Choosing items on the CNFans Spreadsheet by reading listing photos closely
Each plate below is a real catalogue photo with numbered marks. Under each one we compare what the photo shows with the listing option menu, read without logging in on 20 October 2026. The point is not these five items; it is the habit of asking what a photo proves and what the menu adds.
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A chore jacket read mark by mark
What the photo proves
Three jackets of one design, fanned out on a wooden floor. Shape and construction are easy to read: a darker cord collar, a single welt pocket on the chest, two slanted hand pockets, a metal zip and a narrow hem band with a tab at the side. Washed canvas shows its fading at the seams and pocket edges, which tells you the fabric has been treated rather than left stiff. These are the marks to carry forward to the warehouse photos.
What the menu adds
The menu adds two things the photo cannot. First, the colours are numbered rather than named, and the numbers run tan 1, black 2, stone 3, which is not the front-to-back order of the cover. Second, sizes run from S to XL at a single price of ¥275.00, so nothing about the cost depends on your choice. What neither photo nor menu gives you is a measurement; ask for chest width and back length before buying a boxy cut like this.
A cover photo that shows six pairs of jeans
What the photo proves
One large pair of washed black jeans, front and back, with five smaller styles arranged around it: paint-splattered washes, a patchwork pair, light distressed denim. The large pair is the one you can actually read. Whiskering across the hips, a flare that opens below the knee and a hem cut and left to fray are all visible; so are the yoke and pocket placement on the back view, which no front shot can show.
What the menu adds
The menu changes the picture entirely. Its style option, headed 款式, lists 24 choices numbered from 1 to 25 with no number 7, against six styles on the cover. Sizes run S to 2XL, and all 120 combinations carry one price of ¥227.00. So the card price is the same for every style, but you cannot tell from the cover which number is the black flare. Match the small photo beside each style number to the pair you want, and write both the number and a description in your order note.
Nine colourways and two photo set-ups
What the photo proves
Nine pairs of joggers in a three-by-three grid, and a detail that is easy to miss: the top six were shot on pure white, the bottom three on a grey card with different lighting. Colours from two set-ups are not comparable. The beige in the bottom row and the sand in the top row may be the same yarn or different ones; the photo cannot settle it. The bottom-row pairs also show long hanging drawcords, cream against the black pair, where the top rows show short self-coloured ones; every pair has an elastic ankle cuff.
What the menu adds
Behind those nine colours, the menu's colour option (颜色) lists 40 numbered choices, with sizes from XXS to XL and two prices, ¥190.00 and ¥205.00. Most of the forty colours are not on the cover at all, so the card shows a sample of the range rather than the range itself. Open the small photo for each number you are considering, compare them on one screen, and expect the warehouse photo to settle the shade.
Numbers printed inside a perfume photo
What the photo proves
Some sellers print the specification straight onto the photo, and this is one. Under two bottles and their boxes a line in Chinese gives the packed size as 19.5 × 9 × 3.5 cm, the bottle as 8.5 × 19 cm, the volume as 100 ml and the weight as 393 g. That is more than most titles tell you, and it is useful twice: once to check against the warehouse photo, and again when choosing a shipping line, because perfume and liquids are restricted on many lines.
What the photo leaves open
The photo does not say whether the 393 g includes the box, and the card title and the name on the box differ by one word, so the name is not a reliable way to point at the right bottle. The menu settles that: it offers two options with codes, 7428A for the pink and black bottle and 7428B for the cream and gold one, at one price of ¥89.00. Quote the code. Our glossary translates the Chinese terms on that spec line.
Stacked rings under a soft-focus lens
What the photo proves
Three rings stacked on a fabric cone, two in white metal and one in rose, each built from alternating polished and stone-set segments. Close-ups like this are good at one thing: counting. You can count the stones in each set block (five to seven here) and see whether they look evenly spaced, and those counts are worth checking again on arrival.
What the photo leaves open
Everything about scale. There is no ruler, no finger and no coin in the frame, and the cone tells you nothing about diameter. The warm, blurred background also tints the white metal slightly yellow, so colour is best judged in the warehouse photo. The menu fills one gap: its options are written in English, Silver and Rose Gold, with US sizes 5# to 8#, all at ¥330.00. Material words in a title are the seller's claim; the photo cannot test them and neither can the warehouse, so price your expectations accordingly.
Two near-identical cards, one decision
Sooner or later you will find two cards that look interchangeable. Ours were two plain T-shirt listings in the tees aisle, both showing a grid of tees in neutral colours and both with a card price of ¥179.00. On the cards alone there is nothing to choose between them.
The menus tell them apart. Card A's listing offered 20 numbered colours, sizes S to XXL and four prices running up to ¥215.00. Card B's offered 29 colours, sizes S to XL and two prices, up to ¥205.00. If you need an XXL, the decision is made. If you do not, the question becomes which colour you want and what that option costs, because the same ¥179.00 on both cards turns into different prices once you pick.
Price is not the only difference worth checking. The two covers were shot differently, one on hangers against a shop interior and one flat on white, so colours will compare better in the option photos than on the covers. When the menus do not separate two cards either, look at the shops: how consistent their photos are, whether they show back views and close-ups, and whether the listing has been edited into a jumble. Our seller page covers what to look for.
