Software on eBay

[Jeyen Chevenga Barham-Kaiel <jeyen -at- bigfoot -dot- com>]

I buy and sell software on eBay all the time with no problems. For licensed 
software, I make sure that the license is transferable to the buyer.  In my 
experience, most retail versions of software can be sold or transferred, as 
long as the seller agrees not to keep the software.

Many software sellers are selling brand new copies that have never before 
been registered, so the license is fully usable by the buyer.

If you're concerned about actually receiving the merchandise, eBay offers 
online escrow. That way, the seller doesn't get the money until you confirm 
that you've received the product and that it's what you ordered. The seller 
has to agree to using the escrow service, of course, and there's a fee for 
using it. But if you're paying several hundred dollars, escrow is a great 
way to protect your money. See 
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?iescrowlogin&type=initial for 
more info. And you should contact the RoboHelp seller to see if they're 
willing to use escrow.

You should also check the item description to confirm that the software 
isn't an educational version or a Not For Resale version.

I looked at the auction in question. The seller does not say whether the 
product is registerable, or what exactly "Special Edition" means. Also, the 
seller only has a feedback rating of 2, so they haven't bought or sold much 
stuff on eBay. I'd look for some guarantees, like escrow, before buying 
this software.

Kay Robart wrote:
| However, I would imagine that offering a copy of RoboHelp 2000
| being sold on
| an
| auction site is an illegal sale, as I don't think software
| licenses usually
| allow resale.
| Any opinions on this? Are there actually software vendors legally using
| auction sites?