Digital Art Zone

So I’m pretty comfortable purchasing software on eBay. Typically if someone has a lot of sales with good ratings everything’s fine, but is there anything I should keep an eye out for when buying Poser Pro on eBay?

I’m probably content purchasing 2010. It’s going for about 60-80 bucks.

Thanks!

IMHO, you’d be better off buying from amazon.com. At the moment it is only $79.99. At least you would know for certain you are buying a legitimate copy.

Make sure it will be on original media (CD/DVD copies almost certainly indicates Warez), that it has upgrade rights (no upgrade rights almost always indicates warez), and that the Smith Micro EULA allows license transfer (if not any answer you get to the first two issues is likely to be unreliable). High sales and ratings may indicate a legitimate business (though how many surplus copies of Poser are floating around to be resold?), but it may just indicate a crook with a CD duplicator and customers who don’t care (if the seller refunds those who do object to being given warez I don’t think eBay allows them to give negative feedback).

I have just purchased a copy of Poser 8 through Ebay.  The seller did state that it was a factory sealed copy, and indeed it wads, with the DVD case still shrink wrapped, and the DVD case itself still sealed inside the shrink wrap.

You can always contact the seller, prior to purchase, and ask for confirmation that this is true of the copy you are thinking of buying.  You will then have proof as well, should it not be the genuine article, if you tell Ebay to save a copy of the sent message to your message folder.

Richard Haseltine - 30 September 2012 04:49 AM

Make sure it will be on original media (CD/DVD copies almost certainly indicates Warez), that it has upgrade rights (no upgrade rights almost always indicates warez), and that the Smith Micro EULA allows license transfer (if not any answer you get to the first two issues is likely to be unreliable). High sales and ratings may indicate a legitimate business (though how many surplus copies of Poser are floating around to be resold?), but it may just indicate a crook with a CD duplicator and customers who don’t care

The difference between a silver, and a burned disc, is spectacular, so most recipients would know at a glance..

Granted, there’s that innocent new guy, who just bought a computer, never burned a cd, and hasn’t figured out where to download almost anything. But I’m not sure those guys still exist.

But how many crooked guys (or gals), who don’t care about legitimacy, will pay good money for a pirate copy that they could download for free, or in many cases, find a crack for the demo?

And any seller would be taking an awful risk, of Mr. Eagle Scout wandering into the store.

The only paying market for burns, is fans who want material which has always been commercially unavailable, and which generally came from a crap source. (Or jokers on the street, who can’t afford internet, and want to see the latest movie, for about the price of a ticket, lol. Perhaps because they don’t like snack bar prices, and want to toke out freely).

(if the seller refunds those who do object to being given warez I don’t think eBay allows them to give negative feedback).

Interesting point. The buyer would have to talk to the seller, before filing conflict resolution, so eBay might never hear about it.

Then again. I know a former eBay seller (admittedly biased) who complained that most his old rights were taken away, and they could neg pretty freely.

In fact, come to think of it, I’ve seen several negs, over many years, answered by “I provided the buyer with a full refund… and…”.

I know if I had to go through the trouble, and delay, I’d be firing off an email to Smith Micro, for revenge’s sake, if not indignation…

(I suspect refunds seldom cover shipping, either - so that would be another motivation to drop the dime). (OTOH, I’m not sure what would happen if Smith Micro were to send a legal letter to eBay, I suspect they’d be bound to investigate, but I don’t know how far they are allowed to go with an investigation, or what they would say it the seller locked up the fake, and showed them a legit copy. The law might be brought in, but criminal cases are quite rare, it’s usually up to a civil court judge - who admittedly has god-like power. Law is a morass, and IANAL).

Also, like you said, you shouldn’t buy, unless the seller explicitly stated that it was a full-rights legit silver disc. If he lies about that, I’m positive you can neg. (I don’t think any pirate can afford to have silvers pressed).

To throw more uncertainty onto the fire. I’ve seen Amazon reviews of a counterfitter. But none of them mention what happened to him (he doesn’t seem to sell there anymore). Being Amazon, they lumped all the reviews, of the item, into all the stores, you had to be careful to look for a seller name in each review.

Amazon could easily have more recourse, and therefore responsibility, for all I know.

