buying software online

Martha

Martha

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In my "life after FIRE" I want to keep track of expenses via quicken premier and want to work on a photo rehabilitation project via photoshop elements. I can find these as cheap as about 30 bucks each from noname internet sellers like softwareoutlet.com, with a middle price of about 50-60 dollars each from "well rated" internet sellers, like Vio Software to about 80 dollars from mainstream sellers like Amazon, Best Buy or Walmart.

Is it a bad idea to go too cheap? I worry a bit about giving my credit card number to a noname company. Thoughts?
 
Frankly I would buy from Costco or Office Depot. By the time you pay for shipping the savings are minuscule.
 
Martha said:
In my "life after FIRE" I want to keep track of expenses via quicken premier and want to work on a photo rehabilitation project via photoshop elements. I can find these as cheap as about 30 bucks each from noname internet sellers like softwareoutlet.com, with a middle price of about 50-60 dollars each from "well rated" internet sellers, like Vio Software to about 80 dollars from mainstream sellers like Amazon, Best Buy or Walmart.

Is it a bad idea to go too cheap? I worry a bit about giving my credit card number to a noname company. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem giving my credit card number to anyone. - As I am not liable, the card company is. - I have called my credit card company and reversed charges on a few 'deadbeat' companies.

Don't go too cheap on a Photoshop program. My advice is to get some recommendations (from folks on this forum maybe) before you buy. YOu are going to have to put forth some effort into learning how to run the program, so you might as well get a product that you know you are going to stay with. That way your time and education won't be for nothing.
 
The cheaper versions are usually OEM versions (no box, and intended to be bundled with hardware). Ebay is a good source, but in some cases the sellers are violating the license agreement by selling the unbundled version.
 
Cut-Throat said:
I don't have a problem giving my credit card number to anyone. - As I am not liable, the card company is. - I have called my credit card company and reversed charges on a few 'deadbeat' companies.

Don't go too cheap on a Photoshop program. My advice is to get some recommendations (from folks on this forum maybe) before you buy. YOu are going to have to put forth some effort into learning how to run the program, so you might as well get a product that you know you are going to stay with. That way your time and education won't be for nothing.
Click to expand...
Martha:

I know people who bought Czech versions of the full Photoshop CS on eBay for $50 and it works fine -- probably illegal but....
Elements comes (or at least used to come) free with some color printers so I am sure you can get a legitimate version pretty cheap.
You can always download a copy of GIMP for free and try the open source version of Photoshop. The interface isn't as nice but the application is full featured. I think I mentioned in an earlier thread that the book Grokking the GIMP is a great introduction to digital image processing and is free on the web. It is well worth looking at even if you use Photoshop. Great intro to layers, selections, masks, etc.
 
You may find that your credit card company offers an online or downloadable option that enables you to produce a one-time unique credit card number to give to dubious internet companies.

Log into your discovercard acct and theres an option to produce one online...I think they also have a tray icon that you can click on to produce and fill in a unique one-time-use #. Mastercard/visa have a tray icon thing as well, but I think they can do it on their web site as well.

I use this all the time. Shows up on your statement with the funny number. Should "other parties" suddenly get that number, it wont work and you'll know exactly where it came from...
 
Ditto El Guapo.

I much prefer software that I can download, try, and then register if I like. You can check the manufacturer's site to see if they have a trial version (most do these days).

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy a box, however. I got Quicken for DD (Christmas present) for $17. I bought an older version from Amazon Marketplace:

Amazon Marketplace Receipt

Date: 30-November-2006


1 of STAPLES QUICKEN 2006 BASIC WIN $12.00

Shipping & Handling: $4.49
Your Total: $16.49
 
Once you get the software check out HP's online learning program. DW is taking (for second time) an on line Photo Shop Elements course from them. Cost NADA. She likes the content and feed back from th instructors. Oh yea they also have a forum for photo shop issues.
 
i never worried about giving credit card online until i was dealing with a possible offshore purchase which i've decided to do without. i'll just wait until currents bring the item closer.

on photoshop, i have photoshop elements 5.0 along with premiere elements 3.0 and very satisfied so far. i have tons of mom's photo's dating back to my greatgrandparents' day and video dating back to my grandparents' (previously converted from 8mm). the two adobe products work together so i can splice still pictures into the video and i should be able to do some animation onto the stills once i work with that.

previously i had pinnacle and while i loved some features, especially transitions, it tended to be unstable. when i replaced my crashed puter and got the newest pinnacle version i couldn't even get it to load on the machine. thus adobe.

one thing pinnacle did that was way cool was slowing down pans (8mm pans tended to be way too fast) by duplicating individual cells & splicing them into the video. now we get to actually see who was being filmed at those parties back in the 1940s & 50s. i assume adobe will do the same but haven't gotten that far with it yet.
 
Re: buying software on line

A fairly good source for software of all types, including photos, is www.majorgeeks.com. You can download the software, try it, and in some cases it is free, and in others you can try it for a limited time after which you pay for it or remove it.

A very good FREE program for managing photos is the Irfanviewer which can be found at www.irfanview.com.

I purchase almost all software over the Internet and have never had a credit card problem. However, I almost always purchase from the author of the program and have never tried any of the "cut rate" sellers. Just makes sense to me to purchase from the author (or company) as if you have issues later you can usually get good redress from them.

Good luck.
 
USK Coastie said:
Once you get the software check out HP's online learning program. DW is taking (for second time) an on line Photo Shop Elements course from them. Cost NADA. She likes the content and feed back from th instructors. Oh yea they also have a forum for photo shop issues.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip!
 
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