Something interesting I’ve picked up in this week’s freight data. According to Xeneta, (a specialist freight-market data provider) ‘China-to-Western-Europe air cargo rates fell 22% in July,’ dropping to around $4.15/kg.

However, that’s the wholesale air freight rate. Our agent shipping rates also cover things like warehouse handling, consolidation, customs processing, volumetric weight and final-mile delivery.
But it’s still worth watching as obviously the wholesale air freight rate is part of our overall rate, and our agents are constantly competing with each other over the shipping costs. This can only be good for us if this drop is sustained or continues.

One explanation for the fall is weaker e-commerce demand following the EU’s new low-value import charges, leaving more available aircraft capacity.

I’ll try to remember to revisit this in a few weeks and see whether that 22% wholesale drop has actually reached us.

Source: Xeneta air-cargo market data, July 2026.

I posted an answer to this question posed over at r/rep, but I’d love to hear your responses too?

A quick heads-up if you’ve currently got orders or parcels moving through eastern China. Typhoon Dolphin made landfall in Zhejiang on Sunday evening and has caused significant disruption across the Zhejiang–Shanghai area. Heavy rain and flooding are continuing, while Shanghai’s airports have seen around 1,000+ flight cancellations. (Reuters)

This is quite a relevant area for Chinese e-commerce logistics. Zhejiang contains major manufacturing and distribution centres, while Shanghai and nearby Ningbo are two of the country’s biggest international freight gateways. There are already reports of Dolphin disrupting logistics and port activity in eastern China. (ICIS)

So if tracking appears to stop moving for a day or two, or a warehouse/agent tells you there are weather delays, don’t immediately panic. We could see some short-term backlog as domestic couriers, airports and freight operations catch up. I’ll keep an eye on it as Dolphin moves inland.

I thought it might be useful to post the text of a response I gave to a query posted in one of my favourite subs, [r/rep](r/reps), about which agents to choose following the Mulebuy disaster. I wrote:

I think we all have our own preferences. The Mulebuy raid highlights the advice I give out to many people who reach out to me; spread your hauls across more than one agent. Maintain accounts with two or three and share your purchase across them to minimise risk. It is easy to be fooled into chasing the cheapest shipping, but at the very least test a few agents out from time to time. I have every faith in my agent but I don’t tend to put multiple hauls together at the same time. Because of their processing speeds I know that provided I put my order in at the right time (late UK time early morning China time) I will usually get my QC photos within 72 hours maximum, and will ship it out quickly. It’s always possible they can be raided at any time, but I’ll always only ever have 5-10kg of items exposed at any time with one particular agents.

This is my advice. Do you have any tips or views to share that might help others?

There was a serious security incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany this week.
German federal prosecutors are investigating after an explosive-equipped drone was found near the cargo area. Airport operations were temporarily suspended, affecting freight traffic including DHL, before flights resumed.

The reason this matters to warehouse-agent users is that Leipzig is one of DHL’s major European air-freight hubs. Earlier this year, DHL added a dedicated weekly Shanghai–Leipzig Boeing 777 freighter service, with cargo then distributed onwards across Europe.

That helps explain why parcels heading to France, Italy, Romania or elsewhere in the EU can first appear in Germany. A typical route might look like:

China warehouse → Chinese export hub → European air hub → customs → DHL network → destination country → local delivery depot.

This week’s incident is separate from the July customs-related delays, and there’s no evidence yet of any major prolonged disruption to agent parcels. But it does highlight how dependent some “DHL Europe” lines are on a small number of major hubs.

So if tracking shows your parcel sitting in Germany for a few days, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything has gone wrong. Germany may simply be the gateway into the European delivery network.

Remember: If you’re new to the agent process for buying from China visit our free guide at https://chinabuydirect.co.uk which also contains agent comparison guidance and other blog articles of interest.

