Topic · 9 entries
Cost
What the item price leaves out, and which line items only appear after the parcel is weighed.
Every entry, answer first
Open an entry to see the basis it rests on, the moves it implies, and the way people usually misread it. Every entry names the stage it bites at.
Is the agent service really free, and what does it not cover?The help centre states the service itself is free, while the domestic freight stays its own line inside the item cost.
Public rule The published fee page states free shopping agent service and gives the total as goods cost plus international freight plus duty, where goods cost is defined as the item price plus the domestic freight to the warehouse (per Kakobuy help centre ?id=63, captured 2026-10). The domestic leg therefore does not disappear, it moves into the first block, and it is billed before the item can be booked in at stage 4. A quote given at stage 1 or stage 2 is answering a question nobody has asked yet, because no seller, province or courier has been chosen. Fee pages are revised, so check the current rule and note the date you read it.
What to do
- Ask the agent to quote the domestic leg separately before you approve the order.
- Keep the reply that contains both figures, rather than a message that only says it is included.
- Compare the quoted lines against the invoice lines once the item has been paid for.
The misread is reading free service as meaning the item price is the whole cost of getting the goods into the warehouse.
Bites at: stage 3 — Pay for the item
Why is the bill at the freight step larger than the price I paid for the item?The freight bill is a different block of the total: the item price and the international freight were never the same payment.
Flow dependency The published total is stated in three blocks, goods cost, international freight and duty, and they are paid at different moments (per Kakobuy help centre ?id=63, captured 2026-10). Nothing on the international leg can be priced before stage 6, when the box is packed and measured; at stage 3 the order holds only the item price and the domestic leg. One 2 kg garment in a 40 x 30 x 25 cm box shows how far apart the two figures can sit, because the box adds a volume the seller never shipped.
What to do
- Add up every payment you have made so far before you judge the total.
- Read the freight invoice line by line and match each line to a service you can name.
- Ask which lines are weight-based and which are charged once, before you pay.
The misread is comparing the first payment and the second payment as if they bought the same thing.
Bites at: stage 7 — Pay international freight
Which figure decides my freight bill: the weight on the scale or the size of the box?Whichever is larger once the volume is converted with your line divisor, so a bulky box can be billed above its contents.
Worked example Divide the packed volume in cubic centimetres by the divisor on your line rate card. A 40 x 30 x 25 cm box is 30,000 cm3; at a divisor of 5,000 that is 6 kg, at 6,000 it is 5 kg, against 2 kg on the scale. The divisor itself has no published figure this desk could verify, so ask the agent for the one your line uses and keep the reply: once you have it, the division above is the whole calculation. Ask for it in writing if the rate card does not print it.
What to do
- Measure the packed box yourself, in centimetres, on all three sides.
- Run the volume through the divisor you were given and write the two figures side by side.
- Ask the agent which of the two figures the invoice used.
The misread is assuming the scale weight is the billable weight because it is the only number you can check at home.
Bites at: stage 7 — Pay international freight
How much does the exchange rate my agent uses add to one order?The gap is measurable from your own receipt, and the markup percentage itself has no published figure, so ask for it.
Worked example Take the rate on your payment record, the mid-market rate for the same day, and subtract. If a payment of 300 units was converted at a rate that costs 3 units more than the market rate, the overhead is 3 / 300 = 1 percent of that payment. Run the same line for the second payment at stage 7 and add the two together, because the useful figure is the total overhead per order. The markup percentage is not published anywhere this desk can verify: ask the agent and keep the reply rather than carrying a figure from a forum post.
What to do
- Copy the rate from your own payment receipt rather than from a rate page.
- Convert the difference into a percentage of each payment, then add the payments.
- Ask whether a fixed fee per transaction sits on top of the rate.
The misread is judging the rate by how close it looks to the market rate, without multiplying by what you actually paid.
Bites at: stage 3 — Pay for the item
Is the customs charge already inside the shipping fee I paid?No: the published total lists duty as its own block beside the international freight, and it is raised at the border.
Public rule The stated total is goods cost plus international freight plus duty, which makes duty a block of its own rather than part of the freight paid at stage 7 (per Kakobuy help centre ?id=63, captured 2026-10). Whether duty applies at all depends on the value thresholds in force in the destination market on the day, and the help centre prints its own threshold list while noting that the list is for reference only. Thresholds are revised by each government, so check the current rule with the customs authority for your destination rather than with a summary page.
What to do
- Work out before you ship whether the declared value is likely to cross a threshold in your market.
- Ask who will contact you if a charge is raised, and which company name will appear on it.
- Keep the freight invoice separate from any customs receipt.
The misread is reading the word shipping on the first invoice as covering every charge that arrives before delivery.
Bites at: stage 8 — Clear customs
Can the listing price change between the day I paste the link and the day the agent pays?Yes, and the figure that counts is the one at the moment of purchase, not the one on the screenshot you saved.
Flow dependency A pasted link is a snapshot of a page at stage 2, while the money moves at stage 3, when the agent places the order; the first block of the published total is frozen at that moment as item price plus the domestic freight to the warehouse (per Kakobuy help centre ?id=63, captured 2026-10). Marketplace prices move with sales events, stock levels and seller edits, so a link pasted on the 1st and approved on the 20th has had 19 days to change, and the seller was never a party to the number you saw.
What to do
- Screenshot the listing, the price and the date in one image.
- Ask the agent to confirm the price at checkout before the payment goes through.
- Decide in advance how large a difference you will accept without a second message.
The misread is treating the price on the listing as a quote the seller has agreed to hold.
Bites at: stage 3 — Pay for the item
Which charges do I pay per parcel rather than per kilo?The declaration fee is charged per parcel and the help centre prints one figure for it, so the number of parcels matters.
Public rule The published fee page puts the declaration fee at RMB 8.00 per parcel and states that it depends on the shipping method used, which makes it a charge that does not follow the weight (per Kakobuy help centre ?id=63, captured 2026-10). Two parcels pay that line twice, one merged parcel pays it once, and the fixed part of the freight behaves the same way. One published example is not a full rate card, so check the current rule on the agent’s own page before you treat RMB 8.00 as the figure your line will use.
What to do
- Count how many parcels your order would produce before you ship anything.
- Ask which charges on your line are charged once per parcel.
- Compare one merged parcel against two separate parcels, fixed charges included.
The misread is treating a per-parcel charge as if it scaled with weight, and dropping it when comparing two shipments.
Bites at: stage 7 — Pay international freight
Why does my invoice split a fixed fee and a per-kilo fee?If your rate card has a fixed part, that part stops scaling: it shrinks per kilo as the parcel gets heavier.
Worked example Divide the fixed fee by the billable kilos to see what it adds per kilo. A fixed fee of, say, 15 units on a 3 kg parcel adds 5 units per kilo; the same 15 units on a 10 kg parcel adds 1.5 per kilo. That is why a merged box can look cheaper per kilo without any rate changing: 15 / 3 = 5 and 15 / 10 = 1.5 are the same fee doing less work per kilo. The fixed part is quoted on your own rate card rather than in a published table, so run the division on the invoice you were given.
What to do
- Separate the fixed lines from the weight-based lines on the invoice.
- Divide each fixed line by the billable weight and write the per-kilo figure down.
- Compare that figure with your last parcel before blaming the rate.
The misread is comparing two invoices by their totals when the weights were different.
Bites at: stage 7 — Pay international freight
Does it cost more to top up my account with a card than with a local wallet?The published top-up page prints a card fee and no wallet fee: PayPal and international cards carry a charge, Alipay and WeChat do not.
Public rule The published top-up page states that PayPal and international cards settle in US dollars at a rate adjusted in real time against the Bank of China published rate, with a PayPal fee of 3.5 percent plus US$0.3, while Alipay and WeChat carry no fee and arrive within 1 to 60 minutes (per Kakobuy help centre ?id=64, captured 2026-10). On a US$100 top-up the card route adds 3.5 plus 0.3, which is 3.8 units, or 3.8 percent of that top-up. Fees of this kind are revised, so check the current rule at the moment you pay.
What to do
- Choose the top-up channel before you look at the rate, since the fee is charged at the door.
- Compute the card fee on the amount you are actually topping up, not on the order value.
- Note the fee line shown at payment and keep it with your order record.
The misread is comparing exchange rates while ignoring the channel fee attached to the payment itself.
Bites at: stage 3 — Pay for the item
From item price to what leaves your account
The sticker price is the smallest line in most orders. Put in the figures you were actually quoted and the bar below shows where the rest goes — and which single line moves the total most.
One order
What actually leaves your account
- Item price (converted at 0.14): 42 (53%)
- Agent service fee (0%): 0 (0%)
- Domestic freight to the warehouse: 1.68 (2%)
- International freight (2 kg × 18): 36 (45%)
- Duty and tax at import: 0 (0%)
- Total to your door79.68
- Multiple of the item price1.90×
Everything after the item price adds 37.68 — 90% on top of the sticker price.
Two lines decide most of the spread between quotes: the rate you were charged and the chargeable weight. Change either by ten percent and the total moves more than changing the service fee does.
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