How buying works
Kayu is an introduction, not a shop. You find a piece, message the seller, and buy from them directly — Kayu takes no payment and adds no fee. That means your protection comes from how you pay, so pay with something that gives you it.
Version 2026-08-14 · in effect from 12 August 2026
How it works
Find a piece and read the listing — the grade, the dimensions, and the photographs of that actual piece.
Send the seller a message. It reaches them with your email address, and they reply to you directly.
Agree the price, the postage and how you pay, between the two of you.
Pay the seller. Not Kayu — there is no cart and no checkout here.
You do not need an account for any of it. The price on a listing is the seller’s price; Kayu adds nothing to it and takes nothing from it.
How you are protected
Because you pay the seller and not Kayu, your protection is whatever you paid with. Kayu holds no money and cannot refund you.
That is not as thin as it sounds — it is the same protection you would rely on buying anywhere else. Paying by PayPal or by card gives you the provider’s buyer protection against that seller, covering an order that never arrives or that turns out not to be what was described. It is quick, it is decided by someone independent of both of you, and it works across borders, which matters when the wood is coming from Indonesia.
What it needs from you is that you actually use it. Check the time limit your provider gives you, keep the messages where you agreed what you were buying, and raise it with them rather than waiting.
Paying safely
Use one traceable method with buyer protection — a PayPal invoice or a card payment.
Never send a bank transfer, a “friends and family” PayPal payment, cryptocurrency or a gift card to someone you have not bought from before. None of them can be reversed, which is exactly why they get asked for.
Be suspicious of urgency. A seller who needs the money today, or who wants to move the conversation somewhere else to take payment, is telling you something.
Get the agreement in writing before you pay: what the piece is, the dimensions, the grade, the total price, the postage and when it will be sent.
A seller pushing you off a protected payment method is breaking their agreement with Kayu. Tell us — orders@kayushop.eu — and we will act on the account even though we cannot act on the sale.
Who you are buying from
Every shop page says whether the seller is a business or a private individual, and it changes what you are entitled to.
A business
If you are a consumer in the EU, you have a right to change your mind within fourteen days of receiving the goods, and a right against faults for two years. Those rights are against the seller, not against Kayu.
A private individual
Someone selling their own stock. Consumer law largely does not apply: no right to change your mind, and a much shorter reach on faults. The wood may be excellent and the seller entirely honest — but if it goes wrong, your payment provider is the route you have.
Any shop you can find here is verified — an administrator has checked who the seller is against documents. That is why you can see it at all: an unverified seller’s shop is not shown to buyers. Verification says the person is real and traceable. It is not a promise about any particular piece of wood.
What the grades mean
Grade is the seller’s claim about the whole piece — figure, grain, and freedom from defects together. Sellers agree to these definitions, so it is a fair thing to hold them to.
AAA
Master grade. Quarter-sawn or very close to it, even and tight grain, consistent colour. No knots, checks, pin holes, sap wood or repairs anywhere on the piece. Where the piece is figured, the figure runs across the whole face rather than a part of it. Both halves of a book-matched set match closely.
AA
Excellent, with something small that keeps it off master grade — slight run-out, a little colour variation, figure that fades toward one edge. Structurally perfect: no knots, checks or repairs.
A
Sound, usable wood with visible character. Mineral streaks, uneven colour, a small tight knot away from the critical area, or light or partial figure. Nothing that affects the strength or the working of the piece for its stated purpose.
B
Cosmetically marked but sound and honest. Knots, sap wood, surface checks that do not run through, uneven figure. Sold on the photographs, which means every mark has to be in them.
What Kayu does
Not nothing, but not the sale. Sellers here agree to photograph the actual piece rather than a similar one, to shoot it without enhancing the figure, to show the faults, and to grade honestly against published definitions. Administrators check who a seller is before granting a verified mark.
And if a seller does not keep to it, tell us. We cannot refund you and we cannot settle your argument, but we can read the listing against what arrived, take it down, and suspend a seller who makes a habit of it. That is worth doing even when it comes too late for you.
There is a Report link at the foot of every listing. You do not need an account to use it, you do not need to have bought anything, and you do not need to be sure — if you think a species is wrong or a photograph is not of the piece being sold, that is worth telling us. A person reads every one, and you get an email saying what was decided, whichever way it goes.
Kayu is not the seller and is not a party to your purchase, so what it can do is publish, pass on messages, and remove what should not be here. It cannot take your money, hold it, or give it back. That is stated plainly rather than buried, because it decides who you chase when something goes wrong: the seller, and whoever you paid with.
Export paperwork
Some of these woods need export paperwork before they can cross a border, and holding it is the seller’s job — done before the wood is sent to you.
Where a seller does not yet have what a particular species and destination needs, the listing shows “contact seller” rather than offering delivery. It is not a glitch, and it is worth asking: it usually means the wood is real and the paperwork is in progress.
Import duties and taxes at your end are yours to pay and are not included in any price you see here.
If something goes wrong
Talk to the seller first. Most of it is a misunderstanding about postage or timing, and most sellers would rather fix it than have it escalate.
If that fails, raise it with whoever you paid through, inside their time limit. That is the route with actual teeth.
Tell us either way, at orders@kayushop.eu. We cannot get your money back, and we will not pretend otherwise — but a report is what gets a bad seller off the site before they reach the next person.
Reviews and questions
Questions you ask on a listing are public and stay there for the next buyer, which is usually the fastest way to find out whether a seller answers properly at all.
Talking to us
orders@kayushop.eu, and a person reads it.
Operator details to be published here before launch — company name, registration number, registered address and a contact telephone number.
This page takes effect on 12 August 2026.