What a Mulebuy Spreadsheet order costs on its way to you
The catalogue price is the first number of several. This page walks through them in the sequence they hit your account, using the figures agents had published by mid-October 2026.
The parts of the bill, in order
First comes the item at the seller's price plus the seller's postage to the warehouse. Then come any optional services, many of them triggered by your remark: extra photos, measurements, a trial pack. Last comes international shipping for the finished parcel, with a customs declaration or handling charge on top.
LoongBuy's charges page, read in October 2026, put it as a formula: total cost equals product cost plus international shipping plus a customs declaration fee, with domestic postage inside the product cost. Most agents follow the same pattern even when they word it differently.
Service fees, and the parcel charges that remain
Most agents now say they charge no buying service fee. Mulebuy described its buying service as free of charge in the FAQ archived in August 2026, yet still took a customs declaration charge on each parcel. LoongBuy said in October 2026 that it was in a 0 service fee mode beyond product cost, shipping and customs-related fees.
Per-parcel charges are where the differences hide. ACBuy's pages in October 2026 listed an 8 CNY warehouse packing fee and a customs and declaration fee of 10 to 30 CNY per parcel, and a 10 CNY per item buying fee for listings from second-hand and social platforms. LitBuy listed a customs declaration charge of generally RMB 10 per parcel, depending on the shipping method.
Those charges are per parcel, not per item, so one larger parcel usually costs less in fixed fees than three small ones.
Exchange rate: from yuan to pounds
Agents price everything in yuan and convert when you pay. Two conversions can stack: the agent's own rate if you top up a balance in pounds, and your card issuer's rate and fee if the payment is in another currency. LoongBuy's FAQ in October 2026 put differences between the displayed and charged amount down to exchange rate conversion, issuing bank differences or currency conversion fees.
To see what you are paying, note the yuan total, then divide what left your account by it on the same day. Compare that with a reference rate for the day. The gap is the cost of converting, and it applies to every yuan of the order, shipping included.
Optional services your remark can trigger
A remark that asks for something beyond the standard check may be priced as a service. ACBuy's October 2026 list gave CNY 2 per detailed photo, CNY 25 for a detailed video, CNY 3 per item for label removal and CNY 20 for a package preview. LoongBuy charged CNY 20 per parcel rehearsal request.
None of this is bad value when it saves a return, which costs postage both ways. It is poor value when the question was already answered by the listing's size chart or photo set. Read the listing first, then pay for what is still unknown.
Routes, weight bands and the size of the box
A shipping line means one carrier's route, priced in weight bands, with its own banned items and usual transit time. Carriers charge on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight, which is the box's length multiplied by width and height, then divided by a figure the carrier sets. A light jacket in a big box can cost more than a heavy one packed tight.
That is why packing requests in the parcel remark matter: keeping or dropping shoe boxes, folding soft items into one bag. A trial pack shows the real weight and box size before you pay.
Items with batteries, liquids or magnets are restricted to some lines or refused outright, so check the agent's restriction list before ordering from the electronics or perfume shelves.
Customs: declare what the parcel is worth
Duty and import VAT depend on the destination country and the declared value, and they are paid by the person receiving the parcel unless a line says it includes them. This site gives no declaration advice beyond the obvious one: declare what the goods actually cost.
A remark is the wrong place for anything about customs. Keep it to the item, its size and its condition.
