Ordering Trans-Atlantic software

February 4, 2004 3:57 AM

Are there any reliable on-line US or Canadian PC software vendors who have no qualms about fulfilling European orders? [more inside]

I am thinking of buying Adobe's Creative Suite (Standard) for Windows. This is advertised for sale at Adobe's web-site for $999. Being resident in Europe, however, I am directed to buy from the European web-store, where a near-identical product would, if I could arrange to have it delivered to a UK address, set me back £789 (or £927 including VAT), which, at current rates, is equivalent to $1450 ($1704). If I were to order from within Sweden, the cost would apparently be 13,300 SEK (or 16,625 SEK including MOMS), which is equivalent to $1817 ($2270). Naturally, I would prefer to pay ca. $999 (plus import duty) than ca. $2270… As a follow-up question, if I were to succeed in obtaining the software in this manner, would it invalidate any entitlement to support from Adobe?

posted by misteraitch to shopping (4 comments total)

Have you tried e-Bay? Although a lot of the vendors who ship to Sweden charge "European" prices, you can probably find some US vendors who would charge less and ship worldwide.

I have no idea about whether Adobe would support software purchased like this. On the one hand, I don't see why not. On the other hand, the existence of such a large price difference suggests that there is something illegitimate about reselling the software across international boundries. That is, if it were permissible to sell Adobe CS in Europe at US prices, why hasn't Amazon or somebody taken advantage of the arbitrage opportunity?
posted by blue mustard at 4:27 AM on February 4, 2004

This thread in the blue discussed the issue of international selling.
posted by biffa at 4:32 AM on February 4, 2004

Doesn't Amazon.com ship overseas?
posted by cmonkey at 11:23 AM on February 4, 2004

While Amazon ships books & CDs internationally, it will not do so with most software:

Amazon.com is currently able to ship books, CDs, DVDs, VHS videos, music cassettes, vinyl records, and select software to international addresses.

I guess by making a purchase in this way, either I or the vendor would be in some kind of breach of copyright, hence ruling out most above-the-board sources: perhaps e-bay will be my best bet...
posted by misteraitch at 12:30 AM on February 5, 2004