USfans costs, with declaration in mind
For North American and European destinations, the two lines that decide whether an order was worth it are freight and duty — and the second depends on how the first was declared. This page therefore treats declaration as part of the cost, not an afterthought: marketplace price, domestic hop, freight on your chosen lane, USfans' service fee, and duty assessed against whatever you declared. Rows on this board carry declaration advice for exactly that reason.
← Back to overviewFive lines, one of which you control
Marketplace price, domestic hop, freight, service fee, duty. You control the declaration, and through it much of the duty — which is why no rate table here would be honest.
- Marketplace pricepaid at order time, in CNY
- Domestic hopsmall, flat, and not where money is won or lost
- Freightlane-dependent, priced on chargeable weight
- Dutyassessed on your declared value — under-declaring moves the risk onto you
USfans' fees, storage terms and policy are revised periodically. Its pages govern.
Inspection, then declaration
Goods are photographed in the warehouse before dispatch. Read the images for colour against the listing, visible faults, the size tag, seam work and variant — and note anything relevant to the declaration, since category affects how your shipment is assessed.
- · Colour, against the listing rather than the render
- · Visible damage — marks, pulls, scuffs and faulty hardware
- · The size tag, readable for the declaration record
- · Seam and stitch alignment
- · That the variant and colourway match what will be declared
- · Unit count, needed when the declaration lists several
- · Hand feel, drape and weight as customs would see them
- · Odour
- · Whether fastenings and elastic last
- · Colour as it reads in daylight, not beneath warehouse lamps
- · Fit, since a size letter is a convention and not a measurement
What images settle on the left; what only arrival settles on the right.
- Declare at a value you can defend.Under-declaring transfers the entire risk to you, and saves less than people assume.
- Know your threshold before shipping.North American and European de minimis levels differ — check yours.
- Raise it before the parcel is declared, not after.Free inside the warehouse, expensive after dispatch.
- Save the images you approved.Your reference if the parcel disagrees.
Lane selection, and what it means for duty
You choose a lane after inspection. USfans' lanes differ on price, transit time, accepted cargo and — importantly — how reliably they clear at the far end. Chargeable weight sets the freight; the declaration you file sets much of the rest.
Some lanes clear more predictably than others at the same price. Worth asking about.
Actual or volumetric, whichever is greater. Compress it.
North American and European limits are not the same; the right split changes the answer.
Defensible declarations are cheaper than penalties.
Batteries, liquids and aerosols each get their own answer.
Customs holds sit outside quoted windows.
What a USfans total contains
Five components, plus any extras you select:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Rates are unprinted deliberately — item, lane and destination determine them. Take live figures from USfans' estimator and treat USfans' pages as final.
Fees, line by line
Model freight and duty together
Enter marketplace price, domestic hop, packed weight, the international rate for your lane, USfans' service fee and the exchange rate. Watch how the total responds — then reconsider your declaration before submitting.
Planning only. Chargeable weight, lane, destination, customs classification and carrier pricing all move the real figure, and USfans' estimator may quote differently at checkout.
Returns, refunds and USfans' prohibited list
USfans publishes after-sales terms and a prohibited list. Read the clause covering your category before ordering — restricted goods cannot be forwarded from the warehouse.
USfans' own material
This board is a route map, not the platform. USfans' help pages: