Well, I'm sure that you already know that's illegal... but, since I know a little about your problem, here we go:
Did your friend copy the CD from the original OS X install CD? If so, tell him to use Toast and do a device copy.
If he made an image with a program like ShrinkWrap or Disc Copy, then it won't work. For some reason, the OS X image becomes "un-bootable" after that.
You CAN make a "Toast image" of the OS X CD and burn that and have it work.
Otherwise, one workaround would be to borrow his CD and install it to test it. That' still illegal, but if you're truly going to go spend $129 on the boxed set, I see no one having a problem with that. Although don't take my word for it.
Oh, one other thing, if you got OS X off of Hotline or Carracho or something like that, chances are the image won't work -- it'll be the disk image, but when you burn it to a CD, it won't be bootable. If it's a Toast image (you can tell if it's got "image" at the end of the name) then it might work.
Otherwise, just buy it. That's the best advice I can give you. I'm not disappointed with it -- just don't expect it to be OS 9... it's completely different.
