What's new
By:
Filters

Cheap Microsoft Office Licenses on eBay?

Lee

Lee

Guild of Calamitous Intent
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
1061
Messages
1,173
Loc
The Natural State
I've bought 2x lifetime, MS Office Home & Student 2019 licenses off eBay in the past couple months, from 2x different sellers. Saved $80-100 vs. buying direct from Microsoft. Both sellers had good ratings, though low number of reviews, I believe the first one was just around 100, and the second only had 14. Each had several reviews claiming other folks had bought good working product keys from them.

There were about 3-4 weeks between purchases, when I wanted to buy the second key, I went to my purchase history, the listing was no longer available, and the seller no longer has anything for sell, so I went in search for another, and actually found a better deal.

Both sellers offered a USB thumb drive with the Office install files shipped to you, but also email you the key. I waited for the thumb drive on the first one, worked great, registered with MS, installed without a hitch, and auto updated with Windows update.

For the second seller, I just downloaded and installed direct from Microsoft, using the key they emailed me, I'll probably have a thumb drive show up in the mail sometime later this week.

So what gives? The keys are really cheap, but they appear to be valid. Is eBay or Microsoft shutting down these sellers, and why? I actually got an email from eBay about the second purchase letting me know the item is no longer available, and to contact them if I haven't received my purchase, no details on why, I guess eBay shut the seller down. I already got Office installed, so I don't guess I care.

Are they selling stolen keys, or what's the deal?
 
Torrent that shit like every red blooded American!! :flipoff2:

I'd trust Everdouche to run the world before I would trust anything like that I am plugging into my computer from EBAY
 
Last edited:
Lee said:
I've bought 2x lifetime, MS Office Home & Student 2019 licenses off eBay in the past couple months, from 2x different sellers. Saved $80-100 vs. buying direct from Microsoft. Both sellers had good ratings, though low number of reviews, I believe the first one was just around 100, and the second only had 14. Each had several reviews claiming other folks had bought good working product keys from them.

There were about 3-4 weeks between purchases, when I wanted to buy the second key, I went to my purchase history, the listing was no longer available, and the seller no longer has anything for sell, so I went in search for another, and actually found a better deal.

Both sellers offered a USB thumb drive with the Office install files shipped to you, but also email you the key. I waited for the thumb drive on the first one, worked great, registered with MS, installed without a hitch, and auto updated with Windows update.

For the second seller, I just downloaded and installed direct from Microsoft, using the key they emailed me, I'll probably have a thumb drive show up in the mail sometime later this week.

So what gives? The keys are really cheap, but they appear to be valid. Is eBay or Microsoft shutting down these sellers, and why? I actually got an email from eBay about the second purchase letting me know the item is no longer available, and to contact them if I haven't received my purchase, no details on why, I guess eBay shut the seller down. I already got Office installed, so I don't guess I care.

Are they selling stolen keys, or what's the deal?
Click to expand...

Why would Microsoft NOT request shutting down of sellers pirating software?

And yes, that's essentially what it is.
 
"Essentially," care to expand?

Where do the licenses come from? They obviously work. No doubt I had reservations, but the reviews helped me make my decision to purchase.

I've done my shared of acquiring software with questionable origins over the years, but I downloaded direct from Microsoft, and used a working software key to activate the software.
 
It works until it doesn't. The key may be grey market or other unintended (not for end user consumer use origin). Since all the MS software is essentially SaaS and has sophisticated phone home capability, they can retroactively expire/nullify/block keys down the road that were later determined to not be legit.
 
Lee said:
"Essentially," care to expand?

Where do the licenses come from? They obviously work. No doubt I had reservations, but the reviews helped me make my decision to purchase.

I've done my shared of acquiring software with questionable origins over the years, but I downloaded direct from Microsoft, and used a working software key to activate the software.
Click to expand...

gray market/black market product key. been around for a long time. It's also gotten people bitten in the ass (former MSFT employee here) by employers and MSFT.

If something seems to good to be true - i.e. someone selling something as cheap as those scammers do, it's too good to be true. Especially that "lifetime" crap.
 
Could always find key gen programs on the web for lots of popular software. The key gen program analyzed a bunch of existing keys and wrote a new key using that algorithm.
 
Look up the "cracked" version on pirate Bay or wherever. They alter a few lines of code and the program thinks it is reporting back to M$ but it isnt.
 
I haven't had to pay for office or windows since 2014 when I taught 1 quarter at a local college. I just check my email every couple months to keep the account open. :flipoff2:
 
Well, I guess it'll give me something to look forward to when the keys get black listed.

I did some cursory digging, chances are the license keys I bought are likely either OEM keys or MS Developer Network keys, and someone with access abusing MS' TOS to sell them.
 
Lee said:
Well, I guess it'll give me something to look forward to when the keys get black listed.

I did some cursory digging, chances are the license keys I bought are likely either OEM keys or MS Developer Network keys, and someone with access abusing MS' TOS to sell them.
Click to expand...

or you could just.... buy legal keys. :shaking:
 
They're not illegal, at least not that I know. Microsoft might not like them, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over that.
 
scooter2374 said:
Look up the "cracked" version on pirate Bay or wherever. They alter a few lines of code and the program thinks it is reporting back to M$ but it isnt.
Click to expand...

Do you ever update it? Do a repair? Those lines of hacked code will be overwritten. Sure a game of whack a mole. Then you have a hacked up, unstable, POS software that is probably tagged up with other malware and malicious code. If you think the kind hackers only removed the MS shit without inserting other goodies, lol....
 
Yeah, I wouldn't be running cracked software or anything from eBay USB. My understanding of the cheap eBay keys has been that they are volume license keys from a .edu or .gov (or mega corp) that get resold on the black market. They are legit keys but obtained through shady means, someone has already paid for them but it wasn't you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh