Best OOTDBuy SpreadsheetIndependent guide to finds

Picking well

Everything that decides whether you like the parcel happens on the marketplace listing, before any money moves. This page is the checking routine, in the order it is worth doing.

None of it requires an account, a subscription or a tool. It takes about five minutes per item the first few times, and about ninety seconds once it is a habit.

Four rows naming the evidence visible on a marketplace listingThe listing page carries the evidence, not the cardFour things are visible on the marketplace before you spend anything.How long the shop has tradedA shop with no history is the single most common reason a first orderdisappoints.How many of this exact item it movedVolume on this item beats volume on the shop as a whole.Buyer photos underneathThe only images not produced by the seller. Read these before thestudio set.The sellers own measurement tableNumbers in centimetres, not a letter. This is what you compare withyour own clothes.These are fields the Chinese marketplaces show on every listing. Checked 4 August 2026.

The five minute routine

Do these in order. If step two fails, there is no point doing step three.

  1. Look at how long the shop has been trading

    A shop with no visible history is the most common reason a first order disappoints. Volume on this specific item tells you more than volume across the shop.

  2. Scroll to the buyer photos before the studio photos

    Buyer images are the only ones not produced by the seller. If there are none at all, you are buying on a render.

  3. Find the sellers own measurement table

    Centimetres, measured flat. Compare against a garment you own and wear, not against a size letter. This one step removes most sizing disappointments.

  4. Sanity check the price against other copies

    A listing far below every other copy of the same item usually is a different, cheaper version rather than a bargain. Far above is worth a reason too.

  5. Check the category rules, then order

    Two minutes on the restricted list before you pay. Open the brief for your category

    OOTDBUY confirm order screen showing the selected variant, colour beige and size 42, with a remark field beside the item
    The variant you choose here is what inspection will compare against. Official OOTDBUY tutorial image.

Sizing

Why a correct size can still be the wrong size

Inspection compares the garment against its own label. It never compares the garment against you. That single sentence explains almost every sizing complaint in this hobby.

So do not convert. Asking the seller for chest width, body length, shoulder width or insole length in centimetres takes one message, and comparing those numbers with something already in your wardrobe takes a tape measure and two minutes. A letter on a label is a claim about a market you do not live in.

If a seller will not answer a measurement question, that is itself useful information, and it arrives before you have spent anything.

Two tags contrasting what inspection checks with what the buyer must confirmWhy a correct size can still be the wrong sizeInspection compares the garment with its own label. It never compares the garment with you.What passes inspectionLabel says L. Garment is the L this maker cuts.Colour matches the listing. Count is right.Photographed and released.What you had to settle firstChest width and body length in centimetres, measuredflat, compared with a garment you already own. Ask theseller, not the chart.Based on the OOTDBUY inspection scope, which names size error as out of scope. Read 3 August 2026.

The photos are your only look, so ask properly

Every parcel is opened and photographed. What you get by default is a general set. What you get by asking is much more useful, and the time to ask is when the item reaches the warehouse rather than after it has shipped.

Four shots are worth naming: the size label, a flat lay of the whole item, close detail on stitching or hardware, and the box or sole for anything footwear shaped. Ask in the order remark or through support while the parcel is still in storage.

Remember what the photos can and cannot settle. They will show you that the right thing arrived in one piece. They will not tell you whether a colour is half a shade off, because that comparison is explicitly outside the inspection scope.

Four photo frames naming the shots worth requesting during inspectionWhat to look for in the photos you are sentThe photo set is the only look you get before the parcel leaves China. Three of these are worth asking for by name.Label and size tagConfirms the size on the labelmatches the order.Flat lay, whole itemShows proportions the listingphoto hides.Close on the detailsStitching, hardware, printplacement.The box or soleThe part most likely to arrivemarked.Photographing every parcel is part of the OOTDBUY inspection notice. Which shots you get depends on what you ask for. Read 3August 2026.

Mistakes that cost the most

Ranked by what they actually cost, not by how often they are mentioned.

