Six steps for reading a QC photo set

The short version: Eighteen checks across five groups, with a three-state verdict rather than a score. Below is the working, the sample and the known error sources.

The check, grouped by what it protects

The checklist is deliberately short. Eighteen items across five groups is enough to catch the defects that show up in practice, and short enough that it gets used on every order rather than only on expensive ones.

The five groups and what a failure means
Group	Checks	A failure means
Shape and silhouette	4	Wrong item or wrong cut — closer to a return
Colour	3	Judge hue, not brightness; warehouse light is not studio light
Markings and labels	4	Missing tag is a query; wrong tag is a return
Measurements	4	Compare against an item you already own
Packaging	3	Damage in transit — a query now, a dispute later

The thresholds are ours. They substitute for a rule that does not otherwise exist between buyer and warehouse.

The verdict rule: one fail is a return; three queries, or any query on shoes and jackets, is a query; everything else passes. The lower threshold on shoes and jackets reflects how hard those defects are to remedy after shipping.

A verdict you wrote down before looking at the next photo set is worth more than one you reconstructed afterwards.

Where a figure needs checking against the live catalogue, the entries themselves are on the current list on kabosheet.

Why the packed box decides the bill

Volumetric weight is volume divided by a divisor, usually 5000. In the light (< 0.8 kg) band the packed dimensions typically decide the bill rather than the scale, which is why an estimate built from item weight alone is a lower bound rather than a quote.

Packing effect on billed weight, worked cases
Packed dimensions	Volume	Volumetric weight	Billed at
30 × 20 × 10 cm	6,000 cm³	1.20 kg	Scale weight if higher
38 × 28 × 22 cm	23,408 cm³	4.68 kg	Volumetric
44 × 32 × 26 cm	36,608 cm³	7.32 kg	Volumetric
52 × 38 × 34 cm	67,184 cm³	13.44 kg	Volumetric, two tiers up

Calculated at the 5000 divisor. Some carriers use 6000 or 4000, which changes the result by up to 20%.

Rehearsal exists precisely for this. It packs the parcel before the international payment so the freight can be quoted on the packed dimensions — and it is the stage where estimates most often change.

Ask for packed dimensions, not item dimensions.
Request compression where the category tolerates it.
Check the volumetric weight before paying, not after.
Remove one bulky item rather than changing lane when a parcel sits on a boundary.

Who is responsible at each stage

Eight handoffs separate payment from delivery. Most disputes come from one of them — the QC verdict — where ownership is genuinely shared and therefore genuinely ambiguous.

Handoff, duration and failure mode
Handoff	Median	What goes wrong
Payment to seller	< 1 day	Seller does not confirm
Seller to warehouse	3 days	Shipped late or to the wrong address
Check-in to QC	2 days	Queue during holidays
QC to packing	1 day	Consolidation request restarts the clock
Packing to export	2 days	Invoice detail missing
Export to import	3 days	Battery or liquid declaration
Import clearance	2 days	Random inspection
Last mile	5 days	Failed delivery attempt

Medians from the 96-order sample.

Designing around the sequence is mostly about the two ends. Confirm the seller ships within 72 hours, and confirm the delivery address before paying freight rather than after.

Set a 72-hour rule at the seller handoff and act on it.
Write the QC verdict down before looking at the next photo set.
Submit consolidation before packing, not after.
Confirm the destination address before paying freight.

Where the money actually goes

Six segments make up the landed cost, and only the first is the item itself. For a pants/shorts order in our sample the average item value is $41.71, against $7.50 to $74.40 of everything else. That ratio is the single most useful number in this reading.

The six segments, with their sample ranges
Segment	Range	What moves it
Item value	$12.52–$168.48	Catalogue mix
Domestic delivery	$0.40–$3.10	Weight band
Service fee	$1.20–$9.80	Fee model, order value
International freight	$5.90–$9.40 at light (< 0.8 kg)	Billed weight, lane
Duty	$0.00–$17.40	Declared value, destination
Insurance	$0.00–$2.60	Declared value; optional

Item value is a published figure read from the source listings. The other five are modelled ranges and are labelled as such wherever they appear.

Read the table by column, not by row: the segments with the widest ranges are the ones worth spending attention on, and the widest by a factor of three is international freight.

Lane by lane, on the same parcel

Lane choice looks like a speed decision and is really a step-function decision. For a light (< 0.8 kg) parcel, EU standard sits at $7.10–$11.90 at 1.5 kg, against $5.90–$9.40 on US economy.

