Grey Market Genuine Software Serials/Keys for Microsoft/Adobe/Steam Games - thoughts?

[airborne]

I was reading a thread on Mybb and someone mentioned a Microsoft 10 Pro key he bought at Kinguin for R400, I thought ja talking crap!

No not talking crap:
https://www.kinguin.net/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key/

Also used to have software but now mainly games https://www.g2a.com/

On Reddit, also has Adobe products as well.:
https://www.reddit.com/r/microsofts...ndows_10_7_8_81_servers_office_visio_project/


I have seen these "Key Only" Microsoft software sellers in the Classifieds on Mybb, Carbonite even Bidorbuy, always wondered how they could sell them so cheaply and where they got the keys from and now perhaps I have my answer.

I'm more interested in the software side of things not games(many of these grey market platforms sell Steam games etc), where could these grey market keys possibly be procured from on such a large scale?

For all intents and purposes the majority of these sellers are selling legit bona fide manufacturer issued(at some point) install keys, ie they activate, I could understand people selling a few spare license keys but on this commercial scale there must be a commercial source.

Windows offical store sells WIndows 10 Pro for R2800:
https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-10-Pro/productID.319935900

Amazon, which is typically the cheapest known retailer on the planet sells it for R1800:
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-FQC-08930-Windows-Professional-64-bit/dp/B00ZSHDJ4O

R400 vs R1800/R2800 does not compute, what's the back story?

 

[airborne]

I see the Amazon Windows 10 I linked to above is OEM, the retail key is R2800 same as the Microsoft store:
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-10-Pro-Download/dp/B01019BOEA

 

[Praemon]

Normally they take advantage of regional pricing, since some countries like Russia or Brazil often have pricing far below the world wide RRP. Other ways is when they take them out of special bundles or promo deals, where the copies are either free or significantly reduced due to the promo/bundle. And then lastly, there's always the chance they're being bought using fraudulent credit cards, which will only be picked up a couple of months down the line.

Personally I don't see any issues with genuine grey imports, however, the other mentioned ways (promo bundles/fraudulent credit cards) are obviously far more harmful.

 

[DA-LION-619]

I get Windows 10 keys, Xbox Live vouchers, Windows store vouchers, Steam vouchers. I just sell them off.

 

[airborne]

Microsoft language locks their versions for the countries where the rrp is very low, these licenses aren't language locked.

By and large they aren't bought using stolen credit card details, a small percentage have been in past it appears from looking in Google but by and large that isn't the source of the keys, it's somewhere else.

Anyone have any ideas where?

They also don't appear to be oem keys because there would be warnings and people discussing it and often these keys need to be phoned in to get activated and that's normally where people get caught by Microsoft using oem keys incorrectly.

I would have thought this issue would get a lot more interest, only 2 replies?

 

[mister]

I get Windows 10 keys

from?

 

[DA-LION-619]

from?

Being in a Windows dev reward program.