Community Expert

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

This topic has been closed for replies.

Show previous replies

scambot

Participating Frequently

I just went through TWO cases of this.

First bought CS4 and tried installing it. Invalid serial number. Then bought CS4 Extended and same thing.

Luckily, both people refunded my money. These packages looked totally legit. This piracy is unbelievably good.

A

Anonymous

[deleted by forum host] is selling CS4 through July 31 for $199US. I emailed the Adobe piracy site to check if they were official sellers but they have not returned my email. Customer info said they had no way of knowing. I see their ads everywhere. According to WHOIS the company started a few weeks ago out of Suzhou, China. Anyone ever buy anything from these folks?

A

Anonymous

China? lol

That is the first hint.

Lorie Davison wrote:
[deleted by forum host] is selling CS4 through July 31 for $199US. I emailed the Adobe piracy site to check if they were official sellers but they have not returned my email. Customer info said they had no way of knowing. I see their ads everywhere. According to WHOIS the company started a few weeks ago out of Suzhou, China. Anyone ever buy anything from these folks?

A

Anonymous

It beggars belief that people can be naive enough to think that offers like this could be legitimate.

bekiil

Participating Frequently

Hmm, found this: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/465/ripoff0465510.htm and: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS37171+06-May-2008+PRN20080506 http://www.microsoft.com/oem/english/content/licensing/lcacapabilities.mspx

Okay, I will buy from the Adobe store i guess.

Umm, Adobe, Any chance on a "special offer" for me?

S_D_A_

Inspiring

I wouldn't discount Ebay necessarily. There are legitimate sellers there, heck even GM is going to start selling cars on Ebay shortly.

Just do your due diligence !

BobLevine

Author

Community Expert

S.D.A. wrote:
I wouldn't discount Ebay necessarily. There are legitimate sellers there, heck even GM is going to start selling cars on Ebay shortly.

Just do your due diligence !

The problem with that is that even the sellers are getting duped. Some of the fakes are so good that the sellers don't know they're fake. Quite simply, you're gambling on ebay purchases of any kind. The percentage of illegal software is way higher than that of the legal software.

When Adobe opens its own ebay store you can compare it to GM.

Bob

bekiil

Participating Frequently

Hi, I am planning to buy Photoshop CS4 extended, And i found a site named [link deleted by forum host]that offers it at only $370.99 (I guess USD)

Is this legitime, And is this store real? The cost in Adobe store would be something like $1841,5 USD.

Photoshop is great and i loves to watch Bert Monroy playing around with it and would like to purchase CS4 Extended as i also do photgraphy and would like to go crazy with my images.

Best wishes to all.

the_wine_snob

Inspiring

Unfortunately, unless a user here has direct knowledge of that site, it would only be a guess on anyone's part. Given the price difference, I cannot believe that it is legit, but could be wrong.

I'd spend a day on every search engine that you can find, plugging in variations on that site. Read every hit you get.

Also, know that most bogus sites change their names very frequently. Many also flood the Internet with bogus great reviews, hitting many sites.

Considering the potential savings, I'd directly contact Adobe Sales and inquire if they are a certified reseller. If they are not, I'd save my $'s, and buy from Adobe Store.

Good luck, and please share any research that you do on this thread.

Hunt

L

lou liz wells

Participant

Hey All,

I agree - please don't risk buying Adobe software from ebay - I got caught big time, lost my money (as paypal wouldn't take responsibility and neither would visa) and had to buy the real software from the Adobe shop anyway!

The site I used looked genuine, they had loads of software on offer and had what seemed like genuine reasons for selling at a good price. They also claimed to be authorised sellers guaranteeing genuine discs and product codes. I thought that such a huge, professional looking site couldn't possibly be pirate...how wrong could I be!?!

My only hope now is that as I gave the details to Adobe, the people behind the site will be prosecuted - I really don't want anyone else to lose out in the way that I did. Don't think that you're protected even if you're using paypal and visa - you're not!

Happy photoshopping!

T

tekstilexports

Participant

ebay is just a flea market, i wouldnt trust it.

A

Anonymous

I bought CS4 for $500 off of Ebay not long ago. Mind you, this is after I failed on several attempts to buy from Adobe's shop. I'm an American living abroad. I have a US-issued credit card and a US permanent address. After trying to ship to my foreign address (with foreign-issued CC), I'm pretty sure they flagged my IP and or Adobe account. I tried buying through an anonymous proxy with my US-based card to my permanent address... I was still rejected.

The MSRP of CS4 (not extended) here in Japan is just under $1100 USD given the current crappy exchange rate. There's no way I'm going to pay $400 more for a version that has not only no extra benefits, but is in a langauge different to the one than I've been using since version 4.0. It's an international world. Adobe should wake up and smell the roses. I'm confident my copy for $500 was legit (the seller had sold many copies and got positive feedback for all of them). But if it wasn't, I'd still have more of a complaint with Adobe than the Ebay person selling dodgy software. It's Ebay... it's somewhat expected.

B

bdkennedy11

Participant

I think the headline should be changed to "Do not buy from eBay or Craigslist"

Only once have a seen a legitimate ad in the computer section selling unpirated software.

A

artsy woman

Participating Frequently

eBay has many legit items, but Adobe Photoshop is best purchased from Adobe or a certified retail store.

N

Navarro Parker

Inspiring

You also have to be a smart ebay buyer too. If someone has 50 copies of factory sealed retail versions of Master Collection for $200 and it's being shipped from Hong Kong, it's going to be a bootleg.

But if someone is selling a used retail version for Production Premium (non-educational) for a few hundred less than a new copy... and the buyer mentions the Adobe Transfer of Registration form... it's probably going to be legit.

I have purchased software from ebay plenty of times. Just be smart. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded