Legal

Terms of Service

Effective June 1, 2026 · Fee schedule →
Plain-language summary: HiFi Registry is a marketplace for verified sellers of used hi-fi audio equipment. We charge a flat $15 listing fee — no commissions, no percentage cuts, no recurring charges. We do not sell ads, share your data with data brokers, or allow anonymous sellers. The full terms follow.

1. Who we are

HiFi Registry, Inc. (“HiFi Registry,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the marketplace at hifiregistry.com. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of our platform. By creating an account or completing a transaction, you agree to these Terms.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract in your jurisdiction to use HiFi Registry. By using the platform, you represent that you meet these requirements. Sellers must additionally complete our identity verification process before listing any item for sale.

3. Seller identity verification

All sellers on HiFi Registry are identity-verified via Stripe Identity before their first listing goes live. Verification collects your legal name, address, and government-issued ID. We do not display your ID or address publicly — only your name and username appear on your seller profile. Verification data is processed and stored by Stripe in accordance with their privacy policy.

4. Listings

Sellers are responsible for the accuracy of their listings, including:

  • Accurate condition grades (1–10 scale, tied to photos)
  • Honest descriptions of known defects, modifications, or missing accessories
  • Correct item category and specifications
  • Photos that accurately represent the current condition of the item

Listings that misrepresent condition, omit material defects, or use deceptive photography are grounds for immediate removal and account suspension. See our Moderation Policy for details.

5. Prohibited items

The following are not permitted on HiFi Registry:

  • Counterfeit or replica equipment represented as genuine
  • Stolen property
  • Items with removed, altered, or falsified serial numbers
  • Unlicensed software or firmware modifications
  • Any item prohibited by applicable law

6. Fees

HiFi Registry charges a single flat listing fee. There are no commissions, no percentage-of-sale charges, and no recurring fees of any kind.

Listing typeFee
Equipment listing$15
Wanted adFree

The $15 listing fee is a one-time charge, collected via PayPal at the final step of the listing wizard. Your listing remains active, good until sold, with no expiration and no renewal fees.

Pausing a listing, enabling vacation hold, or any other change to listing status does not incur any additional charges. The $15 fee is paid once, and that is the entirety of what HiFi Registry collects from sellers.

Listing fees are non-refundable. Full fee details, including music media pricing, are available on the Fee Schedule.

7. Transactions and payments

For listings at $10,000 or above, we suggest — but do not require — completing a one-time identity check using Stripe Identity. Stripe Identity is used solely for identity verification and does not process any payments on HiFi Registry. The $15 listing fee is collected separately via PayPal.

Users may, at their own discretion, share personal contact information such as email addresses or phone numbers with other users at any time. HiFi Registry does not prohibit off-platform communication or transactions. However, if users choose to communicate or complete a transaction outside of the HiFi Registry platform, they do so entirely at their own risk. HiFi Registry has no jurisdiction, authority, or obligation with respect to any off-platform communication or transaction, and will not moderate, review, or take any position with respect to any off-platform communication or transaction. Users who take communication or transactions off-platform do so entirely at their own risk and have no recourse through HiFi Registry.

8. SMS notifications

HiFi Registry offers optional SMS text message notifications for new messages and platform activity. SMS notifications are strictly opt-in and are never enabled by default.

By adding a phone number and enabling SMS notifications in your account settings, you expressly consent to receive recurring automated transactional text messages from HiFi Registry at the phone number provided. These messages are transactional in nature — they notify you of new messages from other users, offer updates, and platform activity related to your listings. HiFi Registry does not send promotional, marketing, or advertising SMS messages.

Message frequency varies based on activity. Message and data rates may apply depending on your carrier and plan. HiFi Registry is not responsible for any charges imposed by your carrier.

To opt out at any time: reply STOP to any HiFi Registry text message, or remove your phone number in account settings. Opting out will immediately stop all SMS notifications. Reply HELP for assistance.

SMS messages are delivered via Amazon Web Services (AWS SNS). Your phone number is used solely for notification delivery and is never sold, shared with advertisers, or used for marketing purposes. For full details on how we handle your phone number, see our Privacy Policy.

9. Feedback and reviews

Feedback is tied to verified transactions only. You may not leave feedback for a transaction in which you were not involved. Feedback must be factual and specific to the transaction. Reviews that contain personal attacks, threats, or fabricated claims will be removed. HiFi Registry does not remove negative feedback that accurately reflects a transaction outcome.

10. Account suspension and bans

We may suspend or permanently ban accounts for violations of these Terms, including misrepresentation, feedback manipulation, or failure to complete a committed sale. Ban decisions and the reasons for them may be published on our public moderation log — accounts are identified by username and the category of violation, not personal details. See Moderation Policy for details.

11. Intellectual property

You retain ownership of photos and descriptions you upload. By posting them, you grant HiFi Registry a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to display, reproduce, and distribute that content on the platform and in platform communications (e.g., transaction emails, sold-price records). We do not sell your listing photos to third parties.

12. Automated access and data harvesting

HiFi Registry strictly prohibits any automated, programmatic, or non-human access to the platform, including but not limited to web scraping, crawling, spidering, data mining, screen scraping, automated browsing, bot-driven requests, or any other method of extracting data from the platform in bulk or at scale without HiFi Registry's prior written consent.

This prohibition applies regardless of the stated purpose — commercial, research, competitive analysis, price monitoring, or otherwise — and regardless of whether the extracted data is publicly visible on the platform. The structure, compilation, and arrangement of HiFi Registry data constitutes proprietary information protected under applicable law.

HiFi Registry reserves the right, without notice and at its sole discretion, to:

  • Rate-limit, throttle, or block any IP address, IP range, account, or user agent exhibiting patterns consistent with automated access
  • Terminate accounts found to be engaged in automated data collection
  • Permanently ban IP addresses or networks associated with scraping activity
  • Take legal action against individuals or entities engaged in unauthorized data harvesting

HiFi Registry actively monitors platform traffic for anomalous access patterns. Detection of automated activity may occur through rate analysis, behavioral fingerprinting, honeypot detection, or other technical means. You agree not to circumvent, disable, or interfere with any such monitoring or protective mechanisms.

Violations of this section constitute a material breach of these Terms and may expose the violating party to civil and criminal liability under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and other applicable federal and state law.

13. Disclaimers

HiFi Registry is a marketplace, not a dealer. We do not own, inspect, or warrant any item listed for sale. The platform is provided “as is.” We make no warranty that the platform will be uninterrupted or error-free. To the extent permitted by law, HiFi Registry's liability is limited to the listing fee paid by the user for the relevant transaction.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any legal action or proceeding arising under these Terms shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Maricopa County, Arizona, and both parties consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

15. Changes to these Terms

We will post any material changes to these Terms at least 14 days before they take effect, with notice sent to registered sellers by email. Continued use of the platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you disagree with a change, you may close your account before the effective date.
Privacy Policy →Fee Schedule →Moderation Policy →