Thinking of buying from eBay?

You're also safe buying from any of a number of legitimate companies that sell through Amazon (as well as their own sites), such as J & R.

> Dave, wouldn't you consider amazon.com a "legit reseller

hi jane, yes. amazon's great. it's the amazon resellers that i wouldn't buy from (ok, i sometimes buy used books from them for ~99 cents! :) )

as long as you're buying DIRECT from amazon, not a 3rd party, you'll have no problems.

>I know of one person who purchased Photoshop from a private seller on Amazon.com

right. "private seller" is the key phrase there.

I've had nothing but great service from amazon over the years and recommend them to anyone who'll listen. :)

>hen it registers without a hitch how on earth is she supposed to know it is a pirate copy.

that's a good point. i don't know. credit card company, better business buereu? amazon? (even if they couldn't refund, they should at least go after the seller if he's still active).

sometimes you just get screwed, i guess. you can lessen the chances of that i suppose, but my working assumption is if you think the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. for instance, if your friend saves $100 dollars over the "regular" "buy from amazon" price by going with a reseller, then i don't know what to tell you except why would she think she could get a legit copy for $100 less than anyone else? does she think she's special and that she deserves a $100 discount? ;)

in other words, and to be blunt (sorry) she felt like she was "getting over" by getting the app for less than regular price. everyone says, a good deal is a good deal, right? sometimes that pays off, and sometimes the seller "gets over" on the buyer and is long gone before they're even aware of it.

caveat emptor.

Dave, wouldn't you consider amazon.com a "legit reseller?" I know of one person who purchased Photoshop from a private seller on Amazon.com She installed and registered the program through Adobe, everything went fine. 9 months later, she decided to sell it and contacted Adobe to find out how to transfer ownership. Adobe told her the program was a pirate copy and neither Adobe or Amazon would do a single thing about it since it was 9 months ago. This woman bought the program in good faith, paid good money for it, used it for 9 months and then she finds out it is a pirate copy. When it registers without a hitch how on earth is she supposed to know it is a pirate copy.<br />Jane Anderson<br /><br /><<<<<dave milbut - 9:27am Feb 21, 08 PST (#16 of 20) <br /><br />and would love to upgrade my photoshop but don't want to be out of money buying some bootleg or beta stuff. <br />so buy it. <br /><br />from a legit reseller, not from some fell of the back of a truck operation. <br /><br />is that how you do all your business? then why would you consider doing it like that in this case, especially assuming that if you run a photog business, photoshop would seem to be a pretty critical componant of your operations? >>>>>

Definitely not. Go to a reputable dealer and know that what you are getting is genuine. I am lucky that I'm a teacher and so bought the production suite as an educator about 1/3 the regular price. Also adobe have deals for peole in full time education/stuidents. Check it out as adobe will ship you the genuine product fopr next to nothing. Even cheaper as a student than the pirated ebay stuff.

This just posted on Ars Technica today:

http://tinyurl.com/27rgvk

The ebay auction/sale link Jeff posted has been removed. Someone clued ebay in as to what was going on, presumably.

It's not a photo of his screen at all... it's an image hosted on www.dphotojournal.com.

Considering the quantity he has for sale (and has sold), I'd be pretty wary of these. They're selling at less than £200.

>and would love to upgrade my photoshop but don't want to be out of money buying some bootleg or beta stuff.

so buy it.

from a legit reseller, not from some fell of the back of a truck operation.

is that how you do all your business? then why would you consider doing it like that in this case, especially assuming that if you run a photog business, photoshop would seem to be a pretty critical componant of your operations?

>Will the beta version still work at all?

no. not without modifications to your system.

Will the beta version still work at all? Seems Adobe would disable it with their online registration. I run a photography business and would love to upgrade my photoshop but don't want to be out of money buying some bootleg or beta stuff.