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How to Read a Mirror Quotation — Which Numbers Are Fixed and Which Are Not
A quotation that only shows a unit price is hiding four other numbers that will decide your landed cost.
Short answer: a mirror quotation has five moving parts — unit price, tooling or setup, packing, freight and payment terms. Only the first drops meaningfully with quantity. Reading a quote well means knowing which line you are actually negotiating.
The five lines
| Line | Moves with | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Unit price | Quantity, specification | The only one that scales with volume |
| Tooling / setup | Number of custom items | One-off; does not repeat on reorders |
| Packing | Shipping mode, not quantity | A courier-ready carton costs more than a warehouse carton |
| Freight | Volume and mode | Mirrors fill a container on volume before weight |
| Payment terms | Relationship and order size | Rarely negotiable on a first order |
The common mistake on a first order is pushing hard on unit price while ignoring packing and freight — and then discovering the landed cost barely moved.
Why the unit price depends on specification, not just quantity
Two mirrors of the same size can differ substantially in cost depending on:
- Substrate — standard float or low-iron
- Coating — standard silvering or copper-free
- Thickness
- Edge treatment — polished, bevelled, and how wide
- Backing — none, CAT I, CAT II
- Frame material and finish
A quote that does not state these is not comparable to another quote that does. When you are comparing suppliers, the first job is making sure both are quoting the same product — which is more often the source of a price gap than any real difference in efficiency.
Tooling is one-off, and worth asking who owns it
Custom profiles, custom frame extrusions and printed packaging usually carry a setup cost. It is charged once, not per reorder — so a tooling charge that looks heavy on a first order looks different across a programme.
Ask who owns the tooling and what happens if you move the programme elsewhere. It is a fair question and a supplier who cannot answer it plainly is telling you something.
Packing does not scale down
Packing cost follows the shipping mode. A carton designed to survive a parcel network costs more than one designed to be palletised and unpacked at a warehouse — and no quantity discount changes that, because the material per unit is the same.
This is where a free spare-parts kit changes the arithmetic. On fragile goods, replacing a panel is far cheaper than processing a return, so a small quantity of spares shipped with the order usually costs less than the returns it prevents.
Freight: volume beats weight
Mirrors are light and bulky, so a container fills on volume long before it fills on weight. Two practical consequences: mixing categories to fill a load is normal rather than exceptional, and a slightly larger panel can cost disproportionately more to ship because of how it stacks.
Ask for the loading calculation, not just the freight number. It tells you whether the load is efficient and where adding items is nearly free.
Incoterms change what you are comparing
EXW, FOB, CIF and DDP move different amounts of cost and risk onto the seller. A DDP price and an FOB price are not comparable numbers, and a DDP quotation needs an importer of record and a VAT registration in the destination country before it can be calculated at all.
On a first enquiry, EXW or FOB is usually the faster route to a comparable number.
What we put on a quotation
Specification per line, tooling separately where it applies, packing and the spare-parts kit stated, and the loading calculation on request. Send the models and quantities from the full catalogue; we come back within 24 hours. Trade terms for distributors are set out in the distributor programme.