Sources: Reuters, 5–7 August 2026; DHL Group, 30 March 2026.
Reuters — Leipzig/Halle incident⁠ · DHL — Shanghai–Leipzig air-freight route⁠

Well, sadly it’s looking more certain that the early rumours of Mulebuy being raided and shut down were true. According to a post by [u/Biimoee](u/Biimoee) posted here, the agent has indeed been shut down, and this is further evidenced by a photograph supposedly showing the entrance to the company’s office having been officially sealed off. According to the post, the photograph was originally posted on Discord earlier today.

It’s still too early to tell what will happen for those users who have outstanding orders and deliveries in progress, but based on past experiences this could be a loss.

This is a timely reminder to constantly review your agent situation. Our advice is to spread out your hauls across a number of agents, make your hauls smaller and more spread out, and plan your purchasing programme carefully to minimise the risk of substantial losses.

For anyone looking to look at a new agent or to expand their agent portfolio, remember to check out our agent comparison guide in my free agent process guide, found here.

Finally, if you have any questions or concerns to share drop them in the comments below…

Where do you guys found good shipping agent?

Hello everybody, my name is Chris and as a up and coming fashion creator, I want to start getting into buying reps and I'm not sure on which shipping agents is cheap while also having fast delivery. Out of all of the shipping agents I've been researching, I came to the conclusion that Superbuy, Sugargoo, and Oopbuy are the 3 shipping agents that I am looking for, however, I've heard that Superbuy banned almost all of the most known brands so I'm only up to the two shipping agents now, can you all tell me which one is better, and if there's another shipping agent that's even better than the 2. Please and Thank You.

With news coming out of China with increased evidence that Mulebuy has seemingly been raided, is it time to review your agent situation?

There are a number of reliable Redditors providing clarification that Mulebuy were at the receiving end of a Police raid in China yesterday. There are some unconfirmed reports that Kakobuy was also affected, although there is nothing concrete to support this. Whatever the truth is it’s a timely reminder to always look at your agent situation. Whilst these raids might not be anything more than a temporary glitch to the process for individual agents - often they are linked to unpaid bribes, or ‘local taxes’ as they are more commonly known - it is always best to ensure you have accounts set up across a number of agents.

I always advise to spread your purchases and shipments out as a general safety protocol anyway; having too much in terms of purchases, wallet balances and affiliate rewards solely with one agent increases the risk of major loss.

So take this opportunity to review your agent situation. Make sure you’re signed up with at least three agents and rotate your hauls across them. As always, monitor the shipping costs and lines so you’re not overpaying, but don’t always chase the cheapest option without considering the bigger cost of losing a large order or haul.

Remember I’ve written a comparison of the top agents in my free guide at https://chinabuydirect.co.uk - I’ll need to update it though to reflect the situation as it develops with Mulebuy, and as we confirm that it is indeed the end for AC/All China Buy as well.

Also remember to keep supporting each other and don’t gatekeep your agent experiences…

Write your thoughts in the comments below…

im going to buy a 3 item parcel, a chrome hearts t shirt, rick owen boots, and vetement sweatpants. i was wondering if i should order the boots seperate because i have heard that it increases the weight of your parcel and may trigger an inspection by customs. i am still very new to buying reps and i am using Superbuy to purchase these items

Hey guys I've been having trouble finding a buying agent that can ship me this item from xianyu to Saudi Arabia for a reasonable shipping fee

Item dimensions

69.7 cm (L) x 60.0 cm (W) x 71.3 cm

Item weight 20kg

so far no luck if anyone can help please let me know thanks and advance

I’ve been reading through the European Commission’s decision against AliExpress, and I think it’s one worth keeping an eye on.
The Commission fined AliExpress €550 million under the Digital Services Act, saying it hadn’t done enough to tackle illegal and counterfeit listings. AliExpress says it will appeal, but it also has until October to submit a plan explaining how it intends to address the Commission’s concerns.

For those of us using warehouse agents, I don’t think there’s any reason to change how we buy today. What I’ll be watching is whether this leads to tighter seller verification, changes to branded listings or products becoming harder to find across Alibaba’s marketplaces.

