If you want to start a PC business...

[Lucio]

Blimey, didn't you know that as a "computery person" you should know the answer to every single question about computers, tv's, hi-fi's and phones?

Ahhh... the life of a support engineer

No one will ever get me to admit I don't!!

However there's an amazing number of cosmic rays, sunspots and unusual memory corruptions that occur in equipment I can't fix

[peterb]

I was noticing his sign up date as well, do you guys not have a bit more control over people signing up here just to get the free postage...

I cannot and will not comment on any individual in the forum, but as a general principle, Hexus (mods) do indeed keep a close eye on new members who may be posting only to get a high post count to qualify for Hexus rewards. The criteria is well defined and is based on post count and quality of post - not on length of membership.

However, the postage is in the gift of Scan, who are, of course an entity independent of Hexus. They have their own moderation teams for their forums, but obviously can see and comment on posts in the others.

I'm sure Scan apply their own screening criteria (which I am not privy to - as I said, Scan and Hexus are independent entities) over and above the ones we apply - and of course to continue to benefit from the offer, a member has to be on ongoing contributor.

Similar criteria apply to the For Sale sections. There the bar is slightly higher, at 100 posts, but members that sign up only to take advantage of that section are also discouraged; the requirement is again that they are active and contributing members in other forums, and there have been cases where people not complying with that requirement have had access to FS removed.

However in both cases (unless the post count pimping is really blatant) we usually engage with the member by PM - we would rather have another useful contributing member, than apply the ban hammer!

<---snip

Since I only wanted Batman because I wanted to resell it, you can see why that's a problem.

snip--->
l[/url]

That is up to you of course, but personally I would class that as sharp practice.

If the copy of Batman was OEM, like all games are that come with graphics cards, then you can't resell them anyway without also including the graphics card, hard copy or not.

Indeed!

The game was a bonus offered by the card mfr not by any retailer. The fact that this part of the card package is why I would class reselling a component part as sharp or dubious practice - and .regardless of the legal or ethical considerations, is not one condoned by Hexus.

[Saracen]

.....

The game was a bonus offered by the card mfr not by any retailer. The fact that this part of the card package is why I would class reselling a component part as sharp or dubious practice - and .regardless of the legal or ethical considerations, is not one condoned by Hexus.

Erm ... not so sure about that.

For instance, camera manufacturers often offer "kit" bundles with a lens or two, or a lens and flash, etc. Buying a "kit" and selling off the bits you don't want may well be a way of getting the bits you do want at a good price, and I can't see how it's sharp practice. In fact, it's far from unknown for shops to break up the kits themselves, one reason being that sometimes a lens might be in short supply and it's the only way they can fulfil demand foe the lens.

That's a very different situation from reselling OEM software of course, which will nearly always either only be transferable with the hardware, or perhaps not transferable at all. SO I agree with the reservations about that. That's one reason why OEM software is so cheap, even when it's a full version. I had a chat with the European General Manager of one software house that pointed out that they got "WAY under £10" for an OEM licence for a package that was over £50 in the retail outlets. Of course, there's no distribution chain involved for a couple of lots of both costs and profits aren't incurred, and it also gets your product out there to a large number of users in a short time.

But I've not come across an OEM package where selling it on without the hardware wouldn't be a breach of the licence, but I suppose there could be examples. I certainly wouldn't say it's impossible or never has or could happen, but I've never seen it.

[peterb]

In the light of Saracen's comments, I'll withdraw my statement about sharp practice - perhaps a little harsh - and perhaps I mistakenly read into the post that the only reason that the OP bought the card was so that the game could be resold. However, it seems to be trivial point to complain about - if the card was needed, the game was a bonus. If the packafe was bought so that it could be split, then I still don't have much sympathy.

[TooNice]

Subject that it it does not breach any T&C, I do not see a problem with it. People make purchasing decision based on the complete package, 'bonus' included. If the license is transferable, what's the difference between keeping the item (and saving money on having to buy it), or passing it on (saving money on the card)?

[kalniel]

Subject that it it does not breach any T&C, I do not see a problem with it. People make purchasing decision based on the complete package, 'bonus' included. If the license is transferable, what's the difference between keeping the item (and saving money on having to buy it), or passing it on (saving money on the card)?

The problem is the license isn't transferable, it's OEM.

[Sp00n]

If it states "NOT FOR RESALE" then its not allowed, might not strictly be an OEM game though, they could be lazy and just bundle a retail copy.