Yubikey 4 - purchase, delivery and receipt

Part 2: Buying and shipping Yubikey 4

So, having decided on the choice of a key for 2FA, I started looking for a seller to buy Yubikey 4.

The first thing that was examined was the Russian-language segment of the Internet. It turned out that there are two organizations that seem to be engaged in the sale of Yubico products.

First of all - this is the site yubico.ru. It is currently not working. (Hint - a direct link to the PDF file “ yubikey_manual.pdf"- in Russian, who needs it). But at that moment, when I was analyzing and choosing a key seller, this site was still functioning. Nevertheless, even then I noticed a strange thing - modern devices were not presented on the site for sale, for example, the Yubikey 4 key that was interesting to me. Also, the old software versions were indicated in the description of existing products. Moreover, the site offering the digital security product was on plain http. And more than that. When I asked in the email correspondence about the possibility to buy the key, the answer came to me with the mail domain mail .mobi.

It could be assumed that the seller does not offer new devices. The assumption turned out to be true, the site stopped the fact of work.

The second organization that offered the sale of Yubikey was even stranger. It is called > the_kernel . I did not find an online store, it was proposed to send an application through the form on the site. On the one hand, the prices are the same as those of the manufacturer, but the lack of the ability to place an order, pay and wait for delivery a little surprised me. For the 21st century, this is - to put it mildly - strangeness. Especially for those who do not like to follow links, live in the throne and want to have Yubikey, I give contact information from the site. Perhaps the data is still relevant. Here they are:

121357, Moscow, ul. Vereyskaya, d. 29, p. 33, office D216.2 (BC Vereyskaya Plaza 3) Tel. +7 499 648-8848 Email info [dot] ru [at] thekernel [dot] com Web www.thekernel.ru

Here, on the Toasterthere is also a small thread for acquiring Yubico devices.

One of the participants in the discussion (@Driwars) mentioned that the customs did not pass the key purchased on Amazon to the addressee. Keep that in mind.

So, in Russia, the situation with the retail sale of Yubikey keys is more or less clear. What can the western (for someone - eastern) market offer us?

As a rule, the manufacturer himself can offer the lowest price, so it would be wise to look for the opportunity to purchase goods directly from Yubico. However, given the cost of delivery, which can be a significant amount in the total cost of the goods, it makes sense to look at other market players, for example, Amazon.

Let's get started.

Question - Does Yubico directly sell devices? The answer is yes, it does. Opening the home page of the site www.yubico.com, we see the “BUY NOW” button at the top, and when you click on it we proceed immediately to the opportunity to buy goods. This is already good! In addition, we draw attention to the fact that upon purchase there is an opportunity to issue a discount - for GitHub users and for students . As far as you can see, the discount is the same and amounts to 20%, and this is already very, very good!

We proceed to the payment procedure, but before that we look at the delivery (Shipping). And here - once - and we see such a phrase:

* no shipping to: Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Sudan, Syria

Wow! How unexpected! Russia between Iran and Sudan, in a pleasant neighborhood with North Korea and Syria ... For contrast, you can look through the list of countries where you can purchase and receive a device with delivery from Yubico.

So what are the options ? For Russia - offsite >> the_kernel . You can try to contact representatives of this TNC.

What about Amazon? Let's take a closer look.
We find Yubikey in the search, change the country to the Russian Federation on the right in the “Ship to” field and see the following in the product and delivery description field:

This item does not ship to Russian Federation.

Like this.

What to do if you still wanted to have a Yubikey device for testing or functional use?

There may be several options:

1. If you have the opportunity to work abroad or on a personal initiative, go there and buy there. Or pre-paid the goods and delivery, either on vacation, or through friends and acquaintances.
2. Ask your friends / relatives / colleagues / acquaintances living abroad to buy the device and send it to you. Agree on the terms yourself.
3. Use the services of forwarders. Type Shototama and Parcels. I believe there is nothing illegal in this.
4. Barter. Say with the Indians. You give them a code, they give you a key.
5. Something else. Insert your own point.

What about me? How did I buy a key? I took advantage of paragraph 3, having previously calculated all the costs. In total, the implementation turned out like this: the

cost of the Yubikey4 key itself: $ 40
discount: - $ 8
delivery to the USA address: $ 5
tax: $ 2.88
total - at the exit from Yubico: $ 39.88

Shipping services: $ 5.78 (and I think this is a very humane cost)

Total , in the sum it turns out $ 45.66, which at the current rate is 2 735.52 rubles.

Good luck!

PS There is a new one in the product line. A USB-C key appeared .