Posted by Larry Fischer on January 26, 2009 at 2:02 PM
A trip to Amazon.com last Friday showed extreme variation in Photoshop CS4.
From about $200 to $800.
What gives?
I don't have PS yet and the prices confuse me a great deal.
Thanks.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on January 26, 2009 at 2:40 PM
$200 may be the price of an upgrade version to CS4. If not, it is probably a copy of somewhat dubious heritage.
$800 probably includes Lightroom, as a package put together by the retailer, or is simply overpriced. You'll see both. (That assumes the "normal" price for CS4 is still in the vicinity of $600. I haven't checked since my purchase of CS2)
Posted by David Taylor on January 26, 2009 at 3:04 PM
I thank Dan sounds right, usually the lowest price available will be a student rate (and you'll need a valid student I.D. to qualify), then is the upgrade price from a recent previous version, then the full version of PS CS4 (which I always say, "in Photoshop, you are only restricted by your own creativity"), then there is CS4 Extended which adds some video functionality. It can be very confusing, I hope this helps.
Posted by David Bostedo on January 26, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Larry - The full version will likely be around $700 from any place reputable (including Adobe's own site). But you can get an upgrade from PS Elements for $299 through the link in this this thread which John Mumaw provided (and which I used). For some reason, if you don't use this link and try to buy the Elements upgrade in the Adobe store, it's $599. Anyway, you should be able to get Elements for under $100, which means if you want the full CS4, you would at most pay $399.
Posted by John Mumaw on January 26, 2009 at 7:01 PM
Those low prices at Amazon are not for legit. copies of PS.
They may work, but I highly doubt you would be able to register any of that software.
That means that you wouldn't be eligible for upgrade prices in the future, and any tech. support is out of the question.
Think about it....$450 less than what the other online dealers sell PS for?
If it sounds too good....
You can find a cheap copy of PSElements v4, 5 or 6 using Pricegrabber, install it and then purchase the upgrade as David noted. That link still works, too.
Posted by Tim Marks on January 26, 2009 at 8:43 PM
When I do a search for PS CS4 on Amazon I get a list that goes from $190 (upgrd) to just under $900 (PS CS4 Extended Full version) CS4 regular full version is listed at $665 all look legit to me.
There are other prices in between for different types of upgrades (eg from elements etc) Everything on the list looks normal. Adobe just wants to be complicated.
Posted by John Mumaw on January 26, 2009 at 11:42 PM
I believe that Larry was referring to the offers in the 'New' category here, Tim.
Posted by Tim Marks on January 27, 2009 at 6:06 PM
Ah... I guess I never look at anything on Amazon that isn't sold either by Amazon direct or one of its featured sellers. I just don't trust buying from those I don't know. I don't buy from EBay either, though I know many who have and are happy with the transactions.
Discussion
7 repliesFrom about $200 to $800.
What gives?
I don't have PS yet and the prices confuse me a great deal.
Thanks.
$800 probably includes Lightroom, as a package put together by the retailer, or is simply overpriced. You'll see both. (That assumes the "normal" price for CS4 is still in the vicinity of $600. I haven't checked since my purchase of CS2)
They may work, but I highly doubt you would be able to register any of that software.
That means that you wouldn't be eligible for upgrade prices in the future, and any tech. support is out of the question.
Think about it....$450 less than what the other online dealers sell PS for?
If it sounds too good....
You can find a cheap copy of PSElements v4, 5 or 6 using Pricegrabber, install it and then purchase the upgrade as David noted. That link still works, too.
There are other prices in between for different types of upgrades (eg from elements etc) Everything on the list looks normal. Adobe just wants to be complicated.