Kakobuy spreadsheet. Check the QC. Then buy.

A "spreadsheet" in this hobby is just a shared list of product links from Chinese marketplaces — Weidian, Taobao and 1688 — that people have already bought and checked. The original ones really were Google Sheets: a row per item, a link, a price, sometimes a photo. Sites like this one are the same idea with search, filters and photos attached, because a sheet with thousands of rows is painful to read on a phone.

Kakobuy is a shopping agent, not a shop. Chinese sellers on those marketplaces don't ship abroad, so an agent buys on your behalf: the parcel goes to their warehouse in China, they photograph it, and you decide whether to ship it on or return it. The list and the agent are two separate things — the list tells you what to buy, the agent gets it to you.

Reading QC photos

QC ("quality check") photos are what the warehouse takes before shipping. They are the whole point of using a list rather than buying blind: someone already ordered that exact listing, and you can see how it actually turned out. What to look at:

• Stitching and alignment — crooked logos and wandering seams are the most common giveaways, and they don't show in a seller's own photos.
• Shape — bags in particular slump or bulge in ways the listing photo hides.
• Colour — warehouse lighting is harsh, so compare several photo sets rather than trusting one.
• Labels and hardware — fonts, spacing and engraving quality vary between batches of the same listing.

You'll see GL and RL used in communities: GL (green light) means the buyer accepted the item, RL (red light) means they sent it back. Treat them as one person's opinion, not a verdict.

What the numbers mean

Prices on lists are the seller's price only. Add two shipping legs: domestic delivery inside China to the agent's warehouse (usually a few dollars), and international shipping to you, which is priced by weight and volume and is often more than the item itself. Shoes and coats are heavy; jewellery and tees are cheap to send. Consolidating several items into one parcel is almost always cheaper than shipping them separately.

Choosing a shipping line

Agents offer several carriers with different prices, speeds and customs behaviour. The cheap lines are slow and more likely to be inspected; the expensive ones are fast and usually declared at a higher value. Compare them after your parcel is weighed, not before — the quotes change once the actual weight is known.

Coupons

New Kakobuy accounts get a welcome pack of shipping coupons, redeemed under User Center → Wallet → Coupons and applied when you submit a parcel for international shipping. They apply to shipping, not to the item price, and each has a minimum spend.

Before you buy

Sellers change and delete listings constantly, so a link that worked last month may be dead or may now point at a different product — always check the QC photos match what the listing currently shows. Sizing runs small compared to Western sizes; look for a size chart in the listing rather than assuming your usual size. And be aware that many items on lists like these are replicas of branded goods, which can be seized by customs and is illegal to import in a number of countries. That risk is yours to weigh before you order.