About

Kako Buying Primer is a small publisher covering the practical side of shopping agents: the vocabulary a beginner meets in the first week, and the preparation steps that decide whether an order arrives correctly.

We founded the site in 2021 in Portland, Oregon, after a year of watching friends lose money to avoidable mistakes — a wrong size because nobody asked for a measurement photo, a parcel held because a consolidation request went in after the cut-off, a shipping bill that doubled because volumetric weight was never explained.

Our desk is three editors. Daniel Reyes runs the newsroom and writes most of the terminology and fee material. Priya Nandakumar handles reviews, fit checks and packaging notes. Tomas Lindqvist runs research: spreadsheets, shipping-line comparisons and the timing logs behind every claim about how long a step takes.

What we do not do: we do not run an agent, we do not sell products, and we do not accept payment for a score. We order through the same interfaces readers use, with ordinary accounts.

If a term on this site is still unclear after you read our glossary entry, write to [email protected] and tell us which sentence failed. That is how most of our checklists started.

CorrectionsCorrections Contact [email protected]

Editors

Daniel Reyes

Daniel spent six years coordinating export parcels at a Portland freight forwarder before moving into writing full time. He started Kako Buying Primer in 2021 after a year of answering the same beginner questions from friends: what a warehouse check-in means, why volumetric weight costs more than the scale says, and when a consolidation request has to be filed. He writes most of our glossary and fee material and keeps the order log that every timing claim is drawn from.

Editor-in-Chief
Shopping-agent fee structures, cross-border parcel logistics, order consolidation and beginner terminology
12 years covering this niche
Shopping-agent service fee lines
Warehouse check-in and consolidation cut-offs
Volumetric versus actual weight
Customs declarations for small parcels
Order-preparation checklists for first-time buyers
Parcel consolidation math

Career timeline

2012 Graduated with a journalism degree and took a copy desk job at a regional business weekly.
2015 Moved to a Portland freight forwarder as an export documentation coordinator.
2018 Promoted to parcels team lead, handling consolidated small-parcel shipments.
2021 Founded Kako Buying Primer with two colleagues from the trade press.
2023 Built the site's standard order log and introduced the six-month retest cycle.

Credentials

Certificate in Freight Forwarding Fundamentals Pacific Freight Institute 2015
Bachelor of Arts, Journalism University of Oregon 2012
Customs Brokerage Essentials (short course) Portland Trade Academy 2018

Priya Nandakumar

Priya reviews the products we order, with a focus on how well a listing matches what actually arrives. She spent four years on a retail quality team reading supplier inspection photos before joining the desk in 2021. She built our fit-check routine — flat measurements, a 30 °C wash cycle, and a comparison against a garment we already own — and she writes the drawback sentence in every review that costs a point.

Reviews Editor
Apparel fit checks, warehouse QC photo interpretation, packaging and damage assessment
8 years covering this niche
Flat measurement and garment shrinkage testing
QC photo sets and angle requests
Carton integrity and inner packaging
Size chart discrepancies across listings
Fabric weight and hand-feel checks
Damage claim evidence

Career timeline

2013 Joined a regional apparel retailer as a returns analyst.
2017 Moved into supplier quality, reviewing inspection reports and photo sets.
2021 Joined Kako Buying Primer as reviews editor.
2022 Introduced the site's standard fit-check and wash-shrinkage routine.
2024 Added packaging and carton-damage scoring to all product reviews.

Credentials

Certificate in Apparel Quality Inspection Textile Quality Council 2017
Bachelor of Science, Consumer Science Oregon State University 2013
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Portland Process Group 2019

Tomas Lindqvist

Tomas keeps the numbers honest. He built the spreadsheet behind our fee and shipping-line comparisons and maintains the timing log that all our delivery estimates come from. Before joining the desk in 2022 he worked as a market research analyst, mostly on transport and logistics surveys. He also owns the glossary, which he rewrites whenever a reader says a definition still did not land.

Research Editor
Fee arithmetic, shipping-line comparison tables, timing data and glossary maintenance
6 years covering this niche
Service fee and consolidation charge arithmetic
Shipping-line rate comparison
Volumetric weight calculation
Order timing logs and percentile reporting
Glossary and terminology consistency
Currency conversion on agent invoices

Career timeline

2016 Started as a research assistant on a regional transport survey.
2019 Became a market research analyst covering freight and parcel pricing.
2022 Joined Kako Buying Primer as research editor.
2023 Rebuilt the site's fee comparison tables from charged invoice lines.
2025 Took over glossary maintenance and the six-month shipping-line recheck.

Credentials

Certificate in Transport Economics Northwest Logistics Institute 2019
Bachelor of Arts, Economics Portland State University 2016
Data Analysis with Spreadsheets (professional certificate) Cascade Analytics Academy 2021