How much is my vb 3.8 active license worth at the moment?

I've got an active site, and an extremely inactive site that I really do not need.

The active site vb 3.8 license expires in July 2010.
The inactive site vb 3.8 license expires in September 2010 - does anyone have an idea how much this is worth while the presale is going on?



My head is spinning at the moment. Yes it is transferable as far as I know but have not checked.

Please assume that there is sufficient staff at vb.com to accomplish this before the pre-sale ends. I understand that they are being hammered with questions and other issues and are working extremely long hours.

 

The one that expires Sept 2010 - did you just purchase that one? Or you've had it a while and just renewed it?

If it's the former, you can't transfer it til you've owned it for 3 months.

 

Well, honestly not much while this presale is going on. Your best bet is to wait for the sale to end, then get rid of it.

Or a better idea, is to take advantage of your presale price now, and sell for more down the road if you wanted to.

 

Purchased Sept 2008, I renewed it in July 2009 along with the other one.

I'm not following your logic.

With an active license someone could buy the suite for $130, which will be $285 soon for people without a license.

Clearly I am missing something.

 

Are you responding to his first or second idea?


You could take advantage of the pre-sale price, then sell it to a new customer. Remember, new customers have to pay full price. Somebody who is anxious to get their hands on vB (and is a new customer) would love a deal that is cheaper than full price from vB directly.

 

This pretty much explains my thinking behind it.

 

If you have a license that expired, whether recent or not, the value of your license has basically been reduced to a fat zero. This is the unofficial vBulletin Blue Book Value:

$0 - to forum only customers. Nobody will bother buying your license if it costs just $15 more to get a new one without the hassle.

$15 at best - if the user wants to the forums plus cms aka suite. The only difference between your software and a new license is $35. Nobody will want the hassle to buy a used license and transfer for such a small discount, which also includes the cost of transferring money, e.g. paypal.

$60-80 at best - if maintenance is current. Since the price "new" is $235 or so and the upgrade price is $130, buying an active license is probably worth a $20 or more savings for the new buyer.

The point of this new user pricing is to make ALL licenses with expired maintenance (even if recent) WORTHLESS and so that Internet Brands would basically get 100% revenue from forum owners who will have lost their entire investment in buying a license and the maintenance fee upgrades for years. You'll pay this backbreaking amount because they know your huge investment puts you between a rock and a hard place. This is beyond insulting to customers and something I cant recall seeing except from the desperate who have clearly lost all touch with reality. Would love to know who came up with these prices and the internal discussion on how everyone was feeding into their own BS about how the customer will eventually see that by paying well in advance to fund all these development efforts (and pay year end bonuses and vacations during this elongated recession) we'd all see in the end a tremendous number of amazing new products released (that we may not even need or want you bozos.)

 

Best bet would be to upgrade to the Suite now and sell it afterwards. Once the pre-sale is over even active owned licenses are pretty much worthless. If I'm not mistaken you will have to pay $250 to upgrade to the Suite or $175 to upgrade to the vB4 Forum.

 

It was my understanding that after the pre-sale it will cost $250 to upgrade to the suite, however you can upgrade to 4.0 forum at no additional charge until your active owned license expires. When your license expires you will be able to continue running the current version of vB you have installed indefinitely, however you wouldn't be able to download any future versions of the 4 series without paying $175.

They really want everyone running the suite, the staff on the official forum even posted those words. It's unfortunate the pre-sale isn't longer because I am not willing to pay out for the product until I can work with a beta to see just what's involved. Since I already bought the blogs, I'm not willing to pay $250 for the suite.


To the OP. I agree with the others. The best choice at the moment is to upgrade to the suite and sell the license after the pre-sale ends.

 

As I stated earlier:

Anyone that needs a license and wants the suite can buy it now for $235. That is the lowest price it will ever be as per the updated FAQ at vb.com.
The suite can be upgraded for the next small period of time for $130 with an active license.
Ergo, in theory, the license should be worth in the ball park of 235 - 130 = 105, discounting because it is not new or as convenient, something in the $90 range.

If I upgraded: Spend $130 now, sell it later when the sale is over. Wild guess would be $250 for the suite at a later date on sale as best possible price, so let me use that as it's 'worth'.
$250 - $130 = $120, discounting the fact that it would be used, maybe $100 to $110.

I don't see a lot of difference.


Now if I kept it past this introductory period when upgrades for $130 will no longer exist, then it will be worth far less than it is today.

So what am I missing?

 

I see your point, but if you bought the suite now then sold the license after the pre-sale, you should get almost full price for it because that license would be good for the entire life of vB4. If vB4 isn't even released yet then the buyer is basically getting a new license. After the pre-sale it cost $285 for a new suite license, the $250 is for upgrading an owned license to the suite. IMO I think it would be much harder to sell a forum only license that hasn't been upgraded to vB4 because the buyer would then have to pay an additional $175 to keep the license active for the life of vB4 or $250 to upgrade it to the suite.

I feel for you though, there just isn't an easy answer to this. You will have to look at the options and make the decision yourself I'm afraid. :shrug:

 

There will be a FLOOD of available vBulletin licenses available in the open marketplace. The price to get the suite will be far less than the $285, especially since there are no expiry dates for v4.0. You'll easily be able to get a new vB Suite license for less than $250.

I also wonder how many want the suite or care to throw good money after bad. It will be at least 3-6 months before the suite is released. As much as I hated to say it, Invision Power Board's suite (now discounted) is in existence and very compelling. At least I won't have to sit on my hands for the next year waiting to start developing for my new forum. That's worth way more than lost time and prepaid upgrades.

 

Um, do you know something that I don't know? As far as I'm aware, vB 4.0 (Suite and all) is to be released by the end of the year.

 

I enjoyed reading a quote from someone, maybe it was Steve or Ray, about how the new vb is streamlined to be optimized for incremental releases so we can get out the basic product and keep on enhancing as we go along without needing to wait and do 4.0.1, 4.0.2, etc. This is a way of saying the following, without the spin:

"As Ray stated, this beta is really, really raw and would never really be released as a beta but we're doing it for you - the customer - during our forced pre-release upgrade party sale. After a year of misguided direction, this is what we got to show, front end only, and we are crapping our pants having to make those earnings calls. For the sake of satisfying our promises to investors, we'll release whatever dreck we'll have ratcheted together by December and keep adding items, even major items, as we move along and make some relatively drastic changes."

If this is what we have end of October... what are you seriously expecting by December, especially during holiday season? Q1 would be an early gold release for something worthwhile, at best. Need to stop fooling ourselves, believe what we see or pray for a bailout of lost upgrade funds later.

 

Great Post. Where's that thumbsup?