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Choosing well: sellers, finds, catalogues, agents
Four choices happen before your first payment, and every one of them changes how long the gap between payments lasts.
Choosing a seller: check the dispatch commitment
Start with the specific seller: current stock, promised dispatch date, recent buyer photos and the exact variant. Platform and geographic averages provide context but cannot predict the arrival date of your order. Custom and pre-sale goods can have different terms.
On the listing itself, read the recent reviews with buyer photos, check whether the shop answers questions inside a day, and on 1688 respect the minimum order quantity the seller sets. None of this needs insider knowledge; it needs ten patient minutes per shop.
How to judge a listing before the link leaves the catalogue
Check the price against the live listing, because catalogue prices age and the gap becomes your shortfall. Check the variant you want exists right now, because stock can change between discovery and purchase. And check the category's custody quirk on the category shelves: liquids narrow your route list, batteries split it, denim weighs it down, fragile finds want the reinforcement add-on later.
The anti-counterfeiting policy draws the hard line: products sold through the agent must be authentic, and inauthentic purchases risk funds being withheld and inventory disposed of. Choose finds that survive that sentence.
How to judge a Spreadsheet site before trusting it
Any catalogue, this one included, should pass four checks. Dead-link rate: open five random finds; if two are gone, the catalogue is a museum. Update rhythm: dated entries or a dated updates page beat 'new' badges with no dates. Honest destination labels: every outbound card here is badged as a category or a search feed, and a catalogue that disguises its links fails the test. Source discipline: numbers should carry their origin and date, the way every figure on this site carries its help-centre article or capture month.
Run those four against us too. The updates page is dated to the day precisely so that check is possible.
Choosing an agent you can trust, without handing out ranks
The agent landscape is real and worth knowing: a dozen other shopping agents forward parcels from China, differing in fee models, storage windows, buying-desk hours and warehouse locations. This site does not rank them; ranking needs reproducible public data the category does not have. What transfers is the reading method, the same four custody questions this whole guide runs on. Who holds my goods at each stage? Which clocks are published, in writing, with units? What does storage cost after the free window? Where do payment surcharges hide?
Ask those four of any agent and the marketing page turns into a comparable spec sheet. On this one, the answers live on the states page and the costs page, each with its article number attached.
Before you buy: shopping cautions
Save the exact listing URL, chosen variant, seller size chart and stated dispatch terms. Confirm that your intended route accepts the specific goods; a generic liquids or cosmetics label does not establish perfume acceptance, and battery chemistry or capacity can matter.
Compare the complete item and parcel cost before buying. Keep enough room in the plan for domestic delivery, conversion, selected services and final packed measurements, without assuming a coupon will apply. Read manual-order cancellation limits and the eligible return window. A QC photograph cannot establish authenticity, electronic function or every hidden defect.
If a message requests a shortfall or a change, use the order record and ask what the charge covers before responding. Keep account deadlines and supporting screenshots with the order number so a problem can be explained clearly.