Cheap Photoshop CS2 (and maybe CS3)

Posted by Scott Laird Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:11:00 GMT

At $384 (plus shipping and tax), I think this is the cheapest way to buy a legitimate, non-educational copy of Photoshop this week:

  1. Buy a Wacom tablet. Pretty much any current model will work, including the $85 Graphire 4x5.
  2. Once it arrives, grab the Photoshop Elements 3 license key out of the box. Then follow the directions on store.adobe.com, and call Adobe Customer Service at 1-800-833-6687 to order Photoshop CS2 for $299. This only works for Wacom’s copies of PS Elements. The sales rep that I talked to had a hard time finding the deal in their database, but he did find it eventually. There is no expiration date listed.
  3. Once CS2 arrives in the mail, call Adobe’s support line again and order your free upgrade to Photoshop CS3, as per Adobe’s CS3 FAQ. I can’t guarantee that this will work, but the Adobe phone sales guy that I talked to this morning claimed that the copy of CS2 that they’re sending me is eligible for the “I bought CS2 after CS3 was announced” free upgrade.

Enjoy.

Update (4/16): My copy of CS2 arrived successfully, so I registered it and called Adobe’s sales line. After almost an hour on hold, they took my credit card number and charged me $6 shipping to send me a copy of Photoshop CS3. Mission accomplished.

Update (4/25): CS3 arrived today as expected. So yes, you can buy a perfectly legal copy of Photoshop CS3 for under $400, over $250 off the usual price, and get a Wacom tablet for free.

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Comments

  1. Bob Aman said 5 days later:

    That’s pretty cool, but probably doesn’t work for the whole Creative Suite I assume, which is kind of a bummer.

  2. BJ said about 1 month later:

    wow…thanks for the info… im thinking buying a wacom…didn’t know that you could get discount on PS with a wacom tablet!

  3. Chris said 2 months later:

    I had been thinking of getting a Wacom tablet for my wife and came across your posting of Cheap Photoshop CS2 (and maybe CS3).

    When I ordered it on May 10, the Adobe upgrade offer (catWacom_0205) was still visible from the web. However, by the time the Wacom tablet arrived on May 21, the web link was gone and I was worried I had missed out on the upgrade to Photoshop CS2 for $299.

    My wife called Adobe and after a lengthy phone call was lucky to have the sales person agree to ship Photoshop CS3 for $299 + shipping and tax.

    Thanks so much for your blog entry that led us to Photoshop nirvana. :-)

  4. Adrian said 3 months later:

    (Update) The upgrade is now available directly for CS3, and the offer will expire in november 30, 2007

  5. Kristina said 3 months later:

    I just ordered the tablet, with a $20 rebate, and checked out the link for Adobe and it takes you straight to CS3 upgrade for $299 and it expires November 30, 2007.

  6. Hicham said 3 months later:

    To Whom it my concern: We are trying to update a Samsung web tv to host a web page, and trying to buy the upgrade.

  7. Beth said 4 months later:

    Was just curious if you could possibly get CS3 Extended out of this deal or is it just CS3?

  8. B said 4 months later:

    I was just curious if with this you can get CS3 Extended or if you have to get just CS3?

  9. Nicole said 5 months later:

    I bought my tablet in January and also received the cd with a free copy of Corel, nik Color Efex and PS Elements. I did not know that there was this special going on regarding CS2. I placed my order yesterday and CS3 is the ver. listed on my receipt. What a great deal! All it cost was $299+shipping. I have been searching for the best price on CS3 and found some for over $600 and as low as $79-low enough to tell me that I probably would regret paying so little. I don’t remember anything on the Wacom box advertising this offer so I would have lost out on this great deal. Thank you Scott for bringing people’s attention to this!

  10. MiYon said 5 months later:

    Thank you so much for the notice. I purchased CS3 about a month ago, but only after I visited your blog back then. I would’ve never known about the Wacom/Adobe deal otherwise so thanks!! It was a quick and easy process - in fact, I completed the order online in less than 5 minutes.

  11. Mark Ipkins said 5 months later:

    Hello, i like cars! Want to have some friends!

  12. Dan said 11 months later:

    I found CS3 for $570.00. Is it possible to find it cheaper, really? Can you tell me why the academic version isn’t as good?

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