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Question

Thinking of buying from eBay?

Forum|Forum|18 years ago
February 15, 2008
221 replies
324377 views

Edited October 23, 2008

The original article that this post referred to has expired but there's still quite a bit of good information in this thread.

The point is that eBay software is a risky purchase with much of it illegally pirated.

Bob

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philipjdavies

Participating Frequently

I have obtained quite a lot of Software from E Bay without any problems ocurring. Its is just CS4 that has falen of the edge due to the illicit copying of this product in Asia and then the idea of making a fast buck by those who sell it as genuine.

A

Anonymous

philipjdavies wrote:
Its is just CS4 that has falen of the edge due to the illicit copying of this product in Asia and then the idea of making a fast buck by those who sell it as genuine.

In fact if you read this thread you will see it started on a large scale with CS2.

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philipjdavies

Participating Frequently

Well I had no problem getting either of those perhapes I was just lucky

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abdu7295703

Known Participant

What if the seller has 1000 feedbacks and only 2 negatives and selling Photoshop CS4 for $100? I read some comments here and no one seems to believe this could be legit. What if it were an unwanted gift and the person has no use for it? Maybe the seller needs the money and wants to sell it fast so he's selling it at a low price point.

Zeno Bokor

Inspiring

And what if he's lying? what if the gift was a pirated copy? There may be some legit copies of Photoshop sold on ebay but the vast majority are fakes which is why this thread is in place, to warn people of the dangers of buying from eBay and the likes.

Kelibath

Participating Frequently

Agreed.

Just to clarify, I didn't know the dangers of eBay software before purchase (as I've bought legitimate software from eBay in the past).

I bought two copies of Photoshop CS4 and BOTH are fake. Different sellers, different asking prices. Admittedly they didn't have over 1,000 positive feedback, but nor do I, so I thought all would be well.

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Merlin_AZ

Participant

The free version at www.malwarebytes.org.

Also the rootkit scanner from www.f-secure.com/en_EMEA/security/security-lab/tools-and-services/blacklight/.

If you have Norton Internet Security 2010, the full scan already scans for rootkits.

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Frankconl

Participant

This is very confusing about whether or not to buy an Adobe product that is advertised as new and is selling for a lot less from an Ebay or Amazon seller. It seems the first step would be to find out if Adobe sells to resellers. If they do...then the purchase one is considering on Ebay or Amazon may or may not be legitimate considering who you are buying from. But if Adobe doesn't sell to resellers.....then this will end the debate. These new copies are not legitimate.

Then....can someone resell their used copy of say "Adobe Photo Shop CS"? Does Adobe allow another person to register or even use a used copy bought from another person?

Someone out there I'm sure is up to speed on this kind of confusion...Help us Please. Frankconl

Kelibath

Participating Frequently

Well, now I KNOW my copy is a fake. The colour is wrong, the mouse doesn't work, the registration number is invalid.. there are a few pointers.

I'd like to know if there's any way you can tell before buying.

What about the PN number on the bottom? Does that prove anything?

The registration number is inside the box, maybe resellers won't know it. Also, opening the shrinkwrap gives some grounds for complaint by eBay sellers.

I very much dislike the way opening a dispute on eBay now takes you straight to PayPal. PayPal take forever.

As far as I am aware you cannot reregister a product that has already been registered on your own account so you might have no access to tech support. However you can Deactivate a product from your PC and install it on another PC, including the registration process I assume, which would mean that Used copies will work as long as they've been deactivated but may not be eligible for tech support. The seller's responsibility is to deactivate their own product before uninstalling; the buyer should check this with them and test it.

By the way, what happened to Artsy Woman was a travesty. I'm really sorry for you, if you're still around.

Kelibath

Participating Frequently

After reading earlier posts, it seems a Change of Registration form from Adobe is also a good idea.

Anyone know how to remove the adware/spyware/trojan horse that fake copies put on your PC? My desktop hasn't shown any unusual activity as of yet but I am now very scared for my finances if there is a password collator at work here; I use PayPal and don't want my funds to be removed.

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tataozawa

Participant

to avoid fraud or illegal transaction at ebay, we must see seller reputation and comments from other buyers. I think it can help us from illegal pirates. I got good experience at ebay, twice buying transaction was successful and not got problems.

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Anonymous

Feed Back can be faked too. Read the post above you for a prime example.

