I have been a user of these forums for over a decade and have bought and sold literally thousands of pounds worth of items hight and sold 410 positive feedback, 0 negative. In fact I was a moderator there briefly many years ago. I've just had a run in with a moderator "Apsilon" who approached me as is posted a comment about sometime with 0 feedback selling a Playstation 5 for hundreds of pounds over the RRP, this has started to happen on a daily basis recently. My "Disparaging remarks" (by simply stating it wasn't a fair price) has just been rewarded by me receiving a trading ban. Sadly, I'm afraid to say, standards have slipped, what was once a friendly place for like-minded people to help each other out, trade fairly and look after each other has now become more cut throat than eBay, sadly, just less honest about it. As you'll see from other reviews here, the moderators moderate in the same way that an SS Solder does, to quote "Apsilon" "So deal with it, bite your tongue and move on" followed by "if you don't like it, move on, because as I said, if you continue, you will be banned" So loyal users are put to one side in preference to one hit wonder scalpers, but as "Apsilon" says "I’m simply following the directive set out by the owner and a moral compass doesn’t come into it." Disappointing response, disappointing forums run by disappointing people.

I was a member of AVS forums for 15 years. I tried to have simple civil discourse on topics but what you find is that vendors with financial interests dominate the forums and they will relentlessly attack you if you post anything negative about their product. Recently I suffered racist attacks and simple post about comparing 2 technologies. how does a talk about projectors get responded to by attacking someone with actual links to videos that you are a dumb chimp? I was greeted with posts linking to youtube videos about dumb chimps and multiple racists posts about how dumb chimps are which in the environment right now is strait up racist. The mods clearly favor their vendors and keep this environment. Its pretty terrible. This is not a site for real talk about av. If they dont have financial interest, they are fan-boys and will group attack you. Avoid this place, find a better source of info.

AV forums has some very knowledgeable individuals who can be a useful resource. Unfortunately the experience is often marred by a small handful of their moderators. The ads very much undermine the experience as well. Avoid.

Fairly good resource for Av equipment. Though very unwelcoming forums, appears to be playground for clique established users who are fully supported by active moderators.

I have been a member of both AVForums and Talk Photography for several years. Both have their merits but Talk Photography scores much higher if you wish to buy or sell anything. To buy or sell on AVForum you simply need to register which makes it open to abuse by scammers. Talk Photography on the other hand will not let you access their classified section until you have been a member 30 days and made 60 posts. This qualifying period is likely to be too much effort for scammers and likely to dissuade anyone wanting to scam you. Having bought and sold on both you are also more likely to get a sensible deal on Talk Photography. Too many people on AVF seem to expect you to give them your gear at stupidly low prices or offer their kit at ridiculously high sums. Often the same member is guilty of both. Both suffer from a few members who seem to think they are experts on every item of camera gear ever made and liberally strew their pontifications across all threads. The other problem with both web sites are the petty little moderators where the power has gone to their heads. As the quote goes "give a little man a little power!" However if you seek advice and guidance both sites have plenty of knowledgable members who will help.

I was a member of the AVForums for 7 years with trader feedback of about 500 @ 100%. So could not have been doing wrong by other members. Problem I found it was one rule for a member and a totally different set for a Moderator :-( many times I caught moderators out for profiteering and withdrawing from agreed deals which would normally result in a ban for a member but not moderators. Giving them one star is one star to many and I would not recommend them while moderators like UrbanT and many others are still operating the site.

Beware. AVforums.com exist so that their partners are their to push their products rather than a truly independent website recommending the best value products. Moderators will ban you if you recommend any products other than their own.

There are some good advice given but do do your research properly.