Pick products & sellers
Picking products and sellers: six checks before you submit
How to choose an item and judge a seller page before an order goes in, drawn from Tomebuy's own guide and distribution pages.
Before you submit an order
Six things worth doing on the seller's own page, not just the search-result thumbnail, before an item becomes an order:
Judging a seller page
Tomebuy's Shopping Agent Guide repeatedly points back to the option menu as the place where surprises hide: a listing can bundle in unrelated add-ons, warn about customisation that voids returns, or quietly restrict a model to certain sizes. Read every option line, not just the one you intend to pick, and treat a listing whose photos and option menu do not obviously match as a reason to ask Tomebuy's support before ordering rather than after.
A seller's response time before you order is a reasonable signal too, even though Tomebuy's own staff do the actual purchasing: a listing whose price or stock looks volatile, changing between when you found it and when you submit it, is worth re-checking immediately before payment rather than assuming the original price still holds.
Choosing the item, not just the listing
Checking an item before you commit to it is mostly about matching claims to evidence: does the size chart on the listing match your own measurements, rather than the model's build in the photo; does the material description match what the photos actually show; and if the category is one where Tomebuy's inspection does not open sealed packaging, is the listing detailed enough that you are comfortable trusting it sight unseen.
A platform-specific note for 1688
Tomebuy's own Shopping Agent Guide flags 1688 by name as carrying extra risk: quality can run below the standard you would expect from a direct Taobao or Tmall listing, and many 1688 sellers set a minimum order quantity that is easy to miss until checkout. Confirm the minimum before you submit a 1688-sourced order, and read Tomebuy's own shopping-agent notice on that platform if you have not ordered from it before.
Quantity and parcel weight
Ordering several of the same item, or a single item over 10kg, raises the chance customs treats the parcel as commercial rather than personal, per Tomebuy's own Distribution guidance. If that applies to your order, plan to split it across more than one parcel at the shipping stage; see Shipping for the consolidation trade-off that comes with doing so.
Shipping restrictions on the listing itself
Tomebuy's own Shopping Agent Guide asks buyers to check a listing for any international delivery restriction before submitting it, since some sellers mark items as domestic-only or restrict certain accessories (batteries, liquids, blades) that cannot legally ship by post or air to many destinations. This is a seller-level flag, separate from Tomebuy's own prohibited-items list on the Shipping page, and it is worth checking both before an item you have already paid for turns out to be unshippable.
Using image search well
Tomebuy's own tip for its image-search method is specific: a clean background and a clear, uncropped shot of the item match best. A screenshot from a social app, with text overlays or a person wearing the item at an angle, tends to return weaker matches than a plain product photo would. If the first set of results looks nothing like what you meant, retrying with a cropped, front-on version of the same image is worth doing before switching to a keyword search instead.