How to Vet a Paint by Numbers Supplier in China: 14-Point Checklist
Written by the export team at Art Painting by Numbers, Tianjin · Updated October 2026 · 13 min read
The cheapest way to evaluate a paint by numbers supplier is to ask fourteen specific technical and commercial questions and score how precisely they answer. A real manufacturer answers with numbers, tolerances and processes. A trading company answers with adjectives, or forwards your question to someone else and replies two days later.
We wrote this checklist to be used against us as well as anyone else — every point below is something we will answer in writing, and several are places where we would rather lose an order than promise something untrue. Send the same list to three suppliers and the differences will be obvious within a day.
First: manufacturer or trader?
This is the single most consequential distinction, and it is deliberately blurred in this industry. Many suppliers described as factories are trading companies with a relationship to one. Neither is automatically bad — a good trader offers consolidation and service — but you should know which you are dealing with, because it determines your price, your technical answers and who can actually fix a problem.
- Ask for the business licence and check whether the registered scope includes manufacturing (生产 / production) as well as trading (贸易 / sales).
- Ask for a live video call at the factory floor, not a pre-recorded tour. Request it at a time they cannot prepare for, and ask to see a specific thing — your design in production, the paint filling station, the QC bench.
- Ask a technical question with no marketing answer — "what gsm canvas do you use at 40 × 50 cm?" A manufacturer answers instantly. A trader asks someone else.
- Check address consistency. A trading office in a city business park and a factory in an industrial zone are different addresses; ask which one you would visit.
The 14-point checklist
1. Canvas specification, in numbers
Ask: material, weight in gsm, primer coating (single or double side), and whether numbers are printed in grey or black. Expect an answer like "cotton-blend, 300 gsm, double-side acrylic primer, light grey outlines at 0.3–0.5 mm." Vague answers such as "high quality thick canvas" mean the supplier does not control the material.
2. Paint opacity and sealing
Ask: pigment load or single-coat coverage over a printed outline, viscosity, open time, pot volume by canvas size, and whether pots are foil-sealed and vacuum-strip packed. Sealing is the difference between paint that arrives wet and paint that arrives as a plug. Specifications are covered in our quality guide.
3. Brush filament type
Ask: standard nylon or high-elasticity nylon, ferrule construction, handle material, and shapes supplied. Then test tip recovery on the sample — press firmly for five seconds and watch whether the tip returns to a point within two seconds. This $0.06 component drives more reviews than anything else in the box.
4. Colour count policy
Ask: how colours are chosen for a given canvas size, and whether the automatic count is reduced before production. A supplier who optimises colour count for paintability is thinking about the end customer; one who simply maximises it is thinking about the listing thumbnail. For 40 × 50 cm the right answer is 20–28 colours.
5. MOQ stated per design and per order
Ask: is the MOQ per design or per order, and does it change with packaging format? Then ask about setup and plate costs, and whether they are amortised or refunded at volume. Suppliers who quote one number without qualification usually revise it upward later. The full reasoning is in paint by numbers MOQ explained.
6. Quantity tolerance
Ask: if I order 500, will you ship 485 or 520, and how is the invoice calculated? Made-to-order manufacturing normally ships within ±3% and invoices the actual count. A supplier who cannot state their tolerance has not thought about production planning. Our position is written into section 6.2 of the terms of service.
7. Lead time definition
Ask: from what date does lead time run — order, deposit, or written artwork approval? The correct answer is the later of cleared deposit and written Proof approval. Then ask what happens in peak season and around Chinese New Year. A supplier quoting the same 15 days in October as in March is not being realistic.
8. QC process and inspection standard
Ask: how many inspection points, what AQL level for major and minor defects, and whether you may appoint a third-party inspector. A credible answer is four inspection points, AQL 2.5 major and 4.0 minor, with third-party inspection welcomed rather than resisted. Ask for a sample inspection report before you order.
9. Compliance for your specific market
Ask: which tests they can supply reports for — EN71-3, ASTM F963, CPSIA, REACH, CE or UKCA — whether reports can be issued in your company name, who pays, and how long the laboratory takes. Then ask what age grading they recommend for your product. A supplier who says "our paint is non-toxic so you need nothing" does not understand your market's rules.
10. Packaging and carton engineering
Ask for carton dimensions, sets per carton, gross and net weight, board specification, and how components are immobilised inside the box. Then calculate the volumetric weight yourself. Paint by numbers ships on volume, so a supplier who has not thought about carton cube is costing you money on every shipment.
11. Incoterm clarity
Ask which Incoterm the price is quoted on, and what specifically it includes. Then ask for FOB, CIF and DDP side by side for your destination. If a supplier cannot explain the difference, you will discover it as an unexpected invoice. FOB Tianjin explained covers this in full.
12. Intellectual property and exclusivity
Ask in writing: will you sell my custom design to another customer? Will you sign an NDA? Who owns the packaging dieline and the paint recipes? Will you refuse to produce infringing artwork? A good answer is a clear no to reselling, yes to an NDA, assignment of bespoke output to you, and an explicit refusal to reproduce third-party copyrighted imagery. Ours is in section 5 of the terms of service.
13. After-sales policy, stated before the problem
Ask: what is the claim window, what evidence do you need, and what are the remedies — replacement, credit or refund? Who pays freight on replacements? Every supplier is pleasant before an order; the policy is what you are actually buying. Get it in writing, in the contract or terms, not in a chat message.
