Hi Joel,
The price can be low for several reasons. For instance, someone won VS.NET
as a contest prize. He may not want to use it, because he already has it, or
just has no interest in programming. The product is new, sealed, and its
perfectly legal to sell it. To sell it fast on the Internet he needs to make
a big cut in the retail price. Other reasons include very small profit
margins from distributors. An online seller doesnt has the same business
costs as a traditional retail shop, so can live with a much smaller profit.
However, that doesnt mean buying software on online auctions is always safe.
Actually, software is one of the most risky products to auction online.
The major risk is to be ripped off with something different that was
anounced. Maybe it just says VS.NET, hiding it's an Academic version, or
making people think it's the Enterprise version, when it's the Professional.
Even if it's all clear, there still some fraud risk with getting a copy. A
copy doesn't has to be a bunch of cheap hand-burned Cd's; some imitations
are so perfect no one can tell. An working copy wont bother some people, but
it's illegal. If the price is just too low (10% of expected, or something
like that), its almost sure its a copy.
Yep, there are some risks, but the cheap prices may worth it several times.
To buy or not to buy online depends on how much money you have and how can
you handle the risk.
As usual, standard online auctions precautions should be followed. Dont buy
from new or unverified users. Read the seller's feedback, see what else is
he selling. Use your common sense. Dont buy online expensive items if you
never auctioned online before... start getting some experience first.
Regards,
Mario
