You’ve got 30 minutes and a payday. Here’s how to build a shipping-ready shortlist from the acbuy spreadsheet without falling into three-hour rabbit holes.
Minute 0–3 — set the budget
Pick a total spend cap in USD, then subtract $30 for expected shipping. Divide by 5 to get an average per-item budget. This alone will save you from adding an $180 watch to the same shortlist as a $22 tee.
Minute 3–8 — categories on rails
Pick two categories, no more. First-order buyers get sunk trying to cover shoes + clothing + watches + bags all at once. A clean 30-minute shortlist is one hero category (e.g. shoes) plus one filler category (e.g. tees).
Minute 8–18 — hero category shortlist
Open the hero category in the acbuy sheet. Sort by score, filter by batch tier that matches your budget. Add the top 3 rows into your notes doc. This is where the ACBUY Spreadsheets guide row-reading workflow saves you time.
Minute 18–24 — filler category shortlist
Same drill in the filler category. Aim for 3–5 low-price items to fill DIM weight without inflating declared value.
Minute 24–27 — QC finder cross-check
For each shortlisted row, open the QC finder link. Reject anything under a score of 8.5 or with fewer than 5 recent QC albums. Usually 1–2 items get axed here.
Minute 27–30 — sanity checks
- Does total value stay under your country’s duty threshold?
- Are any items sensitive (branded replicas) forcing you into Yanwen Sensitive?
- Does the DIM weight math roughly work in your favour?
Turning shortlist into ACBUY order
Copy each seller URL from your notes doc into the ACBUY dashboard. Buyer notes: batch, size, colour. Pay via PayPal on order one — full payment reasoning is in the How to Buy hub.
What a 30-minute shortlist looks like in practice
Recent example, $250 budget:
- 2x Jordan 1 Chicago L&F LJR v3 (one for me, one for a friend): $200
- 3x Stussy tees GW factory: $66
DIM weight ~4.5 kg after boxes stripped, ships Yanwen Sensitive, lands ~$52 shipping.
Total: $318, four items, one QC pass, one shipping invoice. That’s the whole shape of a clean ACBUY order — and the whole reason the acbuy spreadsheet exists.