Getting an answer, and getting it from the right place

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding. It is a browsable product list on a website, sorted into categories, where each item links out to a seller you can order through PonyBuy. Nothing to download, nothing to keep updated.

The name survives from when people really did trade finds in shared spreadsheets. The habit moved to websites; the word did not.

No. We are a PonyBuy partner and we say so on every page, but we are an independent guide. We cannot see your account, change an order or issue a refund. Product browsing happens in the product list and ordering happens on ponybuy.com.

The Beginner's Guide names Taobao, Tmall and 1688 as the platforms whose listings are read automatically, and the site describes support for Chinese platforms including Weidian more broadly. A 1688 link is a wholesale listing and is quality checked to a different standard.

Yes, and you should. The shipping estimator takes a destination, a weight and a category and shows which lines serve that country. Guessing the weight of what you want within a couple of hundred grams is enough for a sanity check.

The first payment covers the item and its domestic delivery to the PonyBuy warehouse. International shipping cannot be quoted until the goods exist and have been weighed, so it is charged as a second payment when you submit the parcel.

The gap between the two is yours to use. It is what makes combining several orders into one parcel possible.

Ninety days free, counted from the moment the order status becomes stored. PonyBuy states that past that window, with no delivery order and no response, goods are considered given up and will be destroyed. Each order has its own clock.

They are your inspection. The item is checked for defects and photographed on arrival, and you see it before paying to ship it home. If something is wrong, this is the cheapest possible moment to find out.

No. The parcel is priced on its weight and contents at submission. Anything you add later is a new parcel with its own first weight and handling fee, which is exactly the cost the combine calculator measures.

Possibly. It is set by your own national customs authority and billed by the carrier on arrival. It sits outside the PonyBuy fee formula and no agent can waive it. Look up your own country's threshold before ordering rather than after.

Three things. A delay on certain routes beyond 30 to 40 days from dispatch reimburses 20 per cent of the shipping cost. Seizure by customs and loss or damage in transit are compensated according to PonyBuy's published standard. Whether a given route can be insured is shown on the estimator.

It can be. PonyBuy notes that parcels over 10 kg are relatively likely to be treated as commercial, as are parcels holding many units of the same item. Commercial treatment means formal clearance and a different tax outcome. Two parcels are often cheaper than one heavy one once that is priced in.

Give it the normal transit time for that line first, because scans are sparse on economy routes. If it is well past that, raise it with PonyBuy support with the parcel number ready, and check whether the route had an insurance option you took.