Six parts, six quotations, six different lies of omission

A two-part lid for a wall-mounted enclosure. The tool is the cheapest class that will hold the tolerance, and at the quantity most buyers first ask about it is still paying for most of every unit.

A compression moulded seal, quoted per thousand. The tooling is small enough that the quoted rate is close to honest, which makes it the useful counter-example on this shelf.

A formed sheet bracket. Press brake tooling is cheap and the break quantity arrives well below the supplier MOQ, so the quoted rate is nearly the real one.

A machined housing from billet. There is no mould, but the fixture and soft jaws are still a one-off, and at 250 units they are a fifth of what each housing costs to land.

A populated board, quoted per unit at 500. Stencil and test fixture are the one-off; freight is trivial and duty is zero, so this is the closest to a quotation that means what it says.

A two-shot grip on a rigid substrate. A Class 103 tool against a low piece price is the worst shape on this shelf: the break quantity is four and a half times the supplier MOQ.