What changed in 2026, and what it does to a row
Product rows age slowly: a seller keeps a listing for months. The money around the row ages fast. Several things moved between June and October 2026, and any sheet written before them carries a shipping note that no longer matches what LitBuy shows. The table lists each change, its date and the way it breaks a row. Euro figures use LitBuy's own display rate of ¥1 ≈ €0.158 (27 October 2026), which is higher than typical bank rates.
| Changed in 2026 | Date | What it means for a row |
|---|---|---|
| EU flat €3 customs duty per item category (parcels up to €150, until 1 Jul 2028) | 1 Jul | A mixed parcel can owe more than one €3; older totals omit it |
| LitBuy flat €3 per parcel on EU tax-free lines | 24 Jun | A per-parcel charge, so it favours fuller parcels |
| Membership L0 to L5 and Lit Prime | 18 Sep | Shipping rates and perks can differ by account level |
| €2 EU processing fee, parcels submitted after 14:00 Beijing time | 25 Oct | Add €2 to any EU parcel in a note dated earlier |
| Tariff prepayment on most EU tax-free lines: ¥24 to ¥40 | 19 to 27 Oct | The estimator's all-in euro price is higher than a note from 19 Oct |
| New US line ZF-GOFO-US-1 (1 kg $41.17) | by 27 Oct | US sheets that list only older lines miss the cheapest quote |
Product link format litbuy.com/product/<code>/<id> | read 27 Oct | Rows that wrap another agent's link need the ID extracted |
None of these changes a product price. They change the line under the product, which is why a sheet can look fine and still mislead you by several euros per parcel.
Old rows are mostly right on the item and wrong on the shipping note beneath them.
The three EU charges, kept apart
The EU duty and LitBuy's own parcel charges are different things with similar numbers, and older sheets blur them. The EU measure is a temporary €3 duty per different item category on low-value parcels sent through the import one-stop shop, up to €150, running until 1 July 2028 (Council of the EU press release, 11 February 2026). Import VAT still applies from the first euro: 19% in Germany, 20% in Austria and France.
LitBuy's two charges sit on top for its EU tax-free lines: a flat €3 per parcel since 24 June 2026, and a €2 EU processing fee for parcels submitted after 14:00 Beijing time on 25 October 2026. The estimator folds both into one figure, a tariff prepayment of ¥40 on most lines on 27 October. It is not import VAT: on tax-free lines LitBuy handles duty and VAT. Fees are another topic; the landed price calculator holds the current numbers. Customs rules here are rules only: declare value truthfully, and do not split parcels to shave a duty.
Three EU charges exist; the estimator's all-in price is the one number to trust.
The same row priced with an old note and with 27 October
A hypothetical ¥150 hoodie (estimated 0.75 kg, so the 1,000 g band) shows the gap. An older sheet might quote the shipping line at its list price without any prepayment, which was €24.11 for 1 kg on LIT-Economy-DHL-DE. The estimator's all-in figure on 27 October 2026 was €30.42.
A ¥150 hoodie to Germany: an old-style note against the 27 October all-in
Item: ¥150 × 0.158€23.70
Old-style note: 1 kg list price without prepayment, €24.11€47.81
27 Oct all-in for 1 kg (includes ¥40 tariff prepayment)€30.42
27 Oct total: €23.70 + €30.42€54.12
Gap the old note hides€6.31
The gap is the same for any item in the 1,000 g band, and it is similar at 500 g (€6.30) and 2,000 g (€6.30). So the item price in the row is not the problem; the missing prepayment is. Austria and France have their own lines, with 1 kg all-in prices of €36.54 and €31.63 in the estimator on the same day, and the UK has no prepayment at all (£16.83 for 1 kg on FF-Royalmail-GB-1).
Add about €6.30 per parcel to any EU note that leaves the prepayment out.
New US line, UK unchanged, France moved
For the US, 2026 brought a new line, ZF-GOFO-US-1, listed with 8 to 16 working days and a 1 kg price of $41.17 on 27 October. The older FF-GOFO-US-2 line went from $37.41 to $41.84 at 1 kg between 19 and 27 October, so a sheet that still quotes $37.41 is out of date. Duty-free treatment of low-value parcels ended for China and Hong Kong on 2 May 2025 and for all countries on 29 August 2025 (US customs), and LitBuy's GOFO and USPS lines are labelled tax free. See the USA country page for rows that suit those lines.
For France, GOFO at 1 kg moved from €23.75 on 19 October to €25.32 on 27 October before the prepayment, and our France page follows it. The UK Royal Mail lines showed no prepayment, and the UK page notes that VAT up to £135 is collected at the point of sale. Germany's list prices barely moved: LIT-Economy 1 kg went from €24.12 to €24.11.
Re-check US and France quotes first; Germany and the UK moved least.
