Base packages and dynamic pricing
What are the advantages/disadvantages to buying multiple successive base packages rather than saving for a bigger one? Or does it make a difference?
For example, right now I have Verbum Scripture Study. If I wanted to buy Verbum Scholar now, Verbum Master in 3 months, and Verbum Capstone in 6 months, would there be any price difference for the three added together as opposed to jumping straight to Capstone in 6 months (leaving aside things like the current 15% off sale, payment plans, etc.)?
It seems to me that dynamic pricing would make it so that you could do it either way for (around) the same price. But I was curious if anyone had a more concrete answer.
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There will be a small premium to pay each time when upgrading in smaller steps compared to upgrading in one giant step, it's not that much - I wouldn't be bothered, but I can't say how much other than that it's perhaps between 7-10% approximately, that's just an approximation.
Benefits of upgrading in small steps include that You stand a better chance of discovering what Verbum offers if You have more time on You, and that You get better at library building, and that You may spot some sales. Another benefit is that if You intend to eventually upgrade to a high base-package level there's a chance that Verbum 7 sees daylight by then, which means some content is removed, other (perhaps newer) books are added, and features and datasets are added as owned, instead of having to subscribe to Verbum Now right now.
When You buy something You are always able to check whether it's included in a current base-package, but the problem is it's usually difficult to predict what will be included in a future base-package.
Basically the philosophy of selecting a base-package (not the easiest option though) is to look through the content of the most relevant current base-packages and set a value for each item (doesn't necessarily need to correspond to the exact regular price as some things You will probably not have to buy separately if they don't come anyway in a base-package, and some items are perhaps so (comparatively) expensive that You become a bit unsure if You'd like to buy right now unless they come anyway included in a base-package), but remember to set the value of most of the books to 0 as there really are better ones, or ones You would actually use out there, and You will probably never get to utilize, much less read through, most of Your books that came in a base-package. Then sum up and see how it compares to Your upgrade price. If the upgrade is cheaper You should upgrade, if it's the same price or if the upgrade is more expensive You should either not upgrade or think of alternatives. Alternatives may include taking advantage of other bundles that Verbum offers for sale, some of them temporary, others discounted only for a limited time-period.
Also, sometimes a mid-level base-package will not look worthwhile but a higher one will, and other times it may even be the other way around.
Regarding language resources I would question the value of those included in base-packages and look for what's really the most current or useful ones or based on good enough research. I got Logos 4 Original Languages Library back in April 2012 (I negotiated with sales and got 25% off), and I've had to buy lots and lots more language resources in both FL and especially Accordance, and still need to buy for at least $1,000 on top of needing to buy a print Hebrew Old Testament Bible.
It's difficult to say a general rule what level of base-package You "should" have. It depends a lot on the overall strategy You want to adopt and how much time You are going to use for looking for sales, reading book reviews and picking individual volumes. If You are going to write papers to get degrees or do research, You may need to read reviews anyway.
Personally I have only fairly low-level base-packages, with only one exception: a mid-level base-package: Logos 6 Anglican Silver. In Accordance I don't buy any higher ones than the Starter although I would have saved money buying the Original Languages Collection, I just like the idea of choosing exactly what I want to have not needing to bother that much about not downloading the books I'm not going to use (in the latest version of Accordance, version 11, which I don't have, You can choose what exact books You want to download, even from bundles and Collections (the equivalent of base-packages)).Disclosure!
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Average Joe said:
What are the advantages/disadvantages to buying multiple successive base packages rather than saving for a bigger one? Or does it make a difference?
For example, right now I have Verbum Scripture Study. If I wanted to buy Verbum Scholar now, Verbum Master in 3 months, and Verbum Capstone in 6 months, would there be any price difference for the three added together as opposed to jumping straight to Capstone in 6 months (leaving aside things like the current 15% off sale, payment plans, etc.)?
It seems to me that dynamic pricing would make it so that you could do it either way for (around) the same price. But I was curious if anyone had a more concrete answer.
Generally, it would make more sense to wait the 6 months and go straight to Capstone, however, taking the 15% discount (which ends August 31) into account, you may have to do some math to determine how much you will be giving up by waiting the 6 months.
One big jump is much better than many small jumps. A lesson I learned in the early days. :-)
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In past years, the bigger base package one bought, the greater the savings. Beginning with Logos 6, this incentive has been removed (correct?). As pointed out, the current sale does offer an incentive over the regular price.
If I'm incorrect in anything I've written, please correct me. [:)]
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It is still the same. With the Collector's edition all other base packages, some topical bundles and some series all discounted with dynamic pricing.
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Into Grace said:
In past years, the bigger base package one bought, the greater the savings.
That is still the case. Of course, it is more out of pocket expense for the larger base package. The price per page will be lower for the larger package but that does not necessarily mean price per resource will be lower. Often larger base packages have larger or more expensive resources that are not in the smaller packages. Still, those larger resources are cheaper in the base packages than purchased individually.
The best thing to do is to evaluate you needs against the contents of the base package and go from there. Also an eye toward your future needs. If you know already that you can and will buy Capstone in 6 months, just wait and buy it then. As Unix mentions, buying incrementally will results is some additional overall cost.
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Thanks all. Yeah, I have my eye on Capstone because it comes with the Navarre Commentary and I'm not betting on that making it into the Verbum 7 base packages.
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You are indeed correct. My many many base package purchases (see signature) have borne this out. If I spend 200$ on a BP, the next biggest BP in the series went down by the same amount. Now if you start crossing denominational lines your mileage may vary.Into Grace said:In past years, the bigger base package one bought, the greater the savings. Beginning with Logos 6, this incentive has been removed (correct?). As pointed out, the current sale does offer an incentive over the regular price.
If I'm incorrect in anything I've written, please correct me.
But if you buy silver, the price of gold will drop by a commensurate amount. If you buy Baptist Silver, don't expect the price of standard gold, or Lutheran gold to drop by the same amount. You can email a sales person to verify (like my good friend Rusty Davidson (Rusty.Davidson@faithlife.com). But this has been my experience.L2 lvl4 (...) WORDsearch, all the way through L10,
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abondservant said:
But this has been my experience.
This is also what FL has indicated on the forums, although I forget where.
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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One thing that tends to get overlooked in buying big packages (in my opinion, because I've done it and seen it talked about by others) is picking up a bunch of resources you won't use. Even if your per-volume price is lower with the big package, you aren't doing yourself any favors by buying stuff you don't use, no matter how cheap it is. A million resources at one cent each is a very expensive mistake, no matter the individual cost.
The library feature that lets you see when resources were last accessed is a good teaching tool for this. I have about 2200 resources. Of those, over a thousand have *never* been access in any search, guide, etc. These were mostly stuffed into package deals. They cost me money. Wasted money.
I've learned that if a particular commentary I want is $50, and I can get it for $240 in a package with a dozen other books I won't use; even though the per-volume cost is $20, I haven't saved $30, I've wasted $190. It took a while to learn this, unfortunately.
Keep this in mind when looking at big packages.
Eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river.
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Doc B said:
One thing that tends to get overlooked in buying big packages (in my opinion, because I've done it and seen it talked about by others) is picking up a bunch of resources you won't use.
When evaluating base packages, I patiently work through the list of books involved, valuing each of them in terms of what they're worth to me--how much would I pay to acquire them individually in Verbum or hard copy? When in doubt about a particular resource, I intentionally err on the side of undervaluing it This process leads to some volumes being valued by me at roughly full price, others given a $0 value (especially original language resources and related datasets), and many others usually valued at $1-5 apiece or, if in series/collections, sometimes less than a dollar per volume. Etc.
At the end of the day, if my actual price for the base package about matches or is less than the sum of the me-given values of the books it contains, and I have the money, I'll pick it up. I have never regretted any base package purchase as a result. I've already priced in how often I expect to use a volume and what I expect to use it for, and even though I'm often wrong about specific volumes, it works out in the end.
Sure, FL thinks I've spent a bunch of money on, say, original language resources I'll never use, but as far as I'm concerned, those were freebies.“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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