"Big Al" wrote

| The DVD or lack of DVD is the least of the cost. What? maybe a quarter
| for the DVD? I haven't bought a pack in years so I can't say accurately.
|

Of course the DVD itself doesn't cost much. But
there's a cost of doing business. MS has to design
and print them, put them into a package, ship them
to the retailer... then the retailer has to ship it to
you. And people have to handle both of those
transactions. With a download and sale of a mere
alphanumeric code it would be virtually 100%
profit, so it stands to reason that should be cheaper.

But it looks like that's just my opinion. I'm not
finding a good deal on Win7 that seems legit, other
than buying a disk through eBay. There are good deals
there, down to about $50, but I've never used eBay
and don't really want to start. I guess I'll have to
just hold my nose and give MS 10 times what they
deserve to be paid.