Ask five experienced shoppers to list every fee their buying agent charged them, and you will get five different answers — not because anyone is lying, but because the costs are scattered across service pages, checkout screens, and shipping calculators. If you only budget for the headline service fee, you will be surprised when the final invoice lands. This guide gathers every cost in one place so you can read a price quote the way the agent actually charges it.
The master fee list at a glance
| Fee | Typical range | When you pay it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service fee | 0%–10% of item price | At order placement | The agent's cut; sometimes free, sometimes tiered. |
| Domestic shipping | ¥0–¥20 per order | At order placement | Seller-to-warehouse postage inside China. |
| International shipping | $15–$60+ per kg | At parcel submission | By weight or volumetric weight, per line. |
| Currency / top-up spread | 2%–6% over mid-market | When you top up | Hidden margin in the exchange rate. |
| Warehousing / storage | Free 60–180 days, then small daily fee | After the free window | Only bites on long hauls. |
| QC photos | Free–$2 per item | Optional, at inspection | Often a few free photos, extras billed. |
| Packaging & insurance | $1–$15 | At parcel submission | Reinforcement, shrink-wrap, declared-value cover. |
| Customs / duties | 0%–30% of declared value | On arrival | Charged by your country, not the agent. |
The service fee, decoded
The service fee is what the agent charges to buy the item, receive it, and store it. It is usually a small percentage of the item price, often 5%–10%, though many agents run promotional periods where it drops to zero on select stores. The key detail to check is what the percentage applies to — the item price, or the item plus domestic shipping. A 5% fee on a larger base is more than a 5% fee on the sticker price.
Domestic shipping is the one everyone forgets
Inside China, sellers ship to the agent's warehouse cheaply — often free or just a few yuan. This is normally bundled into your item payment, but some agents list it as a separate line. It is rarely worth worrying about on a single item, yet it adds up fast on a haul of ten cheap accessories that each carry a ¥10 domestic fee.
International shipping is where the real money goes
This is the biggest single line on most invoices. Carriers charge by actual weight or volumetric weight, whichever is higher, and the price per kilogram depends on the line you pick — economy sea freight can be a third of the cost of express air courier but takes weeks longer. Heavy items like jackets and shoes dominate this number, so a lightweight tee can effectively cost more per gram to ship than a dense pair of boots.
The currency spread nobody advertises
When you top up your balance, the agent converts your money to CNY at their rate, not the bank's mid-market rate. The gap — usually 2%–6% — is a real fee, just one that never appears as a named charge. We cover exactly how to measure this in our CNY-to-USD guide, and a tracking tool like the one at sheetquik.com makes it visible instead of letting it hide inside the total.
The optional extras
QC photos are inspection shots of your item in the warehouse, and they are worth paying for on anything expensive or hard to return. Packaging upgrades — bubble wrap, corner protection, vacuum sealing — cost a couple of dollars and meaningfully reduce damage. Insurance covers loss or seizure up to a declared value, though declaring a higher value can itself raise duties. The trick is knowing which extras protect you and which are just margin padding.
Why comparing agents is so hard
No two agents present these fees the same way, which is why side-by-side comparison feels impossible. One quotes a 0% service fee but pads a 6% currency spread; another charges 8% upfront but converts near the mid-market rate. One bundles domestic shipping into the item price so items look cheaper; another lists it separately so the service fee looks smaller. The only fair way to compare is to convert every agent's schedule into the same all-in number — item cost plus every fee — and line them up. Otherwise you are comparing marketing copy, not real prices.
The same goes for your own tracking. Fees that arrive at different stages — some at order time, some at top-up, some at parcel submission — are easy to lose track of, which is why a running total beats memory every time. Once you have all the lines on one sheet, the agent's real cost becomes obvious.
How these stack into one number
A single ¥200 tee rarely shows all of these fees at once; a 6 kg haul of mixed clothing, shoes, and a bag will. The only reliable way to see your true all-in cost is to track each line as it happens rather than trusting the first price you see. The Oopbuy Spreadsheet guides and tooling exist for exactly that — turning a scattered fee schedule into one number you can trust before you commit.