Buying Photoshop CS3 Software on Ebay

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Could this be legit, or are they selling pirated Chinese knock-offs?

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I'm sure they are legit seeing as how CS3 came out like 15 years ago. It makes sense there would be a plethora of legit used copies available because it is ancient and no one uses it anymore. If you only casually "photoshop" and don't want to spend the money for a legit copy of recent Photoshop I would check out GIMP. The way I see it is if the last time you used CS3 was ~15 years ago (assuming it was current when you used it) you going to have a learning curve getting back into it, may as well spend it learning GIMP or new Photoshop.

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I've seen several CS3 offers on Ebay, but it looks like I might have to spend $300 to $400.

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$300 - $400 for Photoshop CS3? Yeah, I'd avoid that.

Cavaet, I saw this one listed for $50 and the seller said this:

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Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended is the more advanced edition of Adobe Photoshop CS3, featuring 3D imaging support and frame-by-frame movie editing. Has serial number for installing. I install it and use it on my old computer with Windows 7. It installed but even with the serial number it required a more updated version of PS than the very old out of date and no longer serviced PS program I had and went to the trial version of 30 days. Everything about it worked fine for the 30 days but when the time was up I had to reinstall it to use it the next 30 days. I am not a computer smart person so it was probably something I was doing wrong. I wont any one purchasing this software to be aware of my experience with it.

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Sounds like they could have possibly shutdown the validation service or license keys previously used, X times, may no longer be valid (and X could be one). So, there's the risk.

ETA: Back when CS5 was a thing I was able to get it using a key-gen fairly easily. In fact, it's still installed and running on my 2010 MBP I believe. I'd imagine that door is still opened if you can find a copy of CS5 and a key-gen via Google. Careful what you click though.

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Sounds like they could have possibly shutdown the validation service or license keys previously used, X times, may no longer be valid (and X could be one). So, there's the risk.

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Yes, Adobe has shut down the CS3 activation servers.
At one time they were providing activation-free copies with a special new serial but they don't do this anymore.

Basically if you want to run CS3 you are going to have to crack it with pirating tools, even if you purchase a real legit used copy.