i did buy an ebay cable a while back. but the problem i had was actually locating an old laptop running xp, that was actually functional. couldn't get those programs to even run on my old acer eee pc while in xp mode. just too much hassle.
i did however have success retrieving the skc with the ebay "super vag K+CAN" tool. ran maybe 50$ shipped from china. but it did produce a good SKC code. a few minutes ago i was able to then use my maxisys mini to successfully program keys on my 2000 TDI golf. pretty simple process once you know what you're looking at. confused me for a bit as it doesn't prompt you to cycle thru the keys. but it did work. if anybody needs the link to the scan tool from ebay i used, let me know and i'll add a link.