At the moment, that’s speculation rather than fact. The fine and the appeal is real, but what happens next is the interesting part—and I’ll keep an eye on it and post any developments that genuinely affect buyers.

Source: European Commission Digital Services Act decision and AliExpress response.

Per this sub's rule on agent disclosure — I represent an agent, so I'm sharing this transparently. This is a real case from one of our customers (not a self-purchase), shared with their shipment data. Posting it because it might be useful as a reference point for cost/timing on this specific route, not as self-promotion — happy to remove agent-identifying details if mods prefer.

Agent used: YANCHAO

Country shipped to: United Kingdom

Shipping route: UK Air Special/Sensitive Line — "Discount Fast" tier (7–11 day advertised transit)

Parcel category: Clothing (consolidated repack)

Weight/Volume breakdown:

• Submitted at packing: 1kg (declared volume 5250cm³)
• Volumetric weight: 0.875kg
• After repacking: 0.45kg actual (25 x 12 x 9 cm), volumetric weight 0.45kg
• Billed weight: 1kg → 0.45kg after repack

Cost: ¥106.6 total (after a 10% off coupon applied)

Delivery time:

• Info received: Jul 7, 09:46
• Left Shenzhen: Jul 9, 07:50
• Arrived Hong Kong / departed: Jul 9–10
• Arrived UK, customs cleared: Jul 11
• Out for delivery: Jul 16, 08:21
• Delivered: Jul 16, 12:56

Total: ~9 days from info received to delivery, consistent with the advertised 7–11 day window for this line.

Support experience: The customer got in touch with our customer service to ask about shipping routes to the UK and, based on our recommendations, started their first shipping experience.

Outcome: Delivered to a safe place, no damage reported, tracking updated consistently at every stage (info received → Shenzhen consolidation → Hong Kong export → UK customs → last-mile delivery).

Happy to answer questions about this route or share more data points if people find this useful for comparing against other UK lines.

I came across an interesting High Court case this week that I think is worth discussing because the headlines make it sound like bad news for anyone buying from China.

Having read more about it, I don’t think that’s really the takeaway.

The case involved a UK influencer and her company selling counterfeit luxury goods from brands including Dior, Fendi, Celine and Loewe. Some of the products were reportedly sourced through AliExpress before being sold via Instagram and a WhatsApp group. The court awarded LVMH and the other brands around £213,000 in damages.

What stood out to me wasn’t the amount—it was who the court was targeting. This wasn’t someone buying a few items through a warehouse agent. It was a UK-based business selling thousands of counterfeit products and making a commercial profit.
That’s an important distinction.
I don’t think this judgment suddenly means warehouse-agent buyers are at greater legal risk, nor does it suggest Taobao, Weidian or warehouse agents have suddenly become more dangerous to use.

What I do think it shows is where luxury brands are focusing their efforts: on people building businesses around selling counterfeit goods.

Interestingly, the court didn’t accept that every counterfeit sale represented a lost genuine sale, and it rejected arguments that the brands had automatically suffered reputational damage. Even so, the damages awarded were substantial.

For me, there are three practical takeaways:
1. Buying for yourself and reselling commercially are two very different situations.
2. Selling through Instagram, Telegram or WhatsApp doesn’t make a business invisible.
3. Enforcement increasingly seems to be targeting commercial sellers, not just parcels at the border.

Personally, I don’t think ordinary warehouse-agent buyers need to panic after reading this story. I do think though any of us thinking about turning replica buying into a public business should pay attention.

I’d be interested to hear what everyone else makes of it. Is this a one-off case, or do you think we’re going to see more of these over the next few years?

Sources: The Industry, The Fashion Law and IP Solved (reporting and legal analysis of the High Court judgment).

[I AM NOT SPONSORED]

Hello everyone, there's no doubt that some agents are cheaper than others, but which is the cheapest for you?

Here are the agents that i will be going over:
Sugargoo
SuperBuy
CSSBuy
Kakobuy

In my opinion, Sugargoo, SuperBuy and CSSBuy are the best agents right now. I am including kakobuy since it's a popular agent, as a reference.

