I have purchased many, many Microsoft products with student pricing. I think, generally, that it is up to the retailer to ensure that the buyer is a student (at least that seems to be the case at university bookstores and such). If you buy direct from them, they require further evidence (although I'm not sure if the policy is strictly adhered to). It has been my experience in every case that no further evidence of being a student is required after the initial purchase. In most cases, the product is identical to the standard retail version in every manner except the price.
Rather than rushing to buy something on ebay, I'd take some time to look around Microsoft's site or your university or local bookstore for other options - I've also seen "learning editions" of older compilers avaliable with many enthusiast type books. You should also investigate gcc as an option. Even if you end up with MS tools, getting a GCC/Cygwin/DJGPP/whatever suite of tools (ssh/cvs/bash/xwin/etc) installed is cool.
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