Kakobuy Spreadsheet Seller CheckThe phenomenon
Why one item lives in dozens of shops
Chinese marketplaces separate making from selling. A factory or wholesaler produces the item and a photo set; storefronts, sometimes hundreds of them, list it. The photos travel with the goods, which is why five listings can share one gallery down to the lighting. None of this is deception by itself; it is how the supply chain is wired.
The practical consequence: identical pictures tell you nothing about which shop will serve you well. The shops differ anyway, in price position, printed minimums, stock freshness, review history and after-sales posture. All of that is visible before you pay, if you know where to look.
What follows is the method this whole site exists for: four elimination rounds, each grounded in an official rule you can read yourself.
The method
The four elimination rounds
Imagine the five shops as candidates on a board. Each round applies one test; shops that fail drop off. The remaining candidates still need their exact variant, stock and terms confirmed. A checklist does not certify a shop.
Whichever shop survives, the hand-off is the same: copy its link, paste it into the agent's search bar, and the order form fills itself from the crawled page. That is why the choice has to be finished before pasting. Once the form is filled, it is easy to click through on autopilot with whichever shop happened to be open.
| Round | The test | The official rule behind it |
|---|---|---|
| One: price position | Is the low price a single-piece price, or a quantity price with a printed minimum behind it | Wholesale rules: unit price and freight change with quantity; below-minimum orders are not valid and must be cancelled and re-placed |
| Two: stock reality | Does anything on the page suggest recent sales, restocks or dispatch activity | The help centre's own article on items reported out of sale while the listing stays online |
| Three: evidence quality | Do buyer photos exist, and do they match the gallery | Warehouse inspection covers appearance only and leaves sealed packs sealed, so pre-order evidence carries the weight |
| Four: after-sales posture | Does the listing carry the promised-returns badge, and what do its terms exclude | The five-day return guarantee is the seller's service, relayed by the agent, with the clock starting at warehouse check-in |
The order of rounds is deliberate. Price and minimums eliminate fastest, stock problems surface next, and the evidence and after-sales rounds decide between the finalists. Reversing the order wastes time reading reviews for a shop whose minimum you were never going to meet.
Worked example
Reading a five-way tie in practice
Say a tee from the catalogue appears in five shops. Two price far under the cluster; their pages print a minimum of two pieces and tiered prices below that headline number, so unless you want multiples, both drop in round one. One shop shows no transaction in recent memory while the other two show steady sales; the quiet one drops in round two, because a stale listing is where out-of-sale surprises concentrate.
The last two split on evidence: one carries buyer photos that match the gallery and the promised-returns badge; the other has neither. That gives you more to investigate, rather than a guaranteed winner. Check that the photos match the variant and that the return terms apply, then record quantity, colourway and unit price.
Not every tie resolves this cleanly, and when two shops both survive, either is fine: that is what surviving means.
The tool
Shortlist checker
Five questions about the shop you are leaning toward. The output combines the published purchasing and inspection rules with practical evidence checks. It identifies questions to resolve rather than scoring or certifying a seller. How to use this tool: open the listing in another window, answer what you can actually see, and copy the resulting notes into your order remark.
It deliberately refuses to rank. Two shops that both pass are both fine, and a tool that pretended to know which is better would be inventing a number. What it does instead is turn each flag into the question you should settle before money moves.
Put it into practice
Keep a decision record
For each candidate, save its original URL, exact variant, unit price at your quantity, dispatch terms and return eligibility. Mark unanswered fields as unknown. The checker produces questions to resolve; it does not certify a seller.
Eight-step ordering guide →