Pre-Pub and Sells Not Always The Best Way

Just venting some Big Smile

I discovered today that, for me, the Pre-Pub program and sells are not always the best way to go.

Listed as "New" in the Logos store, the 26 volume Believer's Church Bible Commentary is listed as a regular price of $432.99.

During the Christmas sale of 2011 I bought the available 19 volume set for $299.95. I then ordered the 5 volume upgrade and it was delivered at the end of February 2012 for $112.95 (I can't remember if this was pre-pub or not). Finally thinking that pre-pubs and sales would get me the rock bottom price the pre-pub 2 volume upgrade was delivered in November for $49.95.

My total price for this 26 volume set was $462.85. A difference of almost $30. I think that in the future if I decide to update any commentary sets, I will probably skip the pre-pub part since it is not saving me anything. In fact, dynamic pricing may have saved me some money in this case.

For me to have bought the 19 volume set on sale and at least one of the upgrades on pre-pub, I think it is a shame that buying the entire package at regular price is still $30 cheaper. Sad

Lesson learned.

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Comments

Daniel Liu

I agree it.

Dan Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676783#Comment_676783

Just a word of advice. The Pre-Pub system may not always be the cheapest, but if no one ordered it in pre-pub it would never get made. Logos depends on an adequate level of pre sales to cover production costs before they even start any work. I personally do not find this the best system but it is the way Logos has always worked and they likely are not going to change anytime in the near future.

-dan

Kevin Maples

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676819#Comment_676819

if no one ordered it in pre-pub it would never get made

Great point.

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676819#Comment_676819

The Pre-Pub system may not always be the cheapest, but if no one ordered it in pre-pub it would never get made.

It may not always be the best price but in my experience it is most of the time. For the times that it is not I don't mind helping the cause to get it into production.

Rick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676837#Comment_676837

Thanks for the input. I was just shocked when I done the math.

Don Awalt

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676841#Comment_676841

There was a time when Logos said PrePub was the best price you will ever get. I don't think that is true any more. I have been burned by it too, and told "exception".

Rick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676852#Comment_676852

There was a time when Logos said PrePub was the best price you will ever get. I don't think that is true any more. I have been burned by it too, and told "exception".

I've been noticing that a lot of the resources on pre-pub that I am interested in are priced at a very shallow savings of $5 - $10 off of regular price. This makes it easy not to commit to something that I am not sure I would use. Admittedly though, a lot of my purchases are $100 or less so I realize that Faithlife can't cut them drastically. It just seems that I remember a time when pre-pub discounts were significantly better than they are now. Maybe I am mistaken, I often am.

Ronald Quick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676854#Comment_676854

One of the benefits for purchasing an item on prepub instead of waiting until it becomes a part of a bundle is that you have earlier access to it.

I too have noticed some items cheaper, but then some like the NICNT/OT (I think I'm correct) have never been as "cheap" as they were on prepub..

Simon’s Brother

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676833#Comment_676833

I agree with both the OP and Dan. Dynamic pricing on sets often does come out as a better option, but only if the pre-pub gets over the line. It all comes down to available funds at the time and perceived value for me which route I choose.

if no one ordered it in pre-pub it would never get made
Great point.

Rick

I also realize that my comments may sound harsh. I want to emphasize that I still think that Faithlife is an awesome company to do business with. For instance, with my Logos 6 credit of $50 and the Christmas sale, I bought Geisler's Systematic Theology for $29.95. It is regularly priced at $128. So I really can't complain.

I don't want it to sound as if I am bashing them. If it does sound that way, I apologize. I was just a bit bummed out. Thanks again for all of your input.

Into Grace

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676859#Comment_676859

Logos is somewhat a monopoly. Some works are only available from them in electronic format. One can buy a paper edition or pay extra since Logos is the only one in town. They know this, it's a business.

The larger Logos has become as a company, the less savings that are offered on pre-pubs. I don't have data to back this up —it's an honest opinion.

The real savings in my opinion are found in base packages and upgrades. The current upgrades to Logos 6 offers some of the best savings that Logos has to offer. Once this sale is gone it may not return until Logos 7 comes out. Some of the bundles being offered are good —keep in mind they include public domain books and some of their values are exaggerated.

Mark Barnes

I deliberately held off on the 2-volume upgrade because I had a theory that for large sets it would be cheaper to buy the set with dynamic pricing.

So I have the 24 volumes, just as you did, and I'm being offered the 26 volume set for $42.48. So I'm $7.50 better off than you were.

Generally, if I'm confident that the volumes will become part of a larger set, and I own all the other volumes, I'll wait. The savings aren't huge, but it's worthwhile.

