There are websites which will sell you a license key which is real and valid but is not sold directly by Microsoft or an authorized OEM. These keys could be volume license keys that are being "misued" by reselling them, they could be keys from another country being used in the US (for example), or in rare cases they could be keys that were 'stolen' from someone else (e. g. copied and used).
That's a 'gray market' key. It's 'gray' because you don't know the provenance, and so in the worst case, you might end up with the key being deactivated, theoretically.
But I've sold computers with gray market keys on them for years and never once has a key been deactivated. I have had keys come up as not usable, in which case I typically ask for my money back.
Most of the time, from what I've seen, it's the first case - a volume key being resold.
Comments
There are websites which will sell you a license key which is real and valid but is not sold directly by Microsoft or an authorized OEM. These keys could be volume license keys that are being "misued" by reselling them, they could be keys from another country being used in the US (for example), or in rare cases they could be keys that were 'stolen' from someone else (e. g. copied and used).
That's a 'gray market' key. It's 'gray' because you don't know the provenance, and so in the worst case, you might end up with the key being deactivated, theoretically.
But I've sold computers with gray market keys on them for years and never once has a key been deactivated. I have had keys come up as not usable, in which case I typically ask for my money back.
Most of the time, from what I've seen, it's the first case - a volume key being resold.