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Fees and charges
Not a price list. Prices change and any figure printed here would be wrong within months. What follows is the map: every point where money leaves your hands, in the order it happens, so nothing arrives as a surprise.
For actual numbers, use the official CSSBuy calculator with your real destination and a realistic weight, on the day you are buying.
The five moments money moves
| When | What for | What decides the size of it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. At checkout | The goods, plus Chinese domestic postage to the warehouse, plus the agent's service component | The seller's price and how far the item travels inside China. This is the number people budget for and it is not the whole cost. |
| 2. Optional, on arrival | Extra services: additional inspection photos, repacking, reinforcement, insurance | Only what you request. Reinforcement is worth it for anything fragile. Insurance is worth it in proportion to what you would lose. |
| 3. Optional, while waiting | Extended storage past the free 90 days | Charged per order per month. Cheap, but it means an order you forgot about is quietly costing money. |
| 4. At shipment | The international shipping deposit | Estimated weight, chosen line, destination. Reconciled later against the carrier's own measurement of the real box. |
| 5. On arrival in your country | Customs duty and any handling fee | Your country's rules, the declared value and the goods category. Outside the agent's control entirely. |
The deposit is the part that confuses people
Step four is not a bill. It is an estimate you pay in advance so the parcel can move. The carrier then weighs and measures the actual box, and the difference between estimate and reality comes back to your CSSBuy account balance after dispatch.
Two things follow from that. First, the number on the calculator is a forecast rather than a quote, so treat it as a planning tool. Second, money coming back lands as credit rather than on your card, which is fine if you order again and mildly annoying if you do not.
The variable that moves this number most is volume, not weight. Bulky and light is the expensive combination.
Money questions
Five things worth knowing before you commit
Why do you not publish the actual fee percentages?
Because they change, and a number written into a page like this goes stale silently. A stale figure is worse than no figure: it looks authoritative and it is wrong. We explain the mechanism and point you at the official calculator for numbers on the day you are buying.
Is the money returned to my card or to my balance?
The shipping deposit difference goes to your CSSBuy account balance after the parcel ships, where it can be spent on the next order. Refunds for items that could not be purchased also land in the balance. If you want money back to your original payment method rather than held as credit, ask support explicitly.
What can I earn credit on?
Leaving a review after delivery earns credit that offsets future international shipping. It is not large, but it accumulates if you order regularly, and it costs nothing beyond the time to write the review.
How does the storage fee work?
Free for 90 days from the In Warehouse status. Past that you can extend per order for a monthly fee. If an order runs past 90 days with nothing shipped and no extension, CSSBuy treats it as abandoned. Source: the CSSBuy Q&A, read 3 September 2026.
Will I pay customs duty on top of all this?
Possibly, and it is between you and your own country. It depends on destination, declared value and category. Some lines bundle a customs handling component into the quote and some do not, which is one reason two lines to the same country can differ sharply in price. No agent can waive duty or predict it reliably.
Run your own numbers
Put a realistic basket and your real destination through the official calculator. It is the only figure that reflects today rather than whenever this page was written.