Discounted Office Professional Plus for sale online

At the end of the day, it just comes down to whether or not you are comfortable enough with the price to eat it if the key ends up not working down the road. If you save enough money and the key works for 2-3 years+, then it might be just fine for some people.

MisterEd said:

Since these products are only normally supposed to be available through the volume license channel where are these products coming from?

I have to disagree with that statement. I purchased Office Professional Plus 2016 through a Home Use Program (HUP) when I was in the Navy. I received a standard retail product key for Office Professional Plus 2016 directly from Microsoft, but I only had to pay like $20 for it. I'm still using the same product key today, but whenever I re-install that office on an upgraded computer I have to call Microsoft's phone activation number and tell them it is currently installed on only 1 computer.

NavyLCDR said:

I have to disagree with that statement. I purchased Office Professional Plus 2016 through a Home Use Program (HUP) when I was in the Navy. I received a standard retail product key for Office Professional Plus 2016 directly from Microsoft, but I only had to pay like $20 for it. I'm still using the same product key today, but whenever I re-install that office on an upgraded computer I have to call Microsoft's phone activation number and tell them it is currently installed on only 1 computer.

Software from the Home Use Program (HUP) is actually from the volume license channel. You have to work for a company or government organization that qualifies for this program to obtain software from HUP. It is not considered retail since not just anyone can buy from there.

Like I said Microsoft officially only distributes Office Professional Plus through the volume license channel. There are a lot of unofficial sellers of Office Professional Plus online. You can even buy it from sellers on Amazon.

Note in the retail channel you are supposed to instead buy Office Professional.

Like I said in a previous post Microsoft is apparently not enforcing the sale of Office Professional Plus from unofficial sellers. This is obvious because sellers are openly selling it on Amazon.

BTW, how do you know that your key for Office Professional Plus 2016 is a retail key? Both retail and MAK keys work the same way. You enter them in Office and activate them over the Internet.

The key I got for Office Professional Plus 2010 is a MAK Product Key because the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center said It was.

I find it strange you have to call Microsoft. I have had different versions of Microsoft Office over the last 25 years including Microsoft Office Professional and Microsoft Office Professional Plus. I have never had any problems reinstalling them on another computer. However, I do know that even MAK keys have a reactivation limit. As long as you don't exceed that there won't be a problem. Even if you do you can contact the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center and ask the limit to be increased. Of course this only works if the MAK key was obtained officially from the VLSC. If it came from an unofficial source and it stops working then you may be out of luck.

You can see this in the screenshot below after I logged into the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center . Note at the top right is a Download link for the installation file.



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sygnus21 said:

What many will find out is though the activation of a questionable key may work the first time. The second or third time reality hits that the key was a fraud when it no longer activates.

There are plenty of posts online about how an Office product key worked and now suddenly doesn't. The prevailing issue is that the keys came from questionable sources.

I say again, get your software from legitimate sources... your PC security and personal information may depend on it.

My two cents.

Since these Office products are not retail they have to be using MAK keys. The problem with MAK keys is they can only be activated a limited number of times. Microsoft generally gives a generous number of maximum activations but if an unofficial seller tries to sell a key too many times then that may explain the keys not working.

I sometimes watch a popular YouTube channel that recommends one particular seller. They have used that seller for over three years now. The only time they had a problem with a key the seller promptly replace it. That YouTube channel has several sponsors with that seller being one of them.

That YouTube channel does admit in the past they had tried other sellers but stopped using them because they would not replace a key that stopped working.

You said you worried about PC security and personal information. How secure do you think your personal information is if you subscribe to Microsoft 365?

@MisterEd,

My Office Professional Plus 2016 has been moved to many different computers over the years. There is a limit to the number of times a retail product key can be used before it gets blocked from automatic online activation.

NavyLCDR said:

@MisterEd,

I stand corrected.

Retail versions of Office 2016 for Windows use the Click-to-Run installer. Volume-licensed versions of Office 2016 use Windows Installer (MSI) technology. Some editions like Professional Plus are available in both retail (C2R) and volume (MSI) channels.

Microsoft Office 2016
Microsoft Office 2016 - Wikipedia
The strange thing is that right now Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2016 and 2019 are available online by seemingly small unofficial sellers at highly discounted prices. Are these from volume or retail channels? Whatever channel they come from why the big discount? Since Microsoft hasn't weighed in this there is no way to find out for sure.

BTW, I think I saw Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2019 available for sale from a seemingly legitimate seller for about $500.
Here is what it shows for my volume license version of Office Pro Plus 2013.



Of course the "official" sources say differently.

Office 2019 Professional

The largest retail Office 2019 suite, the official price is US$440 for Office 2019 Professional.

That’s $80 more than the equivalent Office 2016 Professional, selling for $360 on Amazon.

It has the 2019 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access and Publisher. Office 2019 Professional has just one licence for a single PC/Mac.

Office 2019 Professional Plus

Office 2019 Professional Plus for Windows is only available to volume licence customers. The single licence price (no software assurance) is US$559.

It has the Office 2019 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher and Skype for Business.

Complete price list for Office 2019
Complete price list for Office 2019 - Office Watch

More Office 2019 buying scams on Amazon and Ebay
More Office 2019 buying scams on Amazon and Ebay - Office Watch

Office 2019 for $39.99 - deal or scam?
Office 2019 for $39.99 - deal or scam? - Office Watch

they are selling Office Pro Plus. ..., they are reselling Product Keys from a "Volume License", which is not allowed to be resold.

Found this MSO $39 offer on FB, is it legitimate?
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-3e6d10fce9a3

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sygnus21 said:

I haven't used 2007 since getting 2010. Currently running Office 365 from my school.

When I was going to school in 2012 I purchased Office 2010 University for $99. That was a good deal because Office 2010 Professional went for about $400.

Are you using the free academic version of Office 365? Is it Office 365 Education or Microsoft 365 Education?

I see that after you graduate you can covert Microsoft 365 Education to 12 months of Microsoft 365 Personal for $12. After that it is the regular price of $69.99 per year. If you instead have Microsoft 365 Personal when going to school you can still get 12 months of Microsoft 365 Personal for $12 when you graduate.

I have multiple copies of Office (1):
1 x Office 2007 Standard (2)
2 x Office 2007 Professional (2)
1 x Office 2010 University (2) (3)
2 x Office 2019 Professional Plus

(1) I also have even older copies of Office but they are too old to be useful.
(2) These versions of office can be installed on up to two computers with one being a desktop and tn other being a mobile device (laptop). Subsequent versions of Office do not allow that.
(3) Academic version of Office 2010 Professional.

The two copies of Office 2019 Professional Plus I have are from one of the unofficial sources. I am aware that at some point in the future they may no longer activate. If they continue to work for more than one year I will have gotten my money's worth. If at some point they no longer activate I may just fall back to Office 2010 University. That will cover both my main desktop and laptop.

I had considered buying a subscription to Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365). Instead I bought Office 2019 Professional Plus. If that doesn't work out I may instead subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal.

I put Office 2007 on my second desktop. I like Office 2010 better but that is all that I have that isn't being used. Like I said I am saving Office 2010 in the case that Office 2019 no longer works.