Jason,

See my blog entries from last year on this topic: weblogs.asp.net/.../7289.aspx" rel="nofollow">weblogs.asp.net/.../7289.aspx">weblogs.asp.net/.../7289.aspx" rel="nofollow">weblogs.asp.net/.../7289.aspx

and the follow up:

weblogs.asp.net/.../8139.aspx" rel="nofollow">weblogs.asp.net/.../8139.aspx">weblogs.asp.net/.../8139.aspx" rel="nofollow">weblogs.asp.net/.../8139.aspx

Basically, MS knows about the different prices (stuff on eBay is the cheapest, sometimes under $1000) and it stems from an interpreptation of the license, but they seem to be looking the other way on this one. I bought my subscription thru vLane, with no problems, and others have done the same using other companies. Buyer beware when buying anything over the internet, but for now you can get MSDN Universal for under a grand.

Don

I've never bought Universal from Microsoft. In the past five years, I've gotten it from Provantage.com or xtras.net, depending on who had the best deal that year. My subscription comes up in July, and I've typically paid from $1500-$1800 for it through them, and have never had a problem. I really appreciate your research, though. You may have saved me a few more hundred dollars!

They are one in the same. Anything that I think may be interesting to the weblogs.asp.net crowd I syndicate on that blog (which is also the original one). I never bothered to migrate the stuff from the original blog to my site, so the old stuff can only be found on weblogs.asp.net

Don

Taking any classes? As a student, you can purchase the Universal license for <$1,000. Might be worth taking a class at the local CC for that ;).

My MSDN Sub is almost up so I went searching -- got some great info from this blog..

I decided to bite the bullet and go for eBargin software and I am so far impressed... literally a few minutes after I submitted my order I recieved an e-mail stating that my next-day delivery wasn't possible, so they weren't going to charge for shipping, to confirm my MSDN subscriber information and that it should be ready by next week..

Saving 700 bones off a normal price is a great feeling.. and still getting the DVD rebate...

Now that I think about it my original MSDN subscription was a deal also -- I attended the VS 2003 launch event and recieved that coupon which brought the price of a new sub to something like 1700.. at that time MS was also offering a viewsonic PPC with new subscriptions so it was an all around good deal..

if I were a plumber.. and MSDN was a toolbag, it'd be like having an entire harbor freight hardware store available for every pluming house call..

or something like that

....and now eBargain is asking $1999 for the Universal Subscription. Bummer.

Regarding the Academic Universal Subscription, is there a difference or limitation in the products you receive?

If not, then that's definitely an interesting thought - and I do have some classes I need to take as well.