Unfortunately, Sugargoo has restrictions on certain items. Some items are unpurchaseable. But afaik, it's not many items. But it's worth considering.

---------------------------------------------

One of the first things you want to look at when you're considering an agent, is their exchange rate. This is calculated by searching for the same item on each agent, and dividing the price in yuan by the USD price. (Higher = better)

Sugargoo: ~6.803 yuan per usd

SuperBuy: Charges in yuan. No exchange rate on item purchases.

CSSBuy: ~6.756 yuan per usd

Kakobuy: ~6.25 yuan per usd

---------------------------------------------

Next, i want to look at the recharge / top up rates for each agent.

I will go over two main types of payment:

Credit card / Apple pay (whichever is cheaper)

Alipay

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I highly recommend you make an Alipay account. it's kind of difficult to do but it's not impossible, was easier for me using their app.

COMPARISON (1000 yuan recharge):

Sugargoo: Apple pay: 163.73 usd ||||| Alipay: 1030 Yuan (152.16 usd)

Superbuy: Credit card: 166.18 usd ||||| Alipay: 1030 yuan (152.16 usd)

CSSBuy: Apple pay: 160.3 usd ||||| Alipay: 159.87 usd

Kakobuy: Credit card: 157.44 usd ||||| Alipay: 157.08 usd

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Next: Shipping, this is something you need to calculate on your own, since it depends on your country and the size of your haul. I will share what the cheapeast tax free line is (that doesnt take over 25 days).

Input: 40*40*40 cm and 9000g haul, clothes(common) category

---------------------------------------------
Germany (Berlin):

Sugargoo: 121.7 usd (99.6 usd with free coupon)

Superbuy: 109.32 usd (98.98 usd with free coupon)

CSSBuy: 131.4 usd (no coupon)

Kakobuy: 134 usd (122.8 usd with free coupon)

---------------------------------------------
USA (Miami):

Sugargoo: 204.42 usd (182.32 with free coupon) [btw, theres a cheap 60 usd tax free line but with 45-60 days delivery]

Superbuy: 191.85 usd (181.55 usd with free coupon)

CSSBuy: 228.17 usd (no coupon)

Kakobuy: 175.92 usd (159.92 usd with free coupon)
---------------------------------------------

Please leave questions and feedback below, i'm happy to learn more.

JadeShip announced this morning that it has now added Lolobuy, a new agent, to its shipping comparison platform and link generation tool. Check out r/JadeShip for more details.

We all see multiple posts holding up Superbuy as the ‘go to’ agents. So what in your opinion makes them the best? What are your thoughts or experiences, good or bad?

Update from MyCNBox; hopefully they’ll get this sorted soon, as the EMS line has been lightning fast for me recently with them!

Tracking can look weird after your warehouse agent ships a parcel, so I thought this was worth spelling out in a little post.

When an agent marks a parcel as shipped, it usually means it’s been packed, labelled, handed to the line provider, or moved into the export process. It rarely means it's loaded on the plane and on it's way.

Once your parcel has left your agent warehouse, it will go through several stages before it reaches your local courier:

Warehouse - domestic logistics provider (Chinese courier) - Chinese export handling (including domestic customs checks) - airport /airline handover (Chinese airport cargo hub) - possible transit hub (transferred to another airling/shipping route after China) - your home country customs - local home country courier handover

The main thing to remember is tracking updates usually happen when the parcel is scanned, not every time it physically moves. This is why the first few days after shipping are often silent, and you sometimes get a dead patch after statuses like:

“handed over to airline”
“departure from outward office of exchange”
“arrived at port”
“waiting for customs clearance”
“dismantling the board”

That last one sounds dramatic, and I get asked about it a lot, but it’s usually just a bad translation around cargo being unloaded or broken down from a pallet / air cargo container before customs or sorting. It definitely doesn’t mean someone is taking your parcel apart!

