why we're different

Circa Imports offers one of the most unique collections of Chinese country antiques in the world. Our buyers live permanently in some of the most culturally diverse intersections of the world. These cultural influences--Mongolian, Tibetan, Chinese, Central Asian, and Indian--are reflected throughout our collection. And yet our specialty has always been, and remains, simple country antiques with exceptional wood and unique folk art painting. We look for pieces that can be easily placed in most modern, Western rooms--accenting any setting.

where we collect

Instead of relying on agents to do our buying, each of our pieces is hand-selected by our own staff, insuring quality, authenticity and value. In fact, many of our items are bought first-hand, directly from villages where foreigners have never set foot. Click here to see images of some villages that we collect in.

wholesale direct container shipments

Circa Imports is an American company based on the edge of historic Tibet in western China. We wholesale directly from our warehouses in China to the trade only.

All of our current inventory is available for browsing online, but our website is restricted to qualified wholesale customers. For this reason, when first visiting our site, we ask that you register and provide us some basic information about your company.

We take high quality, studio photos of each piece in our inventory. Through our web site customers can custom order an entire container of items--the pieces that you choose are the actual pieces that go on your container.

By ordering a minimum of a 20’ container at a time, our customers secure the lowest possible pricing. We will also be expanding our “less than container load” program in the near future which will allow customers to place smaller orders at slightly higher pricing.

where we collect

Our customer service is based on one simple idea . . . we want to do everything we can to help you sell our product. We know if our pieces don't sell through well, you won't be placing new orders as often as if the product is selling through quickly.

To help our product sell through, we want to do as much as we can for you on this side of the ocean. Our services include:

• Thoroughly cleaning all pieces before shipment.

• Providing detailed product information including excellent descriptions, dimensions, repair and modification notes, approximate ages, material and origins of each piece.

• Personalized advice via phone or email and helping you choose the best pieces and mix for your market.

• Providing high quality, studio photos of every piece that goes on your container (including three or four detailed photos of each piece).

exceptional quality...guaranteed

We feel strongly that providing pieces with the best possible quality is absolutely critical to success in this industry—we simply can’t skimp on quality. But we also feel strongly that great quality doesn’t have to translate to high price points.

We seek to provide you with pieces that are the best quality possible in their genre. We pride ourselves in paying attention to minute details, just as you would if you were looking to buy the piece in person.

We guarantee that you will be satisfied with the quality of our pieces. If something is wrong, we will figure out someway to make it right. Since beginning direct container shipments in 2003, we have had over 95% of our customers reorder, which we feel is a direct result of our commitment to provide the best quality pieces at the lowest possible prices.

Here’s what our customers say about us:

“The container arrival went well indeed. EVERYTHING was perfect. Thank you all for each of your efforts. It is the first container we received since we opened that was perfect in every way. Our packing list was 100% accurate, the photos good, there were no missing pieces. The paperwork was brilliant! It is a model for the whole industry!

Every piece was packed well. There was not a single piece that was broken (another first on any box from anyone). The pieces were cleaner than ever before. The box was on the water 14 days! Turbo-barge. The pieces were even more beautiful than I remember. We sold $5000 out of the parking lot as we unloaded.

On our end, for the first time, we got the box unloaded, unwrapped, checked, priced, tagged with their final tag, put in the building all on that same day. NEVER before could we dream of that happening! And we sent a 24' moving van of stuff to my house for storage, all before closing time!

None of us can believe it. By the way, the doors were all wonderful and the grills for windows and screen doors great too. I could go on, but must get back to work. We're working from the mountain house for 2 days. First snow of the year.

Hope you are ALL doing well, and will have wonderful holidays. Do stay in touch and thank you for ALL you do.”

DA (California)

“We received the container last week and everything was as usual perfectly packed. All the items look great! . . . I strongly believe in our product along with yours . . .”

MF (Florida)

oustanding price points

Although Circa Imports is based in the foothills of the Himalayas of western China, we are an foreign owned and foreign managed company. We do keep a small office stateside to help with logistics and customer service, but all of our warehousing and shipping is done from outside of the US. This helps us keep our overhead and prices as low as possible. In fact, our prices are typically 50% lower than similar pieces that are offered by other, US based, wholesale companies.

Click here to see our container pricing and policies.