Is it allowed to sell CS5 Design Premium edition CDs?

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
July 20, 2025
4 replies
478 views

Hello, I came across our old CS5 Design Premium CD set (educational set) the other day, and noticed that this set still seems to be in demand from the looks of all the ebay auctions that are selling. There are lots of the educational sets on there selling too. I thought these sets were not transferable. So why are so many folks buying and selling them if the buyer cannot use them?

I would love to find someone else who could use these, but I do not have that old serial number anymore. Is it worth selling this without a serial number?

Correct answer Abambo

It is my understanding that all the disks are identical, only the serial numbers differentiate that a user is "educational". That is why I asked.

It is my understanding that all the disks are identical, only the serial numbers differentiate that a user is "educational". That is why I asked.

By @L&KCcs

Your understanding is wrong. Educatonal installers can only be used against educational serial numbers. And it is even worse. A Design Premium can only be used with a Design Premium serial number. Combine both and you come down to quite a limited number of people who can legally use the product.

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

Antique software isn't collectible. The disks & packaging have no value except for recycling.

Even if you could find a buyer for CS5, which is doubtful, the hardware & software needed to support it no longer exist.

Windows:

Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 3; Windows Vista® with Service Pack 1 (Service Pack 2 recommended); or Windows 7 with Service Pack 1.

Mac:

Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
Mac OS X v10.5.7 or v10.6.3; Mac OS X v10.6.3

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

Abambo

Community Expert

I would love to find someone else who could use these, but I do not have that old serial number anymore. Is it worth selling this without a serial number?

By @L&KCcs

Besides the fact that educational Software from Adobe cannot be transferred to a new owner (the license, as you acquired only a license, to be correct), original CDs without the serial numbers are anyhow useless.

It may also be impossible to install and run the installer or the software on modern computers, as some of the required files may not be available anymore, or are reacting differently as the installer expects. Do never forget that the software has been released 15 years ago. That's an eternity for a software.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

John T Smith

Community Expert

Transfer (selling or giving your software away) https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/transfer-product-license.html
-you may NOT sell or transfer an Education serial number
-you also may NOT sell/transfer if you used a program as the basis to buy an upgrade at a reduced price

L

L&KCcsAuthor

Known Participant

I will read the link provide, thank you for that. Neither of two reasons why I cannot sell it happen to be my situation. I would not be selling a serial number, just the disks. And I would not be selling it to someone just so they have an avenue for an upgrade. At least not intentionally. There are still folks who prefer to work in CS5, for whatever reason.

I suppose another question is, can folks even run CS5 anymore? I see the servers have all been removed?

Abambo

Community Expert

I will read the link provide, thank you for that. Neither of two reasons why I cannot sell it happen to be my situation. I would not be selling a serial number, just the disks.

By @L&KCcs

The serial number is part of the "package". If you sell only the disks, you are selling something that nobody can use, except if they have an educational serial number. If they have that serial number, they will also typically have the disks (or the files). Please note that the educational software cannot be installed with a general serial number. And you can't install the binaries against any other flavour of the software, like a Design Standard number, even if only installing software that is included with that package.

CS5 does still run on my Windows 10 laptop. But I do not know if it still can be installed on that system, as I bought it with running Windows 7, and I did install CS5 at that time on this computer.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer