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Thread: Software on eBay

  1. #1
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    Software on eBay

    I had Office 2010 on my computer but I understand that Microsoft is going to discontinue support for 2010. I found Office 2019 on eBay for a significant discount. So I contacted the seller and we agreed to have a telephone conversation. I asked him how he can sell Office 2019 for that much of a discount. His answer was that he buys the software inventory of failing businesses for pennies on the dollar and then he turns around, sells it at a significant discount and still makes a decent profit. He commented that you'd be amazed at how much of that distressed software is out there. He added that he has a variety of software products that he gets in those sales.

    He pointed out that Microsoft has gotten their money for the software so Microsoft is not being cheated. The loser is the business owner of the failed business.

    So I decided to take a chance and I bought the product from him. It installed fine and I activated it without any problems. Microsoft recognized the Product Key as legal and as a standard retail key.

    Anyone have any alternate insights or opinions about such software and purchases?

    Mike
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 01-19-2019 at 2:21 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  2. #2
    Since software are licensed products, each license can be used only used in the manner specified in the license -- usually only one computer/one user at a time for personal products with some provision for transfer (e.g., hardware failure). Generally, as long as you are the only one using this license then it should be fine... but the words in license agreements can only be decoded by a team of trained lawyers. ;-) You might want to read about the complicated nature of software licensing in brief on Wikipedia (which may, or may not be accurate as we all know!)

  3. #3
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    Part of the licensing language may include transferability. I "don't think" that Microsoft is too peculiar about that, but many software concerns are with things ranging from "no transferability under any circumstances" through "you can transfer for a hefty fee" to "no restrictions as long as it's only running in one place on one computer. (Some licenses permit more than one computer as long as it's the same user, such as for a desktop plus a laptop)

    Yathin is correct that software licensing can be a very intricate and complicated thing!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #4
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    If the guy was telling me the truth, the software was never sold or used previously. But I think as far as Microsoft is concerned, I bought it from a non-Microsoft authorized retailer. That may or may not affect their willingness to support it. Although how Microsoft would know where I bought it, I don't know.

    I would think that if it had been installed previously, I would have received an error message when I activated it with Microsoft.

    In any case, it was a significant savings from the regular retail price.

    Mike

    P.S. When I Google "Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019" I see a lot of different prices.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  5. #5
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    I suspect that most sales of Office these days goes as Office 365 subscriptions, rather than the boxed/retail perpetual licenses. I went that way a few years ago myself...it's always up to date and licensed on up to five machines (which was originally the case for me) plus mobiles if desired. I honestly suspect that the perpetual licensing will not continue much longer for new versions, if at all. That's the industry trend. That said, if yours came from unsold inventory, it sounds like it was a great deal!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  6. #6
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    I looked at Office 365. For multiple (6) computers its $100/year. I had my Office 2010 for about 10 years and never felt that I was missing anything - probably because I don't use it heavily.

    So for Office 365 for 10 years, it's $1,000. For Office Professional Plus 2019 for two computers (two product keys) it was a bit under $100 from the eBay guy. If I keep 2019 for ten years, that's a significant savings.

    I won't get any feature updates, like you will with Office 365, but I will get maintenance updates until they discontinue the product. If they drop all one-time license products, I guess I'll go to Office 365, Open Office or Libreoffice. But I'm probably good for the next ten years. At my age, that may be longer than what I have left.

    Mike
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 01-20-2019 at 2:22 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  7. #7
    Interesting explanation for the discount. I suppose it makes sense...

    I've heard that, at least at one point, Microsoft had a program where they'd sell discounted copies of Windows to be installed on refurbished machines, but people would re-sell them. Not sure how legal/allowed that was, but you could get a "legit" copy of Windows for quite cheap.

  8. #8
    I have saved from buying software programs including FW archive, and as long as they are original with valid activation codes, I don't ask or care how they can sell them at discounted prices. After all, they can tell you reasons ( "I bought it, but did not realize my wife was giving me the same as a gift") that you can't verify one way or another.

    I see no benefits from getting updates as I am a basic user, and my requirements haven't changed all these years...still typing my essays on Word program that is at least 15 years old!

    Simon

  9. #9
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    Subscription pricing might well make sense for Enterprises because it saves on in-house maintenance. For individual/home use I'm not sure the economics make sense. More than a few people are using older versions of Office with no issues. There are non-Microsoft alternatives that from all indications are quite compatible. Probably not suitable for CFO/Controller types or those that need 3rd party Excel add-ons but for the great unwashed they work well. I use Libre Office and am able to exchange basic Work & Excel files with no issues. I do have (legal) Microsoft fonts installed which I think helps with formatting.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Curt Harms View Post
    Subscription pricing might well make sense for Enterprises because it saves on in-house maintenance. For individual/home use I'm not sure the economics make sense. More than a few people are using older versions of Office with no issues. There are non-Microsoft alternatives that from all indications are quite compatible. Probably not suitable for CFO/Controller types or those that need 3rd party Excel add-ons but for the great unwashed they work well. I use Libre Office and am able to exchange basic Work & Excel files with no issues. I do have (legal) Microsoft fonts installed which I think helps with formatting.
    My opinion is that subscription software is really a benefit to the manufacturer - it provides them a stream of cash that they can depend upon. When you sell a software product you can get a lot of sales (and cash) in the year you release it and then a lot less in the subsequent years. It also puts pressure on the company to keep coming out with new releases to perk up their cash flow.

