[2026 update] Currency conversion and the cost you did not see

Posting this under the heading it deserves: Currency conversion and the cost you did not see Everything below is what sits behind that.

Currency and fees, set out so that the comparison can be checked.

Quoted amount, conversion rate applied, the spread on top of the mid-market rate, and any fixed fee: four numbers, and only the first is ever quoted. On my last two orders the difference between the quoted figure and the amount that left the account was not trivial.

Am I setting this comparison up correctly, or is there a component everyone else already accounts for?

The opening post describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.

I would be cautious about generalising from the Currency conversion example above. It is a good example. It is one example.

No payment facilitation: this site does not handle payments and does not connect buyers and sellers for the purpose of payment. We discuss logistics and documentation of the process but not the commerce itself.

Two sentences on Currency conversion and then I will stop, because the rest is speculation and the thread is better without mine.

What is documented is narrow. What is inferred from it is broad. The gap between them is where every argument here lives.

This is the first time the answer has come with its own limits attached. Appreciated.

Confirming the total before paying rather than after is obvious and is skipped constantly, particularly where shipping is added late.

Currency conversion is one of those subjects where the general answer and the answer for a specific case diverge, and the thread will go in circles until someone says which one is being asked for.

Currency conversion and fees are frequently the difference between two quotes that look identical. Compare the landed total.

The site does not carry prices, payment details or transaction routes, and questions asking for them will be answered with that rather than with a link.

Answering the question post #9 raises rather than the one it answers.

The number people quote for Currency conversion is a central estimate presented without its interval, and the interval is wide enough that the estimate is nearly uninformative on its own.

Refund policy before ordering: ask what the policy is if you receive damaged material or if the order is incorrect. Get it in writing or screenshot it.

Post #13 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.

Reading this Currency conversion thread as someone who came in with a fixed view: the third and seventh replies moved me and the confident ones did not.