If you could get FileMaker Four (now FileMaker // from Claris) for about $35-$40, would that interest you? Aha, there is a way. A few months back when FM 4 just came out and Claris just bought it from Nashoba, (or the company, take your pick I guess) I saw some places selling the old FileMaker + for about $75 or so. Since I was interested in buy FileMaker + and I could get it that cheap, I called them up and was told that they had already sold out. I really wasn't interested in FileMaker 4 that much at the time. Anyway, a few weeks later while scanning (drooling, really) the MacConnection ad I noticed that they were selling the years old version 1.0 of FileMaker. Hmm, next thing I did was to look up a Claris ad and see if the upgrade offer included FileMaker and not just FileMaker +. Nashoba I think had only been offering upgrades for FM+. The Claris ad said it would upgrade any version of FileMaker and after making a call to them, confirmed this, I asked them to send me the upgrade packet for FileMaker 4.
I then called MacConnection and ordered FileMaker 1.0 for the paltry sum of $29 + $3 shipping, and waited for the upgrade packet from Claris to check it for one more important option. That option is the "bought after this date" free upgrade feature. Claris had one on the form which said that if you purchased FileMaker after May 88, you were entitled to a free upgrade. I had just bought it, (around Oct.) right, so I just made a photocopy of the MacConnection bill, circled the purchase date, sent them the old FileMaker disk, and to be nice, sent a check for $3 to cover shipping and handling. My free upgrade to FileMaker 4 came back in the mail about two weeks later. Total cost $35. Mailorder price is about $265, right?
What prompts me to watch for these kind of things is because Claris had the same type of deal going when they first released the MacWrite MacPaint upgrades. Those of us who bought a 512KE back then found out that no longer were they bundled with the Mac. I bought them from Sun Remarketing and paid the upgrade fee to get my new versions. A friend of mine did the same, although he thought since he bought it after the free upgrade date, even though we both only paid about $40 for them, he should get it free. When I sent mine in I didn't even think about this because I figured I was getting a deal anyway. He said I wasn't naive enough, and got his MacPaint MacWrite upgrade free. Someone else we know, when told this, did the same and also got his for free. So, when I saw the FileMaker upgrade deal, I did the same. I write a small monthly column for the local videotext service here in the Ft Worth/Dallas area, and so far, of the 10 or more people to follow my path, none yet have failed to get a free upgrade. MacConnection has even dropped the price of FileMaker 1.0 to $27.
First of all, I wanted FileMaker and this was a great way to get it. I broke no rules, there was no minimum purchase price required (ala MicroSoft and some others occasionally) so everything was on the up and up. Another thing is you can't tell me that Claris and others haven't looked into the probability of this happening, maybe not quite in this way, but happening anyway. One thing that interests them I'm sure, is that the more people who buy it, the more market share they will get. I'm not going into a long mundane issue over what software costs as to what it should sell for, but in this case maybe it benefits Claris more than it would hurt, if it hurts at all.
Well, anyway, I've been using FM4 for about two months now and it suits my needs pretty well. I was hesitant to write this, I don't know why really, and if it helps some of you get a good deal on something you want, the more the better. However, if Claris and others start putting in a minimum required purchase on everthing, don't blame me.
