of thousands of dollars and nearly five years of litigation in US and Chinese courts.

That's just buying fabrics, I watched Chinese upholstery fabric, certified as flame retardant by NFPA 701 burn like gasoline at one of my own customers' analytical labs. He bought nearly 50,000 linear yards of it that he had to refinish the goods (with my own flame retardant) at a cost that nearly bankrupt him. He never got his money back.

I used to buy biphenyl from a Chinese chemical company in 20,000lb supersacks and rebag the chemical. There was not a single instance that the seller did not adulterate the sack with rocks, dirt or get this, several bicycle frames. I half expected to open a super sack one day and have a Chinese guy pop out of the opening.

I find it curious that you pontificate about stereotyping yet are ignorant about how the quality of Chinese export products and the unique culture depends on the particular market. You think market are markets and that they all act alike. There are Chinese markets, especially electronic parts, and drug precursor chemicals that are under tight regulation and quality is high, and importers are not usually sold off-spec materials, but textiles and many commodity chemicals have little internal rigor for making products on spec and the buyer ought to beware of it.

So I'll tell you what, if you think that the guy who asked this question won't get burned buying textiles and furniture from China because you had no problems with the computer chips you likely purchased from a completely different company in a completely different market why don't you put your money where you mouth is and float the guy his international line of credit to buy his first several container loads?

You are asking this fellow to trust your opinion in an area with which you have no experience. I am giving him the benefit of my pertainent experience.

Robert, I can accept your ownership of this site and your desire not to make it a racist hang out but you are completely incompetent to answer the orginal question asked, and I fear your attitude, if acted upon by the guy who asked the question will only get him financially hurt.

Calling it based on "experience" simply does not change that it is stereotyping. You are portraying them all as dishonest based on your experience of "most" of them being dishonest.



I've made no claims about their honesty except to state that what you said "will" happen when dealing with Chinese simply isn't a given like you portray. I have had bad experiences with Chinese honesty in my personal life when living in Asia extensively and I'm not trying to make any claim about their honesty except that they are not uniformly dishonest as you portrayed them.



I don't have any experience with furniture and textiles, I mainly dealt with latex and vinyl gloves. But this is a fallacious appeal to authority, your experience simply does not make your gross generalization true.



And they can no longer compete in it. This is a pointless bit of history. There's a reason so many people are coming to this forum to ask about importing from China, and not first world manufacturers and that reason isn't going to go away.



I am not ignorant of the quality problems Chinese manufacturers can have, I simply object to your stereotyping and gross generalizations.



You, in turn, just make stuff up about your interlocutors. I have said nothing at all to indicate that I think all markets are alike. I'm not the one painting with a broad brush here kuvaz.



You didn't say to beware, you said not to do business with Chinese because they are dishonest. That is what I objected to.



Don't you think asking me to pay for someone else's containers is a pretty stupid way to argue your generalization?

Are you under the illusion that my unwillingness to pay for someone else's product makes your slur accurate?



No, I've not asked anyone to trust my opinion, I've merely stated that your generalized slur is an overstatement, you know it damned well because ever since I've said so you've stuck to much more subdued claims.

That you are too proud to retract your overstatement is your problem.



Really? Then why didn't you take your own advice for 20+ years then? If it's such an imperative that this person do no business with the "dishonest" Chinese then what on earth did you do business with them for over two decades for?

China is the world's largest furniture exporter for a reason, and it would be silly to avoid the market just because of the dishonest folks. You clearly didn't follow your own silly advice but can't bring yourself to admit to overstatement.

Hi Kuvasz;
I can see you are very passionate and experienced!
I am looking to have a piece of furniture made in Indonesia; could you please give me some advise off line? olympia at btgtech dot com
Will be much appreciated!

I'm fowa worked in a trading company and we provide agent service. We can help you sorting out everying incurred in the import process. I can explain the import process in China and offer more souring information of welding machines for you.pls contact me email: [email protected]

Dear Jim,im bumping into this forum by chance and i cant fail to notice the big obstacles any importer has when dealing with china,im Spanish and i work in China in the sourcing business and i can tell you the Chinese are a mix bunch to say the best,but for prices they cant be beaten,with a little luck and oversight theres good deals to be done in China in furniture as in many other fields,i live in Guangzhou,very close to the furniture hubs of Shunde and Lecong,drop me an email miigue at gmail dot com or give a number to call you.

Chinesefurniture is not totaly bad. that depends the factory you found.
[email protected]