MS does not, and has never, offered COA's for sale by themselves. If your
colleague bought a system off of eBay without a copy of the media and no
COA, there isn't much he can do beyond complaining to eBay or the seller.
If, in fact, the COA used to activate was "hooky", he can also report it to
MS.
But, of course, none of that will get him a legitimate copy of Windows with
a COA. The only way to do that is to purchase one. You can purchase lower
priced OEM copies of Windows from numerous sources (this is legitimate...OEM
copies simply don't come with any support from MS.) Try
www.zipzoomfly.com
or
www.newegg.com.
I have found sources online which profess to sell just the COA's, but while
I do not profess to be an expert in the area, everything I've found from MS
appears to make this practice illegal or illegitimate at best. Purchasing a
COA only places you at risk of purchasing a forged one. Even if you get a
legitimate one, you still have to deal with the fact that you do not have
the installation media.
