Questions buyers actually ask, answered with numbers
Twenty-four questions, each answered with a figure rather than a hedge. Every answer has the same three parts: the verdict, the basis it rests on, and the exception where it stops being true. The questions themselves come from a survey of twenty-five ranking catalogues, cross-checked against what our own sample could actually support.
Open the current entry list · The census · Source labels
We link to kabosheet.com, where the product list lives. Our numbers are independent of that link.
Is a spreadsheet order cheaper than buying direct?
- Verdict
- Usually, but not always — and the crossover point is freight, not the item price. In our census the landed cost of an agent order ran below a direct retail equivalent for 71 of 96 entries, and above it for the other 25.
- Basis
- The 25 entries where direct buying won were all single light items under $25, where a fixed service fee and a minimum freight charge together exceeded the retail markup. Measured against the source listings and modelled freight in /census/.
- Exception
- If your order is one cheap item, buying direct is often cheaper once you include the minimum freight step. The comparison only turns in the agent’s favour from about two items or one heavy item onward.
Related tool: total cost · Check the live listing
How much does shipping cost from an agent?
- Verdict
- Between $5.90 and $41.50 for the parcels in our sample, depending almost entirely on billed weight and lane rather than on distance.
- Basis
- Derived from the 96-entry census against four published lane tariffs, at five weight bands from 1.5 kg to 12 kg. Full matrix in /lanes/.
- Exception
- Parcels above 12 kg fall outside our sample; the tariff step above that is steeper than a linear continuation would suggest.
Related tool: freight · Check the live listing
How long does an agent order take to arrive?
- Verdict
- A median of 19 days from payment to doorstep on the US economy lane, with a p90 of 31 days. Express cuts the median to 11 days but not the tail as much as people expect.
- Basis
- Stage timestamps from the 96 sampled orders, split into six stages. The per-stage p10 / median / p90 figures are on /lanes/.
- Exception
- Orders placed in the two weeks before a public holiday at either end show a median two to three days longer, and the tail stretches further than the median moves.
Related tool: shipping window · Check the live listing
Which shipping line should I choose?
- Verdict
- Economy above 3 kg. Express below 3 kg, or whenever a fixed deadline matters more than the difference in cost.
- Basis
- The four-lane matrix in /lanes/: at 1.5 kg the express premium is $5.50 on average across our sample, and at 8 kg it is $13.60 — more than a week of waiting is usually worth.
- Exception
- If the parcel contains a battery or liquid, not every express service level is available, and the choice collapses to whatever the lane accepts.
Related tool: total cost · Check the live listing
How do agent service fees actually work?
- Verdict
- Three models exist: a percentage of item value, a flat fee per order, and a tiered table. Which one is cheapest depends on your order size, not on the agent’s reputation.
- Basis
- Read from the eleven agents’ published fee pages. Eight use a percentage, two use a tiered table and one uses a flat fee. Our census models the fee at $1.20–$9.80 across the sample.
- Exception
- Several agents publish a minimum fee per order, which makes the percentage model behave like a flat fee on cheap orders.
Related tool: total cost · Check the live listing
What is volumetric weight and why is it billed?
- Verdict
- It is the space your parcel occupies, converted to kilograms at a divisor (usually 5000). Carriers bill whichever is greater — scale weight or volumetric weight.
- Basis
- A 40×30×20 cm parcel is 24,000 cm³, which at the 5000 divisor is 4.8 kg. If it weighs 2 kg on the scale, you pay for 4.8 kg. See /measure/freight/.
- Exception
- Some carriers use 6000 or 4000 as the divisor, which changes the billed weight by up to 20%. Always check the lane, not the general rule.
Related tool: freight
Do customs charges depend on declared value?
- Verdict
- Yes, and the declared value also sets the compensation ceiling if the parcel is lost. The two move together and cannot be optimised separately.
- Basis
- Modelled in /measure/declared-value/ against published thresholds for the four destination regions, using the census price distribution.
- Exception
- Gift declarations and personal-effects rules change the threshold in some destinations; we do not model those cases.
Related tool: declared value
What should I check before approving a shipment?
- Verdict
- Eighteen things, grouped into five areas: shape, colour, markings, measurements and packaging. Three or more open questions is a query, not a pass.
- Basis
- The verdict thresholds in /measure/qc-list/ come from the distribution of issues found in our sample of QC photo sets.
- Exception
- For shoes and jackets we lower the query threshold, because defects in those categories are harder to remedy after shipping.
Related tool: qc list
Is parcel insurance worth the premium?
- Verdict
- Below roughly $85 of declared value, no. Above it, yes — the premium is small in absolute terms and the loss is not.
- Basis
- Break-even calculated from published premium rates and carrier claims statistics. The tool declines to advise when the loss-probability range is unavailable.
- Exception
- If the parcel is irreplaceable rather than expensive, the calculation does not apply — insurance replaces money, not the item.
Related tool: insurance
How much does a return actually cost?
- Verdict
- Three separate charges: outbound freight is not refunded, return freight is quoted separately, and the domestic leg back to the seller is usually yours.
- Basis
- From the published return terms of the agents in our sample, cross-checked against the freight matrix in /lanes/.
- Exception
- A defect confirmed by the warehouse before shipping is treated differently from a change of mind, and the return freight is usually covered in that case.
Related tool: total cost
Why did postage change after rehearsal?
- Verdict
- Because rehearsal measures the packed parcel, and the packed parcel is usually bigger than the estimate. Volumetric weight moves, not scale weight.
- Basis
- In our sample, 31 of 96 orders changed lane-visible freight after packing, with a median increase of $3.10 and a maximum of $11.80.
- Exception
- A decrease is possible when the seller ships without the original box, but it is rare — four cases in the sample.
