Many us producers have led customers thru the costing models, noting freight, quality, material variations, in transit losses, increased need for documentation and communications and increased management costs plus much more. most guys will compete on an apples to apples basis, but quotes must be detailed for many to see the problems and the spreadsheets done for the purchaser to see the differentials. plastic mould manufacturer is a leader among moldmakers. our main focus is creating the highest quality products. plastic mould manufacturer is a china injection mold company located in shenzhen. our company concentrates on mold design and mold manufacture. the main products are plastic injection molding, injection molded parts and custom injection mold. cost versus price is always something that has to be fully detailed and documented in order for a true comparison to be made. and tas has an interesting point, he has an american partner. is this the oem, or a broker, or another tooler? i am interested in what tas finds works best for his firm and for the users of the mold in his opinion. a few short years back, we saw molds being brokered overseas, but now that is rarer, usually american firms have sister/partner firms or a plant located in china nowadays. as to the cost breakdown, in fact ,if all the material and standard are the same, chinese offer will lower for sure ,because we have about 200 workers in a factory,while in americam most of the company just about 20 workers , our labour cost is of course lower .as to the shipping cost and custom cost ,in fact , we always note this ,so we have our own hongkong forward to save the cost,however,good communication is very important in this procedure. i've been in the custom injection molding business for 39 years, consequently have worked with and/or around all the popular brands of imm's. your specific criteria is: "the best general purpose machine for the buck" and "tonnage range is 100 to 1000 tons". this was the exact criteria i had when i decided to start my own molding business 15 years ago. we chose nissei and have never regretted it. we have 1 all electric and 10 hydraulics. one note the hydraulics are much cleaner because they do not have the toggle clamp movement, which need constant lubrication. also the hydraulics are very precise and extremely robust. the next press we will purchase will be the nissei hybrid....an incredible machine!!!! i need to note that we also have 2 engles for lower end molding. also a husky for a fully automated specialty medical disposable. another consideration is the quality of the manufactures representative in your area. i have found that we get much better service with all our suppliers that have the most attentive and responsive manufactures representative. personally my first choice would be nissei...call their local rep and see if he calls you back and come to see you...if he/she doesn't then i'd call toshiba and do the same. but stay away from all the china, taiwan, korea. they may be half the price, but will be 4 times the overall cost and be down more than up.