Logos MM: too large chunks to swallow

This is probably the only year, when I still didn't buy anything from Logos March Madness. Maybe it is good and profitable for Faithlife to sell in such big collections, but I find myself holding on to my wallet, and trying to pay off L8 remaining balance. If Faithlife would break up collections it would be more appealing to me, otherwise, I find myself to skip MM and look and plan for other L8 base packages where the deal is much more appealing. Anyone else on the same boat?

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Paul Caneparo

This is probably the only year, when I still didn't buy anything from Logos March Madness. Maybe it is good and profitable for Faithlife to sell in such big collections, but I find myself holding on to my wallet, and trying to pay off L8 remaining balance. If Faithlife would break up collections it would be more appealing to me, otherwise, I find myself to skip MM and look and plan for other L8 base packages where the deal is much more appealing. Anyone else on the same boat?

It would be interesting to be a fly on a wall in the post March Madness review meeting. Because the bundles are large and expensive, I imagine there was a hope they might get some nice revenue. I suspect though this will be the poorest March Madness for sales revenue. Whilst last year's March Madness committed us to buy sets of commentaries, I suspect many of us completed partly purchased sets (with dynamic pricing) at attractive prices and were happy to do so. When I look at the bundles this year, I can't see any compelling reasons to buy a bundle. For interest I looked at the Romans set as I guess it may win, so I thought I'd see what I might get. The bundle only includes 2 volumes from www.bestcommentaries.com top 10 (both of which I own) and there aren't any commentaries included in the bundle from my wishlist.

As I've said before, it may be a relief (to my bank balance) that I won't buy anything this year.

Danny Parker

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038719#Comment_1038719

For years, my largest expenditure in Logos for the year was during MM, but this year I have already lost interest. Even with the winner, whatever that might be, I will not be interested. Too much money for resources I am not interested in. The approach might have seemed like a good idea from a seller standpoint, but not so much for a buyer - at least not for one that has a healthy amount of resources already. Not complaining. This keeps me from overspending. lol

James Lagger

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038721#Comment_1038721

I agree, I used to be so excited every year for March Madness and was able to find at least one author and really dig into a good sampling of their resources. I understand the bundle framework but it just does not work for my budget nor I have found it as fun to follow. Hopefully, there are people that are enjoying it.

ChelseaFC

I suppose they are aiming for the high end customer and that's okay with me. I likely won't get anything but at least they are trying something different.

Cheers,

ChelseaFC

Graham Criddle

One thing I have found helpful this year - and want to recognise - is that we can see what resources are included in each option.

To the best of my knowledge this is the first year it has happened.

I hope this continues in the future.

Sarel Slabbert

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038721#Comment_1038721

For years, my largest expenditure in Logos for the year was during MM, but this year I have already lost interest. Even with the winner, whatever that might be, I will not be interested. Too much money for resources I am not interested in. The approach might have seemed like a good idea from a seller standpoint, but not so much for a buyer - at least not for one that has a healthy amount of resources already. Not complaining. This keeps me from overspending. lol

Unfortunately I have to agree. MM is always a highpoint of my year andI have always bought at least two or more items during MM. But this year I am participating,but I will not be able to buy simply because the prices are way, way out of my budget's league

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038732#Comment_1038732

we can see what resources are included in each option.

To the best of my knowledge this is the first year it has happened.

I hope this continues in the future.

[Y][Y]

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038719#Comment_1038719

When I look at the bundles this year, I can't see any compelling reasons to buy a bundle. For interest I looked at the Romans set as I guess it may win, so I thought I'd see what I might get. The bundle only includes 2 volumes from www.bestcommentaries.com top 10 (both of which I own) and there aren't any commentaries included in the bundle from my wishlist.

Great observation! I can only imagine 2 scenarios where this year's bundles make sense. 1) A Professor who teaches a particular book of the Bible and will teach multiple sections of the class in the next few years. or 2) A Doctoral student whose dissertation focuses on a portion of Scripture covered by one of the Bundles.

I'm curious if this approach to the brackets may be revisited in future years with topically themed bundles. e.g. a bundle on Dispensational Premillennialism vs. a bundle on Historic Premillennialism; or vicarious vs. exemplary atonement; or various types of polity in Ecclesiology, etc.

Paul Caneparo

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038737#Comment_1038737

For years, my largest expenditure in Logos for the year was during MM, but this year I have already lost interest. Even with the winner, whatever that might be, I will not be interested. Too much money for resources I am not interested in. The approach might have seemed like a good idea from a seller standpoint, but not so much for a buyer - at least not for one that has a healthy amount of resources already. Not complaining. This keeps me from overspending. lol

Unfortunately I have to agree. MM is always a highpoint of my year andI have always bought at least two or more items during MM. But this year I am participating,but I will not be able to buy simply because the prices are way, way out of my budget's league

I stopped voting after round one to highlight my lack of interest. I've always enjoyed MM and have always bought something. It may be a blessing this year the options don't appeal as there's a commentary set in the March sale I want to complete.

Gary Osborne

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038751#Comment_1038751

I'm incredibly disappointed, and somewhat disillusioned, at Faithlife for their decision to structure the MM the way they did this year. As many others have said, this was always the highlight of the year for me, where I'd often spend a good bit of coin. Not this year