Buying Lightwave??

[pixel8]

Hi all

I'm looking at finally being able to buy Lightwave! I'm wondering about second hand copies and the legality of that....so

1) Is it legal to buy second hand copies of lightwave? Is the licence transferrable? Is the copy fully upgradeable?

2) Can all versions be upgraded to the latest? For example version 5.6??

3) What's the general opinion of Ebay? I've never bought anything there....

Thanks

Paul

[Darttman]

Yes you can transfer copies of lightwave. You should have the seller contact Newtek and advise them of the transfer into your name if you buy. You can then upgrade from there.Generally speaking the older the copy the more it costs to upgrade(check site.)
I have a DEC alpha 5.0 copy I should upgrade into an Intell version now that I think of it.

You must have a dongle in order for it to be legit, otherwise you are getting taken.

The peolple at Newtek can answer all of your questions you have about transferring.

Good luck!

[LSlugger]

Most of these questions are answered in the Customer Service FAQs (http://vbulletin.newtek.com/forumdisplay.php?&forumid=129).

Safe Harbor (http://sharbor.com/) has a deal that's almost too good to be true: if you own Photoshop, you can get LW 7.5 (w/ a free upgrade to 8) for $500.

[mattclary]

Also, look here.

http://vbulletin.newtek.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=54

[hrgiger]

I bought my copy of Lightwave 6.5 from Ebay. However that was my second attempt. The first time, I almost got burned from a scammer. Fortunately, I got suspicious and contacted Paypal in time and got his account frozen and eventually got my money back. Just be careful about Ebay, there's a lot of rip off artists there. If possible, try to use Escrow. That's where you send the money to a middle man, once thye have it, the seller sells you the goods and once you approve it, the middle man will send the seller the money. It's annoying but it's failsafe.
I was lucky enough to buy my copy of Lightwave off of David Warner who some of you may know from the Lightrom CD's and the editor on the letters page in Keyframe magazine.

[mattclary]

Yeah, Ebay makes me nervous. I'm kinda paranoid (that doesn't mean people aren't actually out to get me :) ), so I'd rather pay a little extra and feel confident. If you just watch the forums for a while, or post an "I want to buy" message, you can usually get a pretty good deal.

[colkai]

What Matt said ;)
I got my copy of Lightwave second-hand from a guy in the USA, (I'm in the UK). Very worrying waiting for the item once I'd sent him the IMO, but he had a good reputation on the groups and was selling a second-seat, so I was reasonably un-panicked. :D

Worth it as it got me onto the upgrade path, no way could I have bought the latest version at the time. Personally, I would be very wary of EBay, too many horror stories. Paranoia can be a good thing sometimes :p

[Gabe]

I really like eBay but I don't think I'd trust it for anything costing me more than a few hundred dollars. I've purchased video cards, comic books, gameboy games, a scsi card, zip disks and various other things on eBay and never had a problem.... but those were all fairly cheap purchases.

If you do decide to use eBay just be sure you check out the users feedback rating. If it's a new user or one with alot of negative feedback, I'd move on.

[pixel8]

Well I saw the awesome deal with V8 and DF+ and it got me thinking.....I'm a student so was originally just going to get the student version.....a good deal in itself!!.....

But then I saw some copies of V5.6 bundled with Aura 1.0 really cheap on Ebay and thought that was a much better way to go.....but when I mentioned this to the Australian reseller he advised against it as NewTek had warned that there were dodgy copies of V5.6 being flogged on Ebay!!

So I've asked the sellers for the serial number which I'll check with NewTek for authenticity prior to any purchase.....

If that doesn't work I might be asking here for copies for sale......

Regards

Paul