14. Responsiveness under normal conditions
Measure it rather than judging it. How long did the first quotation take? Did they answer every part of a multi-part question, or only the easy parts? Did they push back on anything unrealistic in your brief? A supplier who corrects you during the quotation stage is more valuable than one who agrees with everything and then misses the date.
Scoring the answers
| Response pattern | What it usually means | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Specific numbers, tolerances and processes, answered in the first reply | Manufacturer with real production control | Strong positive |
| Answers that require "checking with the factory" and take 2–3 days | Trading company, possibly a good one | Neutral — price will be higher |
| Adjectives instead of specifications ("premium", "top quality", "best price") | No control over materials | Strong negative |
| Resistance to a live video call or a third-party inspection | Something to hide about the facility or the process | Disqualifying |
| No stated quantity tolerance, no claim window, no AQL level | Disputes will be resolved by who has more leverage | Strong negative |
| Willingness to reproduce third-party copyrighted artwork | Legal exposure for you, and no ethical line they will not cross | Disqualifying |
| Pushes back on an unrealistic part of your brief with an alternative | Experienced supplier who is protecting you from yourself | Strong positive |
The sample test: one evening, fourteen checks
Reading answers is not enough. Order a sample and paint it. These are the checks we would run on a competitor's kit:
- Weigh the kit and measure the canvas against the stated size (tolerance ±2 mm)
- Check pot seals are intact and count pots against the canvas colour key
- Open three pots at random and confirm the paint is wet and workable, not rubbery
- Measure number size with a ruler — under 4 mm on a 40 × 50 cm canvas is a design fault
- Check outline colour: black rather than light grey means two coats everywhere
- Paint one coat of the lightest colour over the darkest outline and hold it to daylight — can you still see the number?
- Paint a pale colour over a dark area and count the coats needed for full coverage
- Press each brush firmly for five seconds and time how long the tip takes to recover
- Try to paint the smallest segment on the canvas — is it possible with the supplied detail brush?
- Flex the canvas sharply at an unpainted corner and check for primer flaking
- Check the reference card is legible, laminated and matches the canvas colour key exactly
- Look for an instruction card, and whether it addresses storing open pots
- Check the box: board thickness, print registration, whether components moved in transit, any warning labels present
- Time how long the whole painting took, and ask whether you would finish it if you were a beginner
Checks 6, 7, 8 and 9 are the ones that predict customer satisfaction. Everything else is secondary. A kit that passes those four will earn good reviews even with modest packaging; a kit that fails them will not be saved by a beautiful box.
Due diligence beyond the product
- Company registration — verify the licence number through the national enterprise credit system, and confirm the entity name matches your contract and your bank details exactly
- Payment risk — the beneficiary name on the invoice must match the contracting company. A request to pay a different entity or a personal account is a red flag, whatever the explanation
- Platform protection — for a first order, Alibaba Trade Assurance or a similar escrow arrangement is worth the small fee
- References — ask for two buyers in your region and email them. A supplier with genuine long-term customers will provide them
- Site visit — if you are ordering above $20,000 a year, visit. Tianjin is 30 minutes by high-speed rail from Beijing South and about two hours from Beijing Capital airport, so a visit combines easily with other business. Our position on visits is on the contact page.
- Written terms — before the first deposit, get the claim window, quantity tolerance, lead-time definition, IP position and Incoterm in a document both parties sign
Frequently asked questions
How do I tell a factory from a trading company on Alibaba?
Check the verified supplier report for business type and registered scope, look at whether the address is an industrial zone or an office building, and ask three technical questions with numeric answers — canvas gsm, brush filament type, pot sealing method. Manufacturers answer immediately and consistently; traders pause, ask someone else, or give answers that shift between messages.
Is a trading company always worse?
No. A good trader offers multi-factory consolidation, quality control on your behalf, English-language service and flexibility on small mixed orders — genuinely valuable if you are buying across categories. You pay a margin for it. The problem is only being told you are buying from a factory when you are not, because then your price assumptions and your escalation path are both wrong.
Should I always order a sample?
Always, from every supplier you are seriously considering, even for a repeat design. A sample costs $25–$45 and one evening to paint. It is the only way to test coverage, brush recovery, seal integrity and number legibility — the four things that determine whether your customers finish the painting. Reputable suppliers refund the cost against your first order.
What payment terms are normal for a first order?
30% deposit by T/T and 70% balance before shipment, against inspection photographs. PayPal or Wise for orders under $2,000. Platform escrow such as Alibaba Trade Assurance is sensible for a first transaction. Full payment in advance to an unfamiliar supplier is not normal practice and you should not agree to it.
How do I protect my designs from being resold?
Sign an NDA before sending artwork, get an explicit written commitment that bespoke designs and packaging will not be sold to other customers, and ensure the contract assigns bespoke output to you. Then verify: periodically search marketplaces for your design. A supplier with real production work does not need to resell your artwork, and the ones who do are usually the ones who resisted putting the commitment in writing.
What is a fair claim window for defective kits?
14 to 30 days from delivery, with photographic evidence, and remedies of replacement in the next shipment, credit note or refund at the buyer's election. Shorter than 14 days is unreasonable because many buyers take two weeks to unpack and inspect a shipment; a supplier refusing any written claim window is a supplier planning to argue later.
Run this checklist against us
Send all fourteen questions. We will answer every one in writing within 24 hours, with numbers and tolerances rather than adjectives, and we will arrange a live video call at the factory floor whenever you ask. Then order a sample and paint it.