The End of an Era: Amvona moves on ...

Amvona, long-time darling of the studio gear bargain hunter set, has pulled the plug on their photo equipment sales. No more $10 softboxes, $18 backgrounds, or $4 light stands. How many of us used to cruise eBay in search of the ultimate Amovona deal? Alas, those days are now gone forever. Amvona has metamorphosed into a technology blog and social networking site (ugh!).

Adios old friend.

Dave F.

Meh.

Cheap yes, but everything I bought from them was barely worth what I paid.

The background stand was missing an internal spring, they wanted the whole thing shipped back. I bought a $1.50 spring at the hardware store instead.

The backdrop that was "blacks and greens" in the description had more purple than anything else...

mbellot wrote in post #10215302
Meh.

Cheap yes, but everything I bought from them was barely worth what I paid.

The background stand was missing an internal spring, they wanted the whole thing shipped back. I bought a $1.50 spring at the hardware store instead.

The backdrop that was "blacks and greens" in the description had more purple than anything else...

Yes, Amvona stands and backgrounds did seem to rate high on the junk meter. On the other hand, I still have a few of their softboxes that, while a long way from Chimera quality, haven't fallen apart, cost a pittance, and do their job. That said, I haven't bought anything from Amvona in years.

Dave F.

Low prices on eBay for Amvona disappeared years ago.

While prices were cheap, so were the muslin's cheap and thin.
My Wal-Mart bed sheets were thicker and better quality...

-Mario

I picked up a couple deals. Background stand is great for my needs, and I got one of the tri-arm portrait reflectors for about $35 which was a great deal.

However, I noticed over the last year they went from a storefront to the One Day deals, to nothing. I assume the One day deals were just to sell off inventory.

Tough to stay in business when you're selling for dirt cheap.

No margins. No profits. No business. No jobs.
Ain't rocket science.

Nick5 wrote in post #10215475
No margins. No profits. No business. No jobs.
Ain't rocket science.

More likely that China Inc. figured out they could sell the crap directly and cut Amvona out of the equation.

mbellot wrote in post #10215836
More likely that China Inc. figured out they could sell the crap directly and cut Amvona out of the equation.

I think that's it exactly.

Dave F.

True enough, a couple years ago I would have been pretty wary to buy anything from Hong Kong off of ebay, now I don't think twice.

Sorry, but it was all crap. They were based right here in Massachusetts and wouldn't even allow for pickup. I figured i'd save on shipping for large roll backgrounds. Little did i know they wanted like $37. to ship and i was like 15 miles away.

A local photog friend of my mine here in central MA picked up a couple of truck loads of studio cases off them for barely anything, gave me three. Only one of them still has it's original handle, and one had a wheel drop off.

Cheap crap, yes - but you got what you paid for!

Totally junk. I had a posing stool and table set. One roller wheel of the stool went off after few uses and the table height won't lock in position.

No loss for me. Despite the few good reviews and happy customers, the negatives were overwhelming and for the most part the gear was cheap junk at best. My 2 cents.

it was a hit or miss, i got an ok boom stand for around 20bucks from them, that usually goes for 50+

Just found this thread. I have a couple of their tripods which I love. Was looking for another. Shame. Their tripods were great and very affordable.