Buying adobe products from amazon (ix)

Question

I'm in the market for Adobe Creative Suite design standard cs5.5 and having been doing some research on where to buy and the best price for a legitimate copy of the software. I looked on the list of authorised sellers on the Adobe website and noticed that Amazon was among them. When I went on to Amazon to look at their selection of software I noticed that creative suite standard is selling for £989.99, but on further research found that this is via a different seller registered with Amazon called Ix.
See:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004V9207M/ref=s9_simh_gw_p65_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1 OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0GPDP6Z4J2FWBGRF505W&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=46 8294
I thought the price was very reasonable but have heard so much about pirate software in the industry that I'm concerned the seller is not trading legitimate software as the price is a lot lower than I'm used to seeing. Would Amazon allow a seller to trade software that is pirated? or is this just a very good price for what I'm looking for?

Answer 1

At that price (£200 below the RRP) it could be that the software is a US import. I can’t see how else they could get that low price.  This may not be a problem with regards to registering and activating, but be aware that if it is a US license any future upgrades will also need to be a US version; I don’t think you can use a UK upgrade on a US license.
I remember looking into this when I was buying CS4 a year ago. The use of  a US license in the UK seemed to be a grey area. There were many accounts of people who bought US licenses (either directly or indirectly through a reseller), got a good deal and had no problems. Because I was buying CS4 at a time when I could get a free upgrade to CS5 I wanted to do everything by the book and ended up buying from a reseller on Adobe’s reseller list, but the price wasn’t that great compared to some of the deals available.
At the time there were some good deals available from the amazon.co.uk Marketplace sellers, but, like now, the number of feedback comments was never higher than the low hundreds, suggesting the seller (under that name at least) hadn’t been around for very long. It was also hard to find out basic information about the seller, such as an address or contact details, which rang alarm bells. It’s maybe worth sending an email to the seller to test the waters.
Also be aware that whilst amazon.co.uk may be on the Adobe reseller list it doesn’t necessary follow that the Marketplace sellers also fall under that umbrella (from Adobe’s point of view).
I’m not an authority on any of this, and may be overly paranoid. Perhaps someone with more concrete knowledge about licensing and imports can give better advice.