Windows licenses from Ebay

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Dev_Mgr

Active Member
Sep 20, 2014
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Texas
Since my company took away MSDN/technet/Visual Studio subscriptions, I've been looking at a few options to get some licenses for my home lab for the newer Microsoft OSes (10 and 2016). I found some options from Europe for Windows 10 Pro for less than US$ 10. I then opted to look for Windows 2016 licenses (Essentials, Standard and/or Datacenter) and found several very cheap options for that too (Datacenter for less than US$ 25).

Even though several of these offerings have a large number of (positive) feedback and sales, I'm still skeptical with these prices.

Has anyone ever bought any Microsoft licenses from any of these type of resellers?
 

pyro_

Active Member
Oct 4, 2013
747
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I have bought a couple from there and reddit and all have worked correctly so far without issues
 

Klee

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2016
1,289
396
83
You can still upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free, I still have a bunch of Windows 7 licenses from my expired Technet subscription.

2016 Datacenter for less than $25.00, its worth taking the chance!!

Plus its Ebay so you can get your money back if its a scam.
 

alucasa

New Member
May 23, 2017
21
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As long as the seller is trustworthy (Hint: Feedback), it's worth the risk.
 

Klee

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2016
1,289
396
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Does MSDN still offer OS keys ?
I had the MSDN OS sub for awhile long ago.

Looks like Visual Studio Professional sub at $539 a year gets you all the OS's
https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/pricing/

It's also listed at $45.00 per month, so...... can you pay one months subscription then download everything then cancel. LOL

On a serious note back in early 2010 I wanted to purchase Windows 7 ultimate , $395.00 ?, and the same day Microsoft sent me an "invite" for a Technet subscription for a year for about $15.00 more so I purchased the year subscription and still have keys I have not used yet.

For what you have access to the $539.00 is really a great deal.
 
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William

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2015
789
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I have a ton of keys also from TechNet and MSDN, but they don't have any of the new OS's.

Good point on the sub ! :)
 

pyro_

Active Member
Oct 4, 2013
747
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It's also listed at $45.00 per month, so...... can you pay one months subscription then download everything then cancel. LOL

On a serious note back in early 2010 I wanted to purchase Windows 7 ultimate , $395.00 ?, and the same day Microsoft sent me an "invite" for a Technet subscription for a year for about $15.00 more so I purchased the year subscription and still have keys I have not used yet.

For what you have access to the $539.00 is really a great deal.
Looks like the monthly sub does not include any of the additional software/OS licenses in it
 

BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
2,669
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artofserver.com
I had a small business client that was on a really tight budget and they had been buying used PCs with every version of Windows except Pro/Enterprise which made it hard to implement a domain controller. We stumbled upon the Ebay sellers and gave that a try to upgrade every PC to Win10Pro. So far, it has been working just fine.

They also bought a bunch of Office licenses that way, but we found out that basically they are MSDN keys (at least the Office keys) when one of their guys called Microsoft to ask where to download Office 2013, which appears to be hard to find.

This was the seller we used, lots of good reviews, but not a perfect record either:

Mega.Computer | eBay Stores

Somehow, many of these sellers are based in the UK? I don't know what that's about...
 

marcoi

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2013
1,532
288
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Gotha Florida
maybe they are sellign MSDN keys. I know selling of technet keys is what killed that off. I love having technet for home usage. nice to grab whatever os and play with it at home. oh well all good things seem to end.
 

pyro_

Active Member
Oct 4, 2013
747
165
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Nice also looks like they have the standard version for less than half that which is nice for the physical ad server I am setting up since it will not have all the additional vms
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
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Maybe it has to do with license/(c) law? I heard that some places people actually sell gov and education licenses that were cheap/free for 3rd-world countries provided by MS to get them hooked, not sure how true that is but maybe?
 

Michael Hall

Member
Oct 9, 2015
40
10
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I think they're OEM pulls, where a company buys a bunch of machines with, say, Windows 10 Home pre-installed. They have a volume license, though, so they don't need the keys, and they end up getting resold.

It's technically against the EULA, at least in North America. I think the rules are different in Europe, though.

I bought a Windows 10 Home key for my Dad from a UK seller, can't remember the name off the top of my head. The key was delivered by email within about 15 minutes, and that was in the middle of the night UK time, so it's obviously automated. I used an all-in-one Windows 10 Anniversary Edition ISO I "acquired" from "somewhere", picked Home Edition, and it took the key and activated no problem. No complaints from Dad about anything not working since, either.