How to buy Office 2003 online ?

August 19, 2008 4:57 PM

Buying Office 2007 Small Business Edition online - new, sealed, licensed and legit. Where from ?

I want to buy a copy of Office 2003 SBE online and am looking for a supplier. Because this is the previous version of Office it's not commonly available from the big retailers.

Must be fully legitimate copy (which I think more or less precludes second hand copies). Extra points if they ship to New Zealand but OK if they are able to ship to either USA or UK.

Would welcome suggestions of businesses that might sell this.

Amazon has a number of people offering this but they are all 'newly registered' and I'd prefer a slightly more established outfit with a fully comprehensive description of what's being offered.

posted by southof40 to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Aaargh !

Buying Office 2007 Small Business Edition online - new, sealed, licensed and legit. Where from ?
should read
Buying Office 2003 Small Business Edition online - new, sealed, licensed and legit. Where from ?
posted by southof40 at 5:03 PM on August 19, 2008

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe 2003 SBE ever came in a boxed set, as it was an OEM only option meaning no box to be sealed. The best you will find is a sealed CD set. Why not just purchase off eBay? As long as you have the COA and CD you are golden. Office 2003 wasn't a product that Microsoft required registration and activation online, so there wont be an issue if the seller "forgets" to uninstall it, and you will be the rightful owner at that point regardless.

Any legitimate business selling this is probably selling in gray waters anyways.
posted by SirStan at 5:46 PM on August 19, 2008

NewEgg. Always NewEgg.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:11 PM on August 19, 2008

Wait, you want just the Office portion? No such animal. But there are plenty of other, similar animals (again, NewEgg).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:15 PM on August 19, 2008

Oh, damn. Sorry, too quick to jump the gun. You're looking for this, but the 2003 version. My bad.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:17 PM on August 19, 2008

Is there some reason you can't get it from Microsoft?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:19 PM on August 19, 2008

Hi SirStan - Sorry I got my terminology wrong. We're just trying to emulate what's on an existing system - didn't realise that SBE wasn't a retail product.

Hi CivilDisobedient - Thanks for your replies but it's Microsoft Office 2003 I want not the Microsoft Windows 2003

So how about Office 2003 in any version ?

(thanks for your comments about ebay but I feel that's about the same as using the 'recently established' Amazon traders)
posted by southof40 at 6:20 PM on August 19, 2008

What are you trying to do? Do you have a new machine you would like to put Microsoft Office onto? You won't find an established reseller that sells SBE, because its gray waters, and typically frowned upon, and hard to source.

Various places sell Office 2003 Basic for ~$230, Office 2003 SBS for $290, etc -- but they are all OEM copies.

Do you have a new PC in your office, and are looking to make it like all the others? You could simply pickup a copy of Office 2007 Small Business from Newegg for $243, and then install Office 2003 Small Business from an existing CD set using the existing serial number. I don't know if Microsoft explicitly gives downgrade rights from Office 2007 SBE to Office 2003 SBE, but the offering is the same software, and I have in the past felt comfortable as a consultant to install older versions when the client bought a newer version.
posted by SirStan at 6:28 PM on August 19, 2008

Thanks for your comments. It's an existing machine which never had any form of Office on.

We now want to run an application on it which uses Office Automation and so a licensed copy of Office is needed on that machine. We don't really know whether or not the Office 2007 would break the automation but we don't really want to find out and so were trying to get an old copy of Office 2003.

I'm interested in what you say about the downgrade idea but as far as we can tell all our Office 2003 editions were OEM's which came without disks.

We have tried buying a media pack from MS but they don't want to play. What would it take to make the OEM versions legit ? (I have heard weird stories about people buying disk drives and that in this way 'qualifying' for an OEM license but I've always assumed this was not legitimate)
posted by southof40 at 6:39 PM on August 19, 2008

OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer - they're licenced to system builders. In effect, when you buy OEM software directly off the shelf, you're then your own system builder.
One of the main differences in support - OEMs provide their own support (and have to provide the support number to customers); retail copies, support comes from Microsoft directly (such as it is). In licencing terms, OEM software is sold for use on one system, and one system only, which is why it's so much cheaper than retail - which is why it's often integrated into system restore discs by big sellers, rather than provided separately.

When buying OEM software retail, sometimes Microsoft enforces licencing terms with the reseller that OEM licences can only be sold with hardware - thus the stupid setup where some retailers will only sell it to you with a hard-drive or keyboard or the like. This isn't a restriction on the buyer, but on the seller.

AFAIK, Office products bought retail or OEM do not normally have downgrade rights (unlike windows), only copies bought via bulk licence agreement.

You could try setting up a MOLP agreement with a microsoft reseller - it's a minimum 5 licence purchase to start with, but you can buy licences for anything to count, say, windows server CALs to make up the numbers. You can then downgrade from office 2007 to 2003 quite happily. It's cheap for us because we're education, but it's worth looking into, as you can the buy all your future licences that way easily. Software Assurance, which gives you free upgrades when they release new versions, is an optional add-on.

Office 2003 SBE boxed retail does still exist, but it is pricey.
posted by ArkhanJG at 12:51 AM on August 20, 2008

Oh, if you buy a MOLP, you need to buy the media kit(s) in addition to the licences.
posted by ArkhanJG at 12:52 AM on August 20, 2008