    Many software products, such as Office (Word, Excel, Outlook), are "good enough" as is and people are willing to stick with an older version because it does the job for them. The only thing that forces people to upgrade is when support is discontinued, or the old version won't work on a new computer.

    That's a common problem for hardware, also. People keep computers longer because what they have is "good enough". Smartphones are just reaching that point. An iPhone 6, for example, may be "good enough" for a lot of people who don't want to spend $1,000 on a new iPhone. The only thing that will force those iPhone 6 people to purchase a new phone is when support is discontinued for it - and maybe not even then.

    Maybe we'll see subscription hardware some day

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  11. #11
    Microsoft does allow for selling old Windows from busted computers, they just want the seller to include something from the original computer to the new user. I recently bought 2 copies of Win7 32 pro for $20, the 'original computer part' I got was the original activation code labels. There's a phone-in activation procedure, my copies passed.

    Last year I found a guy on 'not-ebay' (another bidding site, forget the name) where I got TurboTax Biz and Home & biz for dirt cheap. Got this years Biz version cheaper than last years, no problems. Still waiting on H&B to become available...

    I rarely if ever pay full price for software. I'm still using Office 2003, and the only reason I'm not still using Office '97 (which works fine for my needs) is because of the added 's' to the filename extensions. The only subscription EVER that I did was 3 months ago, I got a year's worth of Adobe PDF. Worst money I ever spent- I got it to help with a compatibility issue from my customer's PDFs; not only did it not help with the issue, it won't run for more than 5 minutes before it hangs and crashes. Done with that nonsense, and now I'm using Foxit, a freebie that works great...
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  12. #12
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    I don't think lack of support from Microsoft is a reason to abandon Office 2010 as long as it works for you.

    There has got to be something fishy about all the places selling Office 2019 pro plus for under $100. Microsoft and Amazon sell it for $439.99. I doubt the guy really got his Office 2019 licenses from places going out of business, especially since Office 2019 was released less than four months ago. He probably gets his licenses from the same place as all the others selling Office for cheap.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Elfert View Post
    I don't think lack of support from Microsoft is a reason to abandon Office 2010 as long as it works for you.

    There has got to be something fishy about all the places selling Office 2019 pro plus for under $100. Microsoft and Amazon sell it for $439.99. I doubt the guy really got his Office 2019 licenses from places going out of business, especially since Office 2019 was released less than four months ago. He probably gets his licenses from the same place as all the others selling Office for cheap.
    Where do people get those product keys that they sell for cheap? Microsoft activates the software with the product key so it must be a Microsoft generated product key. I'm sure that Microsoft has a database of the product keys they generate and they check that database when you activate your software.

    Do you think they're stolen from somewhere or hacked from some computer system? If so, you'd think that Microsoft would be chasing these guys for theft.

    I'm serious about the question and that's why I posted here - to see if anyone had any insight.

    Mike

    P.S. to give a full account, I actually purchased product keys to Office Professional 2016. But for some reason I couldn't get it to work on my computer. The guy worked with me and did a remote connection to see that I was not doing anything wrong. When he couldn't fix it, he said he'd give me two product keys for Office Professional 2019 that he had purchased as a bulk purchase for the same price as the 2016 keys. He claimed to be a Microsoft certified person and did support for companies as his day job.
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 01-20-2019 at 10:00 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Henderson View Post
    Do you think they're stolen from somewhere or hacked from some computer system? If so, you'd think that Microsoft would be chasing these guys for theft.
    It could also be a genuine key intended for school/student use which is generally free. If the seller's story is true then could be a part of a volume discount and almost certainly not a transferrable license (even if it activates). They could also be using some gray area / loophole at best. They will eventually go after these guys but they may come after people using the software too if their lawyers have fished out all the big fish.

    Also, activation keys are not necessarily stored in a database. In many cases activation keys are just keys in a cryptographic sense at unlock the software features. So, even though it was activated via the Internet, Microsoft is probably not checking it against a database, but they do have all your information through your Internet Service Provider.

    I'd call Microsoft and ask about this, and if this isn't all fine you'd probably still be able to get a refund from eBay.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Henderson View Post
    The guy worked with me and did a remote connection to see that I was not doing anything wrong. When he couldn't fix it, he said he'd give me two product keys for Office Professional 2019 that he had purchased as a bulk purchase for the same price as the 2016 keys. He claimed to be a Microsoft certified person and did support for companies as his day job.
    Whoa! Red flag.

    Honestly, I would wipe my computer if someone did that. People can claim a lot of things over the Internet and even give you real names but that doesn't mean they are who they say they are.

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