The expensive ones

  • Ordering a restricted item and finding out at the warehouse, after the domestic purchase is already paid
  • Guessing a size from a letter, then discovering that a garment matching its own label is not a defect
  • Shipping items one at a time instead of consolidating, which is the largest avoidable cost in the whole process
  • Adding many units of the same thing and turning a personal parcel into a commercial one at customs

The annoying ones

  • Letting a normal parcel sit past its free storage window without checking the reminder email
  • Assuming a dead card means the item is gone, instead of searching the name on the marketplace
  • Buying on studio renders when the listing has buyer photos further down
  • Asking for QC photos after the parcel has already shipped
A band showing where parcel weight starts reading as commercial at customsWhere a parcel stops looking personalOOTDBUY warns that weight and unit count are what turn a parcel into a commercial one at customs.Reads as a personal parcelReads as commercialaround 10 kgToo many units of the same thing does the same job as weight. In the UK and the EU, value above the local threshold adds VAT, and thebuyer carries the consequence.Source: OOTDBUY Customs and Taxation notice, read 3 August 2026. Thresholds are set by your country, not by the agent.

What to do when it does go wrong

OOTDBUY grades after sales by where the order has got to, which is worth knowing before you need it. A pending order can be cancelled immediately. Once it is processing it takes about a working day. Once it has been purchased it is roughly three days, and once the seller has dispatched it is around a week. After it is stored, there is a five day window to apply for a return.

Compensation has its own clock: within seven days of signing for the parcel, or forty five days from dispatch, and damage evidence within two working days. Fragile items are covered for loss but not for damage, which is a real limit worth planning around rather than discovering.

Where to take each kind of problem

How to vet a seller while the listing is still open

The operator publishes its own view of this, and it is more candid than most marketing. Its tutorial describes Tmall as brand merchants selling directly, with a genuine product guarantee, a high threshold to open a store and prices slightly above the market. It describes Taobao as individual and agent merchants, enormous variety, low prices, and seller reputation that varies.

Read that as a pricing rule rather than a ranking. Where a listing sits tells you what you are paying for, and an unusually low price on a platform with no entry threshold is information rather than luck. The practical move is to open the same item on two marketplaces before pasting either link.

After that, three signals that cost nothing to check, in this order.

OOTDBUY tutorial notice comparing mainstream domestic purchasing websites, describing Tmall as brand merchants with a genuine product guarantee and a high store opening threshold, and Taobao as individual and agent merchants with endless variety and varying seller reputation
OOTDBUY Tutorial notice, read 3 August 2026.

  1. Buyer photographs below the studio renders

    Studio renders are supplied by the manufacturer and are often shared by every shop selling the same item. Buyer photographs are the only images on the page that are specific to this seller actually shipping it.

  2. Measurements as numbers, not letters

    A listing that gives only S, M and L has told you nothing, because the letters are set per shop. Chest width flat and insole length in centimetres are checkable against something you already own.

  3. A question answered before you commit

    Ask one thing you genuinely need to know. A seller who will not answer before taking your money will not answer after, and at that point the agent is the only party still talking to you.

How to read the QC photos you are sent

Work from what the warehouse says it checks. The official instruction is that it verifies quantity, colour, size and other specifications. So the photos are evidence for those four things and nothing else, and the useful question is whether each of them is visible in the shots you were given rather than whether the item looks nice.

There is a detail in the same paragraph that catches people out. Whatever the seller shipped in gets thrown away: goods come out of the courier carton and go into the operators own sealing bags, and only fragile or oversized items keep what they arrived in. If the retail packaging matters to you, the QC photos are the last point at which anyone can confirm it existed, and you have to say so before the parcel is submitted.

Then check the gaps deliberately. Colour difference, size error and usage effect are named as outside the scope, so nobody at the warehouse is going to flag them for you. Ask for a shot of the label, a shot of the sole or seam, and one measurement held against a tape, because those three turn an opinion you cannot act on into a fact you can.

OOTDBUY Inspection Information notice stating that the warehouse verifies the quantity, colour, size and other specifications, removes the original express box, repacks goods in OOTDBUY self sealing bags, and keeps fragile and oversized items in their original boxes
OOTDBUY Inspection Information notice, read 3 August 2026.