Import Custom Signage from China: The No-BS Cost Calculator Guide (2025)

You’ve seen the prices online and they look too good to be true. That’s because you’re not adding the whole bill.

I’ve been on a factory floor since 1995. Twenty-seven years of cutting acrylic, welding stainless, and arguing with suppliers about LED chips that die six months after install. I’ve watched sign shops in Dallas and Chicago pay $800 for a single 18-inch front-lit letter from a domestic fabricator. Same 304 stainless, same Samsung LED modules. We ship that same letter out of Lu’an, Anhui for $120. But that’s not the price your client pays. Not even close. Importing custom signage from China isn’t about unit cost. It’s about landed cost. Screw up the math, and you’ll lose thousands on a job you thought was a steal. I’ve seen it happen. I’ll walk you through every line item. No marketing jargon. Just numbers and scars.

The Real Numbers on Product Cost

Let’s get the factory price out of the way. I’m not inflating this. Our price list from the Aochuang floor — 3,000m² facility, 50+ workers, ISO 9001 certified — reads like this: Front-lit channel letters: $20-80 per letter, depending on height and material. Front-lit channel letters are our bread and butter. You order a 24-inch letter in 304 stainless with a 3mm acrylic face and Samsung SMD 2835 LEDs, you’re at about $65. Back-lit halo letters: $35-120. That premium architectural look — back-lit halo letters with push-through acrylic — will run you $85 for the same size. Stainless steel non-lit letters? $