Bought a box copy of adobe photoshop elements 12 and adobe premiere elements 12 bundle at a goodwill and cannot activate

​@Eager_protectorb6e5 It’s always a gamble when buying software from a goodwill store. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Not only that, the license has expired too as these bundles are good for three years only.

Black Friday is just around the corner. Best Buy has it for $200 for the 2026 (and that’s in Canada); it may be cheaper on Amazon, Dell — just be careful on sites that you are not 100% sure. Heck, it’s even cheaper on Adobe’s website at $197 for the latest Photoshop Elements & Premiere Elements 2027 https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-premiere-elements.html 

Also, On 9-6-26 Steve Grisetti mentioned no longer being able to activate v2021 so I’m fairly sure anything older will not activate
https://community.adobe.com/questions-725/i-cant-open-my-premiere-elements-2021-and-cannot-use-it-i-tried-reinstalling-but-keep-getting-an-errorr-message-that-the-keys-are-wrong-is-there-any-way-i-can-use-this-again-1640644

Nancy OShea reported 8-31-26 that Elements versions prior to 2022 are NOT compatible with Win11.
Users have reported catastrophic system failures after installing older Elements on a new machine that lacks an optical CD/DVD drive. It seems there’s a security conflict with legacy CD/DVD drivers that causes Win11 to brick up, requiring a full system restore or factory reset.
Use older Elements versions at your own risk of failures.
 

you needed a license transfer with that, https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/transfer-product-license.html 

Consider it a lesson learned and a donation to the goodwill.

Photoshop Elements (3 year license)

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/desktop/introduction-to-photoshop-elements/system-requirements.html

Photography Plan (Photoshop & Lightroom)

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/get-started/technical-requirements-installation/adobe-photoshop-on-desktop-technical-requirements.html

Take it back to Goodwill and ask for a refund.  You got a pig-in-a-poke. Even if with a serial number, it’s not worth the box it came in. The product is too old. Installing on a new device could result in catastrophic system failure. Don’t risk it!!

If you don’t have a serial number, you can’t activate these 13-year-old products.