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Outré

Participating Frequently

Interesting comments.

If a small shop has a valid business license, I assume that Adobe might just enter into an agreement to let them resell the software.

After all, the big corporations get it in some way. The room for high markup MUST be sufficient enough for large corporate stores to stock them on the shelves at all.

If the smaller shop chooses to have less of a markup, and profit, what is the trouble?

I agree that you need to be careful, checking the serial is a good method. So would checking the business license of the individual, or shop. But that would go for a great deal of things and actions.

Accusing all eBay shops of criminality is a knee-jerk reaction to piracy, and not very intelligent.

A

Anonymous

Outré wrote:
I agree that you need to be careful, checking the serial is a good method.

Are you seriously suggesting that a questionable seller should reveal a serial number prior to a sale? Have you really given this any thought? This thread is not to accuse all eBay shops of criminality. This thread suggests that people use their noggins.

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philipjdavies

Participating Frequently

There is no way anybody seller or buyer can know wether its a fake or genuine. They are as identical as two peas in a pod. The only time you know if you have a fake is when Adobe tells you that the automated registration has failed as the serial number is not a genuine one. and no they are not all the same fake numbers as the makers are using a key gen to replicate numbers.

Adobe are not going to stop it its agreat wayn of advettising. You get a fake and to hell with it lets buy a licience and use it.

Yes it sells CS4.

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Thechiddboy

Participant

I have just purchased CS4 from Adobe at £539 as an upgrade from Adobe Elements 7,what a great piece of software.Forget ebay save your money and put it towards a genuine copy,with peace of mind.All I need to worry about is upgrading now and again.Now for some fun.My only gripe is"adobe where are the written user manuals" nobody gives written manuals anymore...why!.

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Anonymous

Thechiddboy wrote:
My only gripe is"adobe where are the written user manuals" nobody gives written manuals anymore...why!.

You need to spend a lot of time at http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshop/ and explore the linked articles and videos there.

I think that most people never opened the printed manuals so it's a sound environmental decision not to include them.

I think you can still order one.

C

CyberxTremer

Participant

It depends if the seller is genuine. But why go for ebay if we have adobe's site ? well, many people only know about ebay

fatbikez

Participant

alot of stuff on ebay is either stolen or bootlegs. same with craigslist.

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UpgradeRegrets

Participant

I tried a download version direct from Adobe but right now it is not functioning.

Maybe the answer is another copy from ebay-amazon or similar that hopefully

does not have the bugs that mine purchased directly from Adobe does...

Maybe worth a try!

A

Anonymous

I think the problem is with your messed up installation not the Adobe software.

Trying to load another copy on that system will not help.

You need to take a deep breath and follow all the instructions already given. If that doesn't help, back up your data, format your hard drive and re-install everything.

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Sofe19530442

Participant

While I agree that reformatting the hard drive may be the only answer, I don't agree that the software isn't the problem. It should have just installed like all of my other software did. Other software doesn't have this problem. Even Lightroom 2 installed. Not only does CS4 not install, but it started screwing up my old CS3 and Bridge. The pages of instructions can only be done by someone who has very good computer knowledge. I'm a photographer, not an IT pro. I eventually went to pay someone who builds computers for a living and he couldn't get it to load, even using their instructions.

Going on the web, I see plenty of other people for whom the pages of instructions didn't work. Even some of the easier instructions are goofy. An example is how they want to to add a new administrator. Not only do they do it in the longest, dumbest way possible, but some of those steps won't work, as what they tell you to look for isn't there. People like Upgrade regrets and myself shouldn't have to pay someone to install this. Now, because my CS3 won't reinstall (probably because there's some remnant of CS4 that won't uninstall even with thAdobe's CS4 uninstaller), I have to use CS2 until I get this fixed.

This has been a lot of money to spend and a lot of aggravation for something Adobe knows is giving a huge # of people fits. How Adobe finds this acceptable, I can't even imagine.

S

Sofe19530442

Participant

Buying on ebay is risky compared to what? Buying from Adobe? Pardon my sarcasm, but I upgraded to CS4 and no matter what, it won't install. Now that I've unistalled CS3, it too won't correctly reinstall. I'm back to CS2 or 5.5

Now, they not only have my money from CS4, but have essentially just repossessed CS3. Adobe= Bleeeecchhhhh!!!!!

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