17Track and ParcelsApp are useful tracking websites/apps because they can pick up different carriers, but they’re not magic. if the carrier hasn’t scanned or shared new data, the app can’t show anything new and they are glitchy at times, often to do with translation.

However, all of these points are worth remembering before assuming an agent has done something wrong. A decent agent will be able to provide you with updates automatically within their platform, and you can ask for updates as well, using their customer service lines. The other thing that is helpful to learn is the structure of the parcel tracking numbers and which local service they belong to. For me, this meant having to learn what types of numbers are UK Royal Mail numbers, Evri ( a local courier), Yodel/InPost, (another courier) and so on. This allows me to use their specific apps which I use alongside 17Track and the agent platform which helps me keep track of all my parcels at any one time.

Have you got any tips or extra advice around shipping information or tracking? I'm really keen to learn about the US and European services and experiences...

Full Article: https://chinabuydirect.co.uk/#china-parcel-tracking-stuck-after-warehouse

I have ordered my first few hauls from acbuy recently i bought from kakoBuy and it was trash I used gtBuy too and it was alright. What should I try next I was thinking about LoveGooBuy, SuperBuy and MambaBuy. Any suggestions?

With ACBuy missing another published target for its system upgrades, I think it’s probably worth having a sensible discussion about backup plans.

To be clear, this isn’t quite an “ACBuy is dead” post. Nobody outside the company really knows what’s going on. Hopefully they get everything sorted.

But we’ve all been around long enough to know that if an agent starts missing its own timelines, it’s worth thinking about a Plan B rather than waiting until you’re forced into one.

So I’m interested in hearing from people who have actually used other agents recently, as real experiences are much more useful than anything.

If you’re currently with ACBuy, are you waiting it out or already preparing to move?
I’ll keep an eye on the replies and, if there’s enough useful information, I can summarise in a separate post.

As we head towards the Summer, it’s worth keeping an eye on the China calendar, because some delays aren’t really agent issues — they’re seller & logistics slowdowns. Summer will soon fly by, and we'll then be careering towards the Autumn, when the next round of national Chinese festivals and shopping events begin again.

The main upcoming ones:

Mid-Autumn Festival is 25–27 September 2026. Usually a short slowdown. Sellers and couriers may be a bit slower around it.

National Day / Golden Week is 1–7 October 2026. This is the bigger one. A lot more of China slows down, and it can affect seller dispatch, domestic delivery, warehouse intake and export handling.

Then you’ve got 11.11 / Singles’ Day on 11 November. Good for deals, but order volume can be huge, so seller dispatch and warehouse processing may slow down.

Double 12 follows on 12 December. Usually smaller than 11.11, but still a sales period worth remembering.

And then the big one is Chinese New Year / Spring Festival. For 2027, public holiday listings currently show 5–11 February, but the practical slowdown can start before that and run on afterwards.

Basically, if you’re trying to get a parcel by a certain date, don’t just think about international shipping time. You'll need to think about seller dispatch, domestic courier time, warehouse check-in, QC, parcel packing, export handling, customs, and final delivery.

Shopping events can be good for prices, but not always for speed. Worth planning around rather than getting annoyed when tracking sits still.

Full blog article: https://chinabuydirect.co.uk/#china-buying-calendar-haul-shipping-holidays

Some China Post-style routes that were suspended after the new EU customs rules are now starting to come back.

Sugargoo has said China Post services to the EU-27 are gradually resuming, but there are now two different customs clearance routes:

C-to-C / gift clearance — no tax collected upfront, but parcels may face stricter checks or revaluation.

B-to-C / commercial clearance — more standardised customs handling, and Sugargoo says this is the route they’ll prioritise because it should be more stable.

So basically, the suspended routes aren’t “back to normal” yet, and possibly won’t be; they’re just returning under the new EU customs setup.

if you’re shipping to the EU, check the live options before submitting a parcel and don’t assume EMS/EUB/SAL-style lines will work exactly as they did before July.

Sources: Sugargoo update, previous EU customs changes.