What happened to Pandabuy
For a few years, Pandabuy was the default agent for spreadsheet buyers. Its link format filled Reddit threads and Google Sheets, and many people learned how agents work through it. That ended in spring 2024. Sixteen brand owners took legal action against Pandabuy, and Chinese police then raided its warehouses and headquarters. Coverage at the time described a network of affiliated merchants under investigation, and one report compared the seized warehouse space to around 20 football stadiums. Pandabuy's normal operations stopped in April 2024.
The platform never came back to its former state. It limped on with partial functions for a while, then went dark. Two years later, in April 2026, a verdict in the raid case was reported. For buyers, the practical conclusion has been settled for a long time: Pandabuy is gone.
Pandabuy has been effectively closed since April 2024 and isn't coming back.
Timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Early 2024 | Cyber attack; data of more than 1.3 million customers leaked |
| April 2024 | Legal action by 16 brand owners; police raid warehouses and headquarters; normal operations stop |
| 2024–2025 | Partial functions, outages, then the site goes dark |
| April 2026 | Verdict in the raid case reported |
| August 2026 | CNFans and ACBuy shut down, a reminder that the same risks still apply |
"Pandabuy is back": why to be suspicious
Every few months, posts claim that Pandabuy has returned, that logins work again or that a new version has launched. Independent guides that track agents have found none of these led to a working, trusted service. Some were brief signs of life on the old site; others were new sites using the Pandabuy name to attract former users.
- Treat any "Pandabuy 2.0" or relaunch site as a clone. There is no official successor.
- Never log in with your old Pandabuy details on a site claiming to be Pandabuy.
- Never top up a balance to "reactivate" an old account.
If you want to check a "Pandabuy is back" claim yourself, look for consistent reports over several weeks from buyers whose parcels actually arrived. A screenshot of a login page proves nothing.
Anything calling itself the new Pandabuy is, at best, borrowing the name.
The 2024 data breach: check your passwords
Before the raid, Pandabuy was also hit by a cyber attack. Data of more than 1.3 million customers was leaked in early 2024. That matters today for one reason: leaked email and password combinations get reused in attacks on other sites for years. If you had a Pandabuy account:
- Change the password on any account where you used the same password as on Pandabuy, starting with email and payment accounts.
- Turn on two-factor authentication for your email, PayPal and agent accounts.
- Be wary of emails mentioning Pandabuy, refunds or "recovered balances". Leaked data makes phishing more convincing.
If you reused your Pandabuy password anywhere, change it now.
Money and items lost in the shutdown
The shutdown left many buyers with money in their Pandabuy wallet or items in its warehouse. Independent guides report that most wallet balances were lost, and that the main exceptions were buyers who disputed recent PayPal payments within PayPal's dispute window. Items in the warehouse were caught up in the raids. Two years on, there is no realistic route to recovering either.
The lesson carried over into how experienced buyers use agents today, and it applied again when CNFans and ACBuy closed in August 2026: pay per order, keep balances near zero, and ship within a few weeks. The CNFans and ACBuy pages cover the 2026 closures.
Pandabuy's biggest lesson: never keep money or items with an agent longer than you need to.
Reusing an old Pandabuy spreadsheet
Pandabuy-era spreadsheets are still out there, and some of their finds still exist. Each Pandabuy link wraps a Taobao, Weidian or 1688 item number. Copy that number and open it through a working agent, or paste the link into the link converter. Expect more dead rows than in a recent sheet: two years is a long time for marketplace listings, and many sellers will have delisted or re-listed items. If a number fails, search the item title on the marketplace, or browse current finds in the grid above.
Because these sheets are old, check recent QC photos before buying anything from them. Sellers change batches over time, and photos from 2023 may not match what ships today. The QC guide explains how.
Old Pandabuy sheets are a starting point; verify every row against today's listing.
Where former Pandabuy users went
After 2024, buyers spread across many agents, and that spread is why the 2026 closures hit fewer people than Pandabuy's did. Today's working options are listed with status dates on the agent index. For this site's main agent, Oopbuy publishes a 0% purchasing fee on the main platforms and 90 days of free storage; the Oopbuy review covers its weak spots as well.
Choose a working agent by its current status and terms, not by who replaced Pandabuy first.
FAQ
What happened to Pandabuy?
In April 2024, after legal action by 16 brand owners, Chinese police raided Pandabuy's warehouses and headquarters. The platform stopped normal operation and never recovered. A verdict in the case was reported in April 2026.
Is Pandabuy back in 2026?
No. There have been recurring 'Pandabuy is back' posts, but none led to a working, trusted service. Sites presenting themselves as a Pandabuy relaunch should be treated as clones.
Can I get my Pandabuy balance back?
For most users, no. Independent guides report that wallet balances were largely lost; only some buyers who disputed PayPal payments within the dispute window recovered money.
Was Pandabuy hacked?
Yes. In early 2024 Pandabuy suffered a cyber attack in which data of more than 1.3 million customers was leaked. If you reused your Pandabuy password elsewhere, change it.
Do Pandabuy spreadsheets still work?
The links don't, but each one contains a Taobao, Weidian or 1688 item number that you can open through a working agent.