Related tool: freight
Can I consolidate parcels to save money?
- Verdict
- Yes, up to a point. Consolidation wins until the combined parcel crosses into a higher handling tier, which in our sample happened around 9–10 kg.
- Basis
- Freight per additional kilogram falls steeply from 1.5 kg to 5 kg, then flattens. The break-even arithmetic is in /measure/total-cost/.
- Exception
- If the parcels arrive weeks apart, the storage cost can exceed the freight saving. Check the agent’s free storage window first.
Related tool: total cost
How long can a parcel sit in a warehouse?
- Verdict
- Free storage across the eleven agents runs from 30 to 90 days. Past that, storage is charged in blocks and the cost can approach the freight itself.
- Basis
- Read from each agent’s published storage terms; recorded per agent on /agents/. Where a term is not published we record it as null rather than estimating.
- Exception
- The clock start differs: some agents count from warehouse check-in, others from purchase. A week of difference matters at the margin.
Related tool: total cost
What happens if a spreadsheet link is dead?
- Verdict
- Usually the link lost a parameter rather than the item disappearing. Normalise the URL first; only then assume the listing is gone.
- Basis
- Of the broken links we tested, the majority resolved after stripping tracking parameters and restoring the platform-native query. See /measure/link-norm/.
- Exception
- If the platform domain itself redirects to a marketplace home page, the listing was removed and no normalisation will bring it back.
Related tool: link norm
How do I convert sizes between regions?
- Verdict
- Shoes convert through foot length in centimetres. Garments convert through chest and waist measurements. One table cannot do both.
- Basis
- The two conversion methods in /measure/size-convert/, each with its own measurement basis and its own error range.
- Exception
- Oversized and cropped cuts break the garment conversion; use the brand’s own chart when it exists.
Related tool: size convert
Where do I actually pay for an order?
- Verdict
- On the agent’s own site, in two stages: the item payment when the buy request is placed, and the international freight payment after the parcel is packed.
- Basis
- Standard across the eleven agents in our sample. The second payment is the one that differs from the estimate, for the reason in the rehearsal question above.
- Exception
- Some agents allow a single combined payment if you fund a balance in advance; the fee structure does not change.
Related reading: see the readings index
How many entries are in this dataset?
- Verdict
- Ninety-six, across eight categories, collected in a single pass on 2026-10-05.
- Basis
- The full table is on /census/. Category counts come from the source catalogue’s own category pages, and we record the number we actually hold rather than the catalogue total.
- Exception
- The source catalogue holds several thousand entries; ours is a fixed sample chosen to cover every category proportionally, not a complete mirror.
Related reading: see the readings index
What exactly does “spreadsheet” mean here?
- Verdict
- An agent’s product list — a catalogue of items with links to the sellers that carry them. It is not a file format, sheet music, bed linen or sheet metal.
- Basis
- The phrase is ambiguous in search: the same words also describe buying sheet music, sheet metal and bamboo bed sheets. This page and the first line of the home page disambiguate it on purpose.
- Exception
- If you arrived looking for spreadsheet software or templates, this site will not help — that is a genuinely different topic.
Related tool: link norm
What is the slowest 10% of orders like?
- Verdict
- Between 31 and 44 days on the economy lanes, and the causes are specific rather than random: holiday closures, battery declarations, address failures and peak-season priority loss.
- Basis
- The p90 figures per stage on /lanes/, plus the tail-trigger list for each lane. The tail is not a longer version of the median; it has different causes.
- Exception
- Random customs inspection is the one cause with no preventive action. Everything else on the list can be designed around.
Related tool: shipping window · Check the live listing
Which months add a shipping surcharge?
- Verdict
- Mid-August through December on express services to all four regions, with the heaviest concentration in October and November.
- Basis
- Published carrier announcements, laid out month by month in /measure/shipping-window/. Cells with no announcement are marked open, not cheap.
- Exception
- The economy lane often avoids the surcharge entirely but loses priority, so the saving shows up as time rather than money.
Related tool: shipping window
How is the total landed cost computed term by term?
- Verdict
- Six segments: item value, domestic delivery, agent service fee, international freight, duty and insurance. Freight and duty carry most of the uncertainty; the other four are comparatively stable.
- Basis
- The method behind each segment is documented as a definition list on /census/, including the sample size for every range.
- Exception
- Storage extensions and value-added services are outside the six segments and are not modelled anywhere on this site.
Related tool: total cost
Are these numbers measured or estimated?
- Verdict
- Both, and each figure says which. Item prices are read from the source listings; freight, duty and fee ranges are modelled from published terms.
- Basis
- Three source labels — measured, community-reported and published — are defined on /standards/, and every range on the site carries one of them.
- Exception
- Where none of the three applies, we write “Not measured” instead of filling the gap with a guess.
Related reading: see the readings index
What changes when the destination changes?
- Verdict
- Duty treatment first, transit tail second, base freight third. The lane tariff itself is the least destination-sensitive of the four.
- Basis
- The four region pages on /destinations/ compare the same weight band across destinations, holding the parcel constant.
- Exception
- The EU is not one destination for customs purposes; the variation inside it is larger than the variation between the EU and the UK.
Related tool: declared value
Do the tools share inputs between each other?
- Verdict
- Yes. Billed weight from one tool carries into the landed-cost tool, and the declared value carries into the insurance tool.
- Basis
- Each tool accepts its inputs from the URL, so the hand-off is a link rather than a copy-paste. The parameter contract is documented on /measure/.
- Exception
- Nothing is stored between visits — the hand-off works within a single click-through, not across sessions.
Related reading: see the readings index
6 of the 24 answers carry an outbound link, and only where the question is directly about the catalogue itself. The rest answer the question and stop.
All 42 readings · All 8 tools · Report a wrong number