Gonfalon - 30 September 2012 12:42 AM

IMHO, you’d be better off buying from amazon.com. At the moment it is only $79.99. At least you would know for certain you are buying a legitimate copy.

Good idea. And yeah—80 bucks garaunteed by Amazon is better than 80 bucks on eBay.

Kind of OT, but it’s funny how you can find so many old versions for sale of most softwares, but once DAZ upgrades versions, even with something as minimal as, say, M3, good luck ever finding that product again.

I was over the moon to find Carrara Pro 7 for dirt cheap because of a magazine offer in the UK. Once 8 came out, 7 pretty much disappeared from the first hand market.

BC Rice - 29 September 2012 10:28 PM

So I’m pretty comfortable purchasing software on eBay. Typically if someone has a lot of sales with good ratings everything’s fine, but is there anything I should keep an eye out for when buying Poser Pro on eBay?

I’m probably content purchasing 2010. It’s going for about 60-80 bucks. Thanks!

I bought my poser pro 2012 for $129 this spring from a special software offer ContentParadise.com was offering .  it was a download version only off smith micros site. and it comes with full serial code & updates and upgrade, and I’ve been getting my update notices regularly so I’m pretty happy.

I think poser pro2012 is like $499 retail so when i saw the offer i jumped on it.

I bought my copy of PP2010 for $80 (Disc in Box- PC/Mac) from Amazon… I’m quite happy with it.

I hope eventually PP2012 will show up in that price range.

Richard Haseltine - 30 September 2012 04:49 AM

Make sure it will be on original media (CD/DVD copies almost certainly indicates Warez), that it has upgrade rights (no upgrade rights almost always indicates warez), and that the Smith Micro EULA allows license transfer (if not any answer you get to the first two issues is likely to be unreliable).

Bold part is important. There’s a lot of people who do not KNOW that when they upgrade, they can’t give away their older software, and will happily sell it to someone else, who will get what appears to be a “legit” copy. Except that it won’t be upgradeable, and of course shouldn’t even be registrable, and is of course, really, not “legit”.

Also, at eBay there’s a lot of people selling student copies without requesting student ID, and then you find a box with a code that you cannot do anything with. make sure it’s NOT a student copy or one marked “not for sale individually” or anything of the sort.

Amazon is by far a safer option.

Arien - 30 September 2012 01:32 PM

Bold part is important. There’s a lot of people who do not KNOW that when they upgrade, they can’t give away their older software, and will happily sell it to someone else, who will get what appears to be a “legit” copy. Except that it won’t be upgradeable, and of course shouldn’t even be registrable, and is of course, really, not “legit”.

Also, at eBay there’s a lot of people selling student copies without requesting student ID, and then you find a box with a code that you cannot do anything with. make sure it’s NOT a student copy or one marked “not for sale individually” or anything of the sort.

Amazon is by far a safer option.

All of Arien’s points are excellent points.  I would also add that Smith Micro can be downright anal about where you obtained your software from when asking for tech support and upgrades.  I purchased a copy of Poser Pro this way in 07 I think, and it was factory sealed, full retail version.  Despite this, in a tech support discussion the origin of the software came up which led to a dispute between myself and smith micro over wheather they felt they would honor the liscense or ask me to destroy it.  While I did prevail, during that discussion they made mention that they generally will not honor serial numbers on software versions they are aware of coming from E-Bay, Bartertown, Amazon, and they listed several other discount sites (I would list them all, but do not have access to that tech support ticket any longer).  As a result, I would urge extreme caution purchasing from E-Bay, even factory sealed, even then, I would snap a shot of the retail box with the shrinkwrap before ever opening it just to have proof.

I ran into a really good deal and sold a whole LOT of Poser Pro 2012 this past spring. I had the shipping manifests/invoices from Smith Micro that I was able to show to people. I was selling it fairly cheap, I wasn’t out to rake people when I’d gotten a good deal. A LOT of people were suspicious—-but showing them that was able to alleviate their suspicions. I only had one person claim that the serial number was no good and I tried to rip them off with warez, but they magically found the number mysteriously worked after I told them I would contact Smith Micro and clear it up. I also encouraged people to go and get the latest SR releases so they had the latest release. Normally someone selling bogus software isn’t going to encourage you to do that. Smith Micro checks serial numbers before allowing SR updates.