(BTW, It's nearly always more expensive to buy a small set, then upgrade to a larger set. But in these case we had the advantage of being able to use the 24 volumes for a long time before the 26-volume set was released. We both could have chosen to wait and saved ourselves some dollars. But a couple of years worth of usage was worth $30 or so, probably for both of us.)

SineNomine

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676867#Comment_676867

With a Pre-Pub, we get the resource on sale the moment it's available to anybody. We have to realize that the resource may go on an identical, better, or nearly identical sale later, and may be combined in whole or in part with other sales in the future as well. We all have to realize this about Live resources, and I think we all pretty much do. With Pre-Pubs, we too often forget.

With additions to collections, I would expect that the norm would be that it would be cheaper to wait and buy the whole collection, but that's because buying a whole bunch of books will usually get you a better price, period. The price for just those additional volumes is still normally pretty good. We have to remember that we're able to buy, say, the two volume addition to the ICC without buying the previous 59 volumes. Those two volumes are, per volume, noticeably more expensive than the 59 are at a per volume rate. But if I was a James scholar, I'd buy those two new volumes (one of which is on James) and be very happy not to have to buy the other 59.

Rick

I just received an email from a Faithlife employee. Wow! It is good to know that they are listening. He said that he understood what I was saying and that he had just mentioned last week, in a meeting, that they needed to make pre-pubs more compelling from a price standpoint. That is good news.

Once again, thanks for your responses to my post. I will take them to heart. I appreciate all of you. [Y]

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676946#Comment_676946

I just received an email from a Faithlife employee. Wow! It is good to know that they are listening. He said that he understood what I was saying and that he had just mentioned last week, in a meeting, that they needed to make pre-pubs more compelling from a price standpoint. That is good news.

Once again, thanks for your responses to my post. I will take them to heart. I appreciate all of you.

Thanks for sharing this Rick. This is great.

Deacon Steve

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676953#Comment_676953

Thanks for bringing this up, indeed. I don't have a specific example, but with the number of pre-pubs that I have done it's probably happened to me. Yikes!

[:S]

Dan Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676961#Comment_676961

Fortress Commentary on the Bible (2 vols.) is a good example of what a Pre-Pub should be. At $51 for $120 (retail) set it seems like a great value. AF was charging $75 for the set as an introductory price, and the cheapest street price seems to be around $80. I eagerly await this new commentary with full coverage of the Apocrypha. That said if sometime after it's release Logos gets an opportunity to offer it for $40 I will not be horribly upset and glad that others have an opportunity to get it for a phenomenal price.

-Dan

Bobby Terhune

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677004#Comment_677004

One thing to consider is the shallow discounts on some prepubs reflect the publishers reluctance to discount relatively new titles too deeply. many publishers discount their backlist titles at a higher discount, but new releases require a certain amount of cash flow to keep the publishers in business.

Logos often bundles highly desired titles with lesser desired titles to get them published. many of the titles we have in our library would never have made it out of prepub or community pricing without being bundled. I know many don't like a lot of the bundles but generally it is working to our advantage, so we end up with a greater selection in the long run.

Matthew C Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/676946#Comment_676946

I just received an email from a Faithlife employee. Wow! It is good to know that they are listening. He said that he understood what I was saying and that he had just mentioned last week, in a meeting, that they needed to make pre-pubs more compelling from a price standpoint. That is good news.

Good news indeed. I am glad you posted this thread.

mab

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677013#Comment_677013

I pre-pubed an item that dropped in price. So what? I use it every week.

I really am getting weary of how easily we get caught up in the pursuit of bargains. The last few weeks has been a gauntlet of sales pitches and certainly not just Logos.

Stewardship doesn't really have a pricetag. Using what you got is so much more important than the price you paid.

JohnB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677094#Comment_677094

[Y][Y][Y]

GregW

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677094#Comment_677094

Stewardship doesn't really have a pricetag. Using what you got is so much more important than the price you paid.

[Y]

Kevin Maples

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677094#Comment_677094

Stewardship doesn't really have a pricetag. Using what you got is so much more important than the price you paid.

Outstanding! [Y][Y]

Deacon Steve

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677094#Comment_677094

I don't think the original poster has an intention of not utilizing his resources. Stewardship involves many things to include the use of money.

[:)]

mab

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677116#Comment_677116

I don't think the original poster has an intention of not utilizing his resources. Stewardship involves many things to include the use of money.

I'm sure he does. It's that the focus seems geared about pricing. Which is why our Lord gave the coin to Caesar and told the story of the man who sold all for what truly is most valuable. Is there anything greater for us than mining the treasure of God's Word to save the souls of men in a dying world?

Rick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/677207#Comment_677207

My OP was an observation. I learned a lesson that pre-pubs and sales don't always beat the price of a completed item at regular price. That's all.

Big deal? To me, yes. To you? Obviously not.