Lane cost and transit at 1.5 kg
Lane	Freight at 1.5 kg	Median days	p90 days
US economy	$5.90–$9.40	19	31
US express	$11.40–$17.20	11	21
UK standard	$6.40–$10.80	16	28
EU standard	$7.10–$11.90	21	36

Freight modelled from published tariffs; transit measured from stage timestamps in the sample.

Between 1.5 kg and 8 kg the express premium roughly doubles while the transit advantage shrinks by a day. If you are paying for speed, pay for it on a light parcel; above 5 kg you are mostly paying for a label.

EU standard: $7.10–$62.30 across the full weight range, median 21 days.
Under 3 kg, express is usually worth it; above 5 kg it rarely is.
Above 9–10 kg the question becomes parcel count rather than lane.

Where each figure comes from

Three source labels separate what we know from what we assume. Item prices are published figures; freight, duty and fee ranges are modelled from published terms; the transit figures are measured.

Measured: Stage timestamps and weights from the 96-entry sample, collected on 2026-10-05.
Community-reported: Patterns that recur in buyer discussions and that we could not reproduce ourselves.
Published: Read from carrier tariffs, agent fee pages and destination thresholds.
Not measured: Anything we could not source. Written as such rather than estimated.

The known biases are listed rather than hidden. Weight bands are assigned from category baselines rather than weighed individually — that is the largest source of error in the census and it is stated on every page that uses it.

Sample sizes are given for every range on this site. A range without a sample size is not a measurement, it is an opinion.

What the tools do and what they leave out

Comparing calculators by their outputs flatters all of them. Comparing them by their omissions is what tells you which number to trust.

Six calculators and their omissions
Calculator	Omits	Consequence
Typical landed-cost calculator	Volumetric weight step	Underestimates freight on bulky parcels
Typical freight estimator	Duty and service fee	Underestimates the total by 10–25%
Typical duty calculator	Freight and service fee	Partial figure that reads as a total
Typical budget planner	Segment breakdown	Cannot explain a deviation afterwards
Our freight tool	Duty, service fee	Deliberate — hands off to the cost tool
Our cost tool	Storage and add-ons	Stated on the page rather than hidden

Assessed by running the same parcel through each calculator and comparing outputs.

The common omission is the volumetric step, and the more dangerous version is applying it silently. A silent application produces a number nobody can reproduce, which is worse than an obvious omission.

Enter a parcel with high volume and low weight.
If freight does not change, the volumetric step is absent.
Then change only the declared value.
If the total does not change, duty is not modelled.

Who owns what, stage by stage

Ownership is clear at seven of the eight handoffs. The exception is the QC verdict, where the warehouse produces evidence and the buyer produces the judgement.

Payment to seller: Agent owns the transaction; you own the accuracy of the buy request.
Seller to warehouse: Seller owns dispatch; agent owns follow-up.
Check-in: Warehouse owns registration; the storage clock starts here at some agents.
QC: Shared and therefore ambiguous — the only genuinely unowned step.
Packing: Warehouse owns dimensions; you own the consolidation instruction.
Export: Agent owns documentation; you own supplying complete details.
Clearance: Carrier owns the filing; you own the declaration.
Last mile: Carrier owns delivery; you own address accuracy.

The three longest tails sit at handoffs two, seven and eight. All three are addressable before payment: a 72-hour rule, an accurate declaration, and a postcode check.

Median and p90 at the three longest handoffs
Handoff	Median	p90	Tail cause
Seller to warehouse	3 days	8 days	Seller does not confirm
Import clearance	2 days	9 days	Random inspection
Last mile	5 days	15 days	Failed delivery attempt

From the 96-order sample.

What this reading rests on

Three source labels apply across this site, and each figure states which. Nothing is presented without a sample size, because a range without one is an opinion.

Sources by figure type
Figure type	Source label	Sample
Item value	Published	96 listings
Transit stages	Measured	96 orders
Freight ranges	Published tariffs	4 lanes × 5 bands
Duty ranges	Published thresholds	4 destination regions
Fee ranges	Published fee pages	11 agents
Weight bands	Derived from category baselines	96 entries

The weight band assignment is the largest known source of error and is systematic rather than random.

Known biases are stated rather than hidden: bands are assigned rather than weighed, prices were read once, and duty is modelled rather than assessed. Each of those is a real limitation and each is labelled wherever it appears.

Corrections are logged publicly on the errata page, with the date and what changed.