Choosing the site, the seller, the agent and the bag
Four decisions stand between a catalogue card and a bag at your door. This page takes them in order and finishes with four working agents compared on the points that matter for a bag.
Choosing a Spreadsheet site worth using
Catalogue sites for Chinese marketplace finds look alike, and many are thin pages wrapped around referral links. Choosing a spreadsheet site comes down to a few checks you can make in two minutes.
- Do the links work? Open five cards at random. A site with many broken links has not been looked after.
- Are dates printed anywhere? Prices, rules and links age quickly; a site that never dates anything cannot tell you what is current.
- Is the owner named, and is the income explained? Referral links are normal; hiding them is not.
- Does it explain anything, or only list things? A useful site helps you decide, which needs words as well as pictures.
- Does it describe products in terms of brands it has no right to use? Leave.
This site should pass its own test: the Updates page lists every check and its date, and the About page lists every referral link.
A seller judged on the listing you can see
You cannot visit the shop, so choosing a seller means letting the listing do the work. For a bag, start with the size line: a shop that gives three measurements, a capacity and a note about hand-measuring tolerance has thought about the question you care about most. A shop that gives one vague size or none at all is asking you to guess.
Then look at the photos. Product photos with a ruler, an A4 page or a model wearing the bag give scale; photos of the bag alone on a white background do not. Real customer photos, where the platform shows them, are often the most honest picture of size.
Good sellers also tend to answer questions. If the listing leaves out the depth or the expanded size, ask through your agent before ordering; a clear answer is a good sign, and no answer tells you something too. Avoid any shop whose listings lean on brand names it does not own.
Choosing an agent you can trust with an order
A purchasing agent holds your money before it buys and your goods before it ships, so trust matters more than price. When comparing agents, look for a named operating company, help pages that state rules plainly with numbers, a way to contact a person, and a record of notices that matches what the agent does. Vague storage, return or loss terms leave you without a clear basis for resolving a problem; obtain those terms before paying.
Mulebuy is a reminder that a busy, well-reviewed agent can still stop answering. Keep balances low, ship items reasonably soon instead of storing them for months, and keep your own copies of order numbers and photos.
For a bag in particular, the useful extra questions are what storage costs after the free period and whether you can buy a photo with a measurement. The table further down sets four working agents side by side on those points.
Choosing a bag listing by its size line
With a seller and an agent in mind, the remaining decision is the listing itself: deciding what to order. This is where the rest of this site comes together. Read the size line as outside measurements, take a few centimetres off for the inside, compare the inside with your reference load and the outside with your airline frame, and only then look at the litre figure.
- Find the three measurements and note which is depth (宽 or 厚).
- Take two to three centimetres off each for a soft bag, more for a padded one, to estimate the inside.
- Check your reference load against that inside size, in the Fit box or by hand.
- Check the outside, handles and bulge included, against the airline frame you will fly with.
- Only now read the litre figure, and compare it with the box sum to see how it was made.
If two listings pass all of that, the lighter bag leaves more of a cabin weight allowance for what you put in it.
Mistakes to avoid before you order
The same few mistakes account for most disappointing bags. Each is easy to avoid before you order, and hard to fix afterwards, because returning an item from China is slow even when the agent allows it.
- Trusting the litre figure over the measurements.
- Reading the depth as the inside depth, when it is the outside at the widest point.
- Forgetting that the expansion zip that made the bag big enough also makes it too deep for a small bag frame.
- Measuring a full bag against an airline frame without its handles.
- Leaving a bulky bag in the warehouse for months while waiting for other items, and paying for storage by size.
- Ordering from listings that use brand names the shop does not own; agents refuse them and customs may seize them.
Four working agents, compared for a bag
These are four agents that were operating when we read their pages. Other agents exist and do the same core job; we compare these four on three points that matter for a bag, using only what each publishes about itself. Nothing here is a ranking.
| Agent | Free storage | After the free period | Photos you can steer | Where and when we read it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LoongBuy | 90 days from the day an item is warehoused | 0.1 yuan per kg of chargeable weight per day (at least 0.1 yuan per item), 180 days in all | Measurement service listed among its add-ons; price shown on the order page, not in the help text | help centre, read 10 Oct 2026 |
| Hipobuy | 90 days from "Warehoused" | Its FAQ says goods not submitted within 90 days are treated as given up | Extra photos 1 yuan each, angles or measurements of your choice | help pages, read 16 Oct 2026 |
| Superbuy | 90 days | 0.1 yuan per item per day from day 91 to day 180, or an extension at 10 yuan a month | Detailed photos 2 yuan each | storage and inspection pages, read 10 Oct 2026 |
| CNshopper | Up to 90 days from registration at its warehouse | "Additional storage fees may apply"; no amount on the current policy page | Not published | policy and inspection pages, read 17 Oct 2026 |
What the table means in practice:
- If you will ship within three months, the four are level on storage: each gives about 90 days free.
- If a light but bulky bag may wait longer, Superbuy's per-item charge costs less than LoongBuy's per-kilogram charge. A backpack of 30 by 15 by 45 centimetres counts as about 2.5 kg at LoongBuy's divisor of 8000, so roughly 0.25 yuan a day against Superbuy's 0.1.
- If you want a tape measure in a photo before the bag ships, Hipobuy states the price and says you choose the measurement; LoongBuy lists a measurement service but its help text does not give the price; Superbuy prices close-ups; CNshopper does not publish a figure.
Open Hipobuy Open CNshopper Open LoongBuy Open Superbuy
The buttons are referral links, listed on the About page. The other agents you will hear about in shopping communities do the same job; check the same three points on their own pages before choosing.
Images: catalogue photographs are category examples, not this site’s purchases or verified Mulebuy orders. Drawn material, dimension and lettering examples explain a concept; they do not certify the depicted product.