How a first haul actually goes
The marketplace lists it, the agent buys it, and the shipping line is what gets the box home.
If you have never ordered from a Chinese marketplace before, the whole process looks stranger than it is. There are three moving parts, and once you have seen them once it stops being confusing. This piece uses bold, italic, inline code, a link to the guide index and an external link to the walkthrough on YouTube.
The same sentence can mix them. Read which agent to choose before you pay a service fee. The weight is written as about ¥60 per item once the box is full, and a formula stays literal inside code: declared * 0.3. Wrapping does not break emphasis, so weight and volume is still one bold phrase even though the source breaks the line.
A row of dashes in the middle of a sentence --- like that --- is just punctuation. A rule only happens when the dashes, underscores or asterisks are the entire line.
The three parties
The flow is always the same, no matter which agent you pick.
- 1The marketplace — Taobao, Weidian or 1688. This is where the seller actually lists the item, and the price on that page is not what you pay to get it home.
- 2The agent — the service that buys it, stores it, photographs it and ships the box. You never deal with the seller yourself.
- 3The shipping line — the carrier from the warehouse to your country. You choose it weeks later, when the box is already packed.
What you are comparing
Both bullet markers are the same list. A dash and a star do not start two different blocks.
- QC photo quality. This is the only look you get at the item before it leaves the warehouse.
- Storage window. If you collect slowly, 180 days is worth more than a zero service fee.
- Which lines they have. Not every agent can ship a battery. Check that before you add a speaker to the haul.
Where the listing lives
The product link you paste is the listing, not a shop homepage. If the link opens a search page, you do not have an item yet.
Reading a comparison
Colons in the separator row are allowed. The columns still sit on the left; the marks do not move the numbers.
| Line | Speed | Cost | Batteries |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUB | 20-35 days | Low | No |
| YunExpress | 10-18 days | Medium | No |
| DHL | 4-8 days | High | Limited |
A plainer table, with a link and a code span in the cells. Header cells stay plain text.
| Agent | Fee | Free storage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kakobuy | None | 90 days | A reasonable first agent |
| CNFans | None | 180 days | Longer hauls, same ¥0 fee |
| Superbuy | Varies | 90 days | Worth it when the item is fragile |
What people actually quote
Buy in batches. The single most expensive habit in this hobby is shipping one item at a time.
The second is approving QC photos from the thumbnail on your phone.
A quote can hold a list. The > stays on every line, including the blank one between the intro and the items.
Before you pay the seller, check:
- the heel tab stitching, which should be even and should not leave a loose thread on the inside
- the size tag font against a retail photo
- whether the colour matches the listing, not the studio shot
Notes, tips and warnings
A note with no title has no label. The rule on the left is the whole chrome.
Photos
The alt text is the caption under the picture. It is plain text, so this sentence does not try to be bold.
An empty alt prints no caption. The picture is still the same block.
The closer crop is the one you actually judge a logo from. Same rule: the image owns the line, and the words sit above or below it.
Something you paste
A fenced block keeps a language tag in the source. The page shows the text, not the tag.
Agent: Kakobuy
Line: YunExpress
Declare: 12 USD
Remove: shoeboxesA fence with no language is the same block. Anything inside it is literal, including markup the rest of the article refuses.
<div class="qc">~~not strikethrough~~</div>
https://example.com
- this line is not a list
**not bold**In a normal paragraph the same tricks have to be written properly. A URL belongs in a link, and a tag belongs in code: do not drop a <br> into the sentence, and do not paste https://youtu.be/aqz-KE-bpKQ where a reader should tap the video.
Video in the middle of the piece
The id is the eleven characters from the address, and the caption sits after a pipe on that same line.
A second clip with no caption. The button still reads as a video.
Steps, counted by the page
The number you type is not the number that prints. The two lines below were typed as 9. and 2).
- 1Ask for the shoeboxes to come out
- 2Wait until the second pair arrives, then ship once
Breaks between sections
Three markers, one result. Dashes:
Underscores:
Asterisks:
After the last rule, the article just continues.
Headings that carry formatting
The batch code on the tag
The word in code is still part of the heading. The anchor drops the backticks, so the id is the words.
When QC photos are worth opening
Bold in a heading renders, and it does not leak into the anchor. Open the photos the way the QC guide describes, on a screen larger than your phone.
Read the shipping notes
A link can be the heading. It goes to the lines piece, and the size piece sits next to it if the parcel is clothes: finding your size.
Everything inside one note
The frame below is still one note. The heading, the rule, the table, the code and the photo are blocks inside it, not a new article.