Buying Windows 10 on eBay? Legit?

Hi.
I want to upgrade from windows 7 to windows 10 home since it reaches end of support on January 14, 2020.
Buying from the Microsoft website is AU$225.00
I found a bunch of sellers on ebay selling it for a fraction of the cost.
eg. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Microsoft-Windows-10-Pro-Profess…
Are these Legit? are they stolen? will they be blacklisted by Microsoft?
thx

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Comments

  • +8

    if your win7 is legit with COA keys, then you can download/install win10 and try activate it using your win7 COA keys

  • +4

    I want to upgrade from windows 7 to windows 10 home since it reaches end of support on January 14, 2020.

    You can do that for free and legit.

  • Apparently looking online if you install Win 10 but use a Win 7 key (that I assume you already have on your computer) it might still work? Have no idea if this is true though, I'd definitely double check.

    If you have a university email, I was able to get Win 10 education edition with it for free, I think it has the same features as Pro, which is great and another free and legal option if your university or school has it.

    Didn't check the link, usually as far as I know Microsoft typically only black lists massive issues not single ones, the price could be cheaper because its stolen, it could also be cheaper because its bought at bulk for enterprise use and then sold at a higher price (though might be against the terms of sale which is likely no resale) or licences bought off companies that have gone the way of the dodo.

    I also wonder what happens if you wait, there could be a chance Microsoft makes it free again just to get everyone off 7 (and off 8/8.1).

    Not sure if your work place has some Microsoft agreement as well (likely they do for office but unsure of OS) might help you get it cheaper also.

    • +1

      Apparently looking online if you install Win 10 but use a Win 7 key (that I assume you already have on your computer) it might still work? Have no idea if this is true though, I'd definitely double check.

      That worked on a family members computer.

    • Thank you - finally upgrading mine.

  • +1

    Sometimes using the Win7 key seems to work, however to answer your question - I've used one of the $15 keys off eBay before for a family member's PC, and they've been able to use it without any issues for a bit over 12 months.

    • Yup. Cheap eBay keys can be valid and legit - there are usually a few ways to get them:

      1. The less-legit way: Microsoft developer licences where they give them out in batches, these can be blacklisted/cancelled if MS discovers they're being sold or used for personal or commercial use.

      2. The actually-legit way: Licences recovered from disposed PCs - generally this is in the EU which has strong first-sale and re-sale laws, so that people will buy used/broken PCs from people which came with Windows pre-installed. This licence, because of EU laws, cannot be restricted from being transferred or sold, and so the buyers of these PCs will then sell these licences on eBay.

  • When Windows 10 was first rolled out they offered free upgrades for windows 7 and 8 owners for 1 year. Not everyone upgraded, approx 31% of computers still run Windows 7 but a lot probably took the free windows 10 software keys, this could be the source of all these cheap legit windows 10 keys

    • From memory these used existing Win7 and Win8 keys, so there shouldn't have been additional keys generated for these?

      • They generated new keys on upgrade

  • +2

    so there shouldn't have been additional keys generated for these

    That's correct,

    The majority of cheap keys for sale on ebay are MSDN keys.

    While they are genuine they are volume licence keys. There is a chance that one day Microsoft will decide to Blacklist them and they'll stop working.

  • Actually, without activating win 10, what are the disadvantages?

    • nothing really… No customization eg: Wallpapers + Themes. Used to also be a watermark saying "activate now etc, but that seems to have been taken out in the last update.

      • -2

        Oh just cosmetics… Well I can live with that. With the constant updates every 3 days they should pay people to use it

      • The watermark sometimes seems to take a while to appear after booting but it's still around.

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