Membership, Lit Prime and rising Discord numbers
LitBuy's notice of 18 September 2026 added levels L0 to L5, earned by cumulative international shipping spend at ¥1 per point and kept permanently, plus Lit Prime, a paid 30-day plan with better shipping rates, coupons, priority packing, extra free storage and QC or return benefits. LitBuy does not publish a price, so no sheet can quote one honestly. Sign-up banners also changed: on 27 October the site advertised a 40% new-user shipping coupon, and joining Discord had advertised a 25% shipping coupon on 19 October. One coupon applies per parcel, tied to one account, and cannot be combined with other shipping discounts.
Community size is a quick age signal for chat-based sheets. LitBuy's Discord showed about 216,957 members on 27 October against about 207,500 on 19 October. When a sheet cites "the Discord" without a date, you cannot tell which of those it means. Our Discord page covers the official server.
Anything that quotes a discount without a date is quoting last month's banner.
The product link format, and why old link styles fail
LitBuy's own product address follows one pattern: https://www.litbuy.com/product/<code>/<item id>, where the code is 0 for 1688, 1 for Taobao, 2 for Weidian and 3 for JD. On 27 October 2026 we opened six Weidian rows through that pattern and each showed a CNY price, for example 94.5 against 93.60 on the sheet's source. A sheet written for another agent often wraps the whole marketplace address inside its own link, or hangs a tail such as inviteCode= on the end. The item ID is what matters, and removing the tail does not break the link. Our link converter rebuilds the address from an ID.
Older sheets also die for plainer reasons: the seller delisted the item, changed the style options or moved the store. The page then says the product has been removed from the shelves, and the find-similar-item guide shows how to search for the same product by image. A sheet that gives you the marketplace ID next to the link makes that search much quicker.
Keep the item ID; the wrapper around it is disposable.
How to date-check a row in four steps
- Find the stamp. A date column, the Google Sheets version history (File, then Version history) or the post date of a Reddit, TikTok or Telegram message.
- Compare it with the table above. Before 24 June, no flat €3. Before 25 October, no €2 fee. Before late October, the prepayment read ¥24 on most EU lines. No ZF-GOFO-US-1 line means it predates late October.
- Open the link. The product page shows the CNY price, and "The product has been removed from the shelves." appears for a delisted item. LitBuy's page may show 1 to 3% more than a sheet's price.
- Redo the total. Use the item price at ¥1 ≈ €0.158 plus the all-in estimator price for the parcel weight.
The dead links guide covers what to do when step three fails, and the scorecard turns the checks into a score. If you want a clean version, the spreadsheet template has a date-checked column built in. New to sheets generally? The sheet directory sorts them by source.
Date the note, open the link, and rebuild the total from today's estimator.
Where this sits in the library
This site's own rows are re-read on 27 October 2026, so the euro figures in the LitBuy spreadsheet library already include the ¥40 prepayment. If you only want a category to browse, try hoodies or tracksuits.
Use a dated library for the euro column, and an old sheet only for its links.
Questions about 2026 changes and older LitBuy sheets
Is a LitBuy spreadsheet from early 2026 still usable?
The rows may be fine, but the shipping notes are probably not. Three EU charges arrived between 24 June and 25 October 2026, and the estimator's tariff prepayment on most EU tax-free lines rose from ¥24 on 19 October to ¥40 on 27 October. Re-open each link for the price, then redo the euro total from LitBuy's current estimator instead of the sheet's old note.
What is the EU €3 duty per category?
Since 1 July 2026 the EU applies a temporary flat €3 customs duty per different item category on low-value IOSS parcels up to €150, running until 1 July 2028 (Council of the EU, 11 February 2026). A parcel with a tee and a pair of jeans may hold two categories. LitBuy's own charge is a flat €3 per parcel on its EU tax-free lines.
What is the €2 EU processing fee?
LitBuy's notice of 18 October 2026 says parcels submitted after 14:00 Beijing time on 25 October 2026 carry a €2 EU processing fee. From 1 November the EU also wants a PID code, and LitBuy says users need do nothing. Sheets written before that date will not mention it, so add €2 to any older EU parcel estimate.
Did the tariff prepayment really change in eight days?
Yes. On 19 October the estimator showed ¥24 on most EU tax-free lines. On 27 October it showed ¥40, which is ¥16 more or about €2.53 at LitBuy's display rate of ¥1 ≈ €0.158. XB-DHL and STF-Colissimo lines still showed ¥24. The 1 kg all-in price on LIT-Economy-DHL-DE was €30.42 on 27 October.
What is the new US shipping line?
ZF-GOFO-US-1 appeared in the estimator by 27 October 2026, with 8 to 16 working days and a 1 kg price of $41.17 on a tax-free label. It was not listed on 19 October. On the older FF-GOFO-US-2 line, 1 kg moved from $37.41 to $41.84 in the same eight days. A US sheet that quotes only the second line is out of date.
Does membership change how I read a sheet?
Not the rows, but it changes the shipping figure you can expect. LitBuy's notice of 18 September 2026 introduced levels L0 to L5, earned by cumulative international shipping spend at ¥1 per point, and Lit Prime, a paid 30-day plan with better rates. LitBuy does not publish the price. Sheets that quote one flat rate for everyone ignore this.