Help
Frequently asked questions, and where the official answers live
The inspection examples below were read on 4 August 2026. Included photo counts, extra-photo fees and help-page access may have changed; confirm them in the chosen agent’s current order and help pages.
If your question is about your specific order, we cannot help with it: this is a guide, not a service desk. The agent's own support runs through your account.
Ten questions people actually ask
Short answers. Each one is expanded somewhere in the guide.
How many inspection photos should I expect?
The published rules describe a standard set of three to five, with the angles chosen by product category rather than by what you spent. Clothing tends to get front, back and a label shot; shoes get four including the box. A short set is normal.
Can I ask for more angles?
Where the page supports it, a small number of extra shots is usually offered free of charge, with the exact count and conditions set on that page. Point the request at one specific spot. A general request for better photos tends to return the same angles again.
Do the photos prove the item is genuine?
No. The agent states plainly that standard inspection is not a professional authentication service and does not guarantee authenticity, brand, material, function or performance. The photos prove that something arrived, in a certain condition, on a certain date.
What counts as damage worth raising?
The stated basic standard for an obvious defect is a round mark wider than 0.5 cm or any other mark longer than 1 cm. Below that, or where the issue is subjective, the rules say standard inspection may not identify it.
Why was my item not opened?
Plastic-sealed goods, items with seal labels or tamper strips, blind boxes, sealed figures and some hygiene-sensitive clothing are left closed by default. For those the check is limited to the outer packaging.
I forwarded a parcel myself and got no photos.
That is the documented default. Forwarding orders are received, screened for prohibited items, weighed and warehoused. Product verification and photos only happen if you selected an inspection service on the page.
Where do the photos appear?
Against the order, in the shopping orders view, the warehouse view, the pending shipment list or the order detail page. The exact position differs between the desktop site, the app and newer layouts, which is why the official page lists several places.
The warehouse found a problem. What happens?
Where an obvious abnormality is found, the agent normally notifies you by order message, site message or email and waits for your confirmation before processing the goods further.
Does opening the package damage collector packaging?
It can. The rules include an explicit warning that original packaging may not be restored to its exact original condition after being opened. For collectibles that is worth thinking about before you order rather than after.
Are free gifts checked?
Only where the seller page, product details or seller description clearly stated that a gift is included. If the listing said nothing, the assumption is that there is no gift. Gifts that do arrive belong to you and are shipped with the item.
Which official pages you can actually read
Help-page access can differ by article and account. When we checked on 4 August 2026, the inspection rules, the storage rules and the beginner guide opened normally, while services and fees, returns and refunds, shipping restrictions, customs and taxation, insurance, the FAQ and contact all redirected to a sign-in page.
That is not a fault. It does mean a guide that describes those pages in detail has probably not opened them, so we link only to the ones we could read.
The pages we link to, and why
Official help entry points used for the dated examples. Check the live page for its present content and access requirements.
Inspection rules
The source for almost everything on this site: scope, thresholds, category rules, photo counts and where results appear.
Open the official pageOfficial siteStorage rules
How long inspected items can wait before you make up a parcel. Terms change, so read them there rather than here.
Open the official pageOfficial siteBeginner guide
The agent's own walk-through of ordering, with their annotated screenshots of the search box and the warehouse.
Open the official pageContacting a human
For anything about an order, use the account you ordered with: order messages, site messages and email are the channels the rules name, and the warehouse uses the same ones when it finds a problem.
For anything about this guide, including corrections and takedown requests, write to us. A person reads it.
Glossary: the abbreviations you will see
Most of these come from community forums rather than from any agent, which is why no official page defines them. They are worth knowing because the answers you find in threads are written in them.
QC
Quality check. The inspection itself, and by extension the photo set it produces. Used as a noun and a verb: people talk about the QC, and about getting something QCed.
GL and RL
Green light and red light. GL means the photos looked fine and the item can ship; RL means somebody saw a problem. Neither is an official status: the interface only has approve and the dispute flow. They are shorthand for what a person decided.
Haul and batch
A haul is one round of items ordered together. A batch is a production run of a replica, and sellers use it as a version number. Two listings of the same thing from different batches can differ more than two sizes of the same batch.
Line, and consolidated parcel
A line is one international shipping route with its own rate, speed and list of refused goods. A consolidated parcel is several items from several sellers boxed together before the line takes them.
Exchange rate: the rate you actually pay
Two numbers decide what an item costs you, and only one of them is on the listing. The listing shows yuan. What leaves your card is yuan converted at the agent's own rate, which is not the mid-market rate you get from a search engine. The gap between those two is a margin, and it applies to every item on every order, which is why it outweighs almost everything else.
It is measurable from outside. The comparison sample measured the margin on 8 October 2026 and published it per agent: LoongBuy at plus 2.0 per cent with no service fee, CSSBuy at plus 0.4 per cent but with a 6 per cent service fee charged separately, TigBuy below the mid-market rate on the conversion while charging 10 per cent. Read those two together: CSSBuy and TigBuy both look cheap in the column most people check and expensive in the one they do not. A margin of zero on the conversion does not mean the order is cheaper; it means the money is being taken somewhere you can see.
Do the arithmetic once, on one real item, before you commit to anybody. Comparing agents on service fee alone is how people end up paying more at the agent that advertises no fee at all.
