Notes on 1688 sourcing, agent pricing, and side-by-side comparison.
Service fee %, payment processing fee, free storage days, photo review cost, and consolidation fee for BuckyDrop, CSSBuy, Superbuy, Supplyia, Oopbuy. Updated 2026-09-28.
Read more →Step-by-step playbook for overseas sellers: how to choose a 1688 sourcing agent, how to budget shipping, what to ship vs not to ship, and how 1688CMP saves you 15 min per product.
Read more →How to spot a 1688 scam before you pay. Red flags, payment-hold mechanics, and what to do when the seller disappears. Real examples, no SaaS jargon.
Read more →Side-by-side comparison of BuckyDrop, Supplyia, Superbuy, CSSBuy, Oopbuy: service fee tiers, free storage days, photo fees, support response time, and which one fits a $500 vs $5000 order.
Read more →Freight benchmarks for 2kg, 5kg and 10kg parcels across BuckyDrop, Supplyia, Superbuy, CSSBuy and Oopbuy, using the per-kg rate each line quotes for the US, the EU and Asia-Pacific. Four lines every buyer should read before trusting a headline rate — plus what the destination adds afterwards: the EU moved to €3 per item on 2026-07-01, the US suspended its $800 exemption during 2025, Australia clears duty below A$1,000.
Read more →How 1688 service fees actually work: four of the five charge nothing on 1688. Supplyia is the only percentage ladder — 11 tiers, 10% below $500 down to 5% above $30,000. BuckyDrop takes a flat ¥9.9 per fulfilled parcel and no commission at all. CSSBuy does not publish a figure we can cite, so the extension leaves it unconfirmed rather than applying a guess. Worked examples for $200, $2,000 and $20,000 orders, including the SKU surcharge that sits above the headline rate.
Read more →Every 1688 product page hides 5 price signals that determine your real unit cost: title price, tier price, MOQ, per-SKU quantity, and the SKU matrix. A ¥25 product bought at the wrong tier can cost 4× more per unit. This guide shows how to decode all 5 with a ¥25 phone case, and how to use 1688CMP to apply the right tier to your sourcing agent quote.
Read more →Apparel, home goods, 3C, beauty, auto parts, pet supplies, stationery — ranked by margin and risk, with the one trap each category hides from first-time buyers.
Read more →EU duty relief under €150 ended on 2026-07-01 and is now replaced by a flat €3 per item. The US $800 Section 321 exemption has been suspended since 2025 and is repealed by statute on 2027-07-01. UK £135, Canada C$20, Australia A$1,000 — thresholds, worked arithmetic, and who has to act as importer of record. Rules last checked 2026-10-03.
Read more →One 40×30×30cm parcel weighing 1.2kg can be billed as 1.2kg, 4.0kg, 4.5kg, 6.0kg or 7.2kg depending on which line carries it. Here is where that divisor comes from, the value each of the five agents uses, and why the same agent can quote two different chargeable weights for the same box.
Read more →A listing can carry the 一件代发 badge and still refuse to ship you one. About 34% of managed listings showed no minimum at all, then popped a “minimum 3 units” prompt at checkout. How the tiered price table encodes the real MOQ, why badges mislead, and the one question to ask before you order.
Read more →“Free shipping” on 1688 usually covers a 50-city template, not the country. Beyond it, ¥8–15 is normal; a 3kg parcel can cost three times what a 1kg one does; and a return doubles the freight. How to run the carrier’s own calculator before you price, and why 8–12% float is not optimism.
Read more →Dispatch within 48 hours, respond to buyer messages within 30 minutes on average, and honour 7-day no-reason returns — three thresholds that decide whether a product reaches you at all. How platform rules filter your catalogue before price ever enters the picture, and what happens when you skip them.
Read more →A business licence hanging on the shop front proves nothing. Check the licence on gsxt.gov.cn, match the registered address against the real shipping origin, read the service record, and place a 30-50 RMB test order before committing.
Read more →A unit price 3 yuan lower is not a cheaper order. Platform research on wiki.1688.com traces 78% of procurement disputes to mismatched freight expectations. How to confirm the real shipping origin, the three fields inside a freight template, and the arithmetic that reverses a price comparison.
Read more →A 1688 product page shows a price and a picture, not a weight. On one listing we measured, the twelve SKUs run 0.911 to 0.985 kg while the quoting tool assumed 0.5 kg — a 45% understatement that moves the ranking. Where 1688 weight and pack-size data actually lives, which field to trust, and how volumetric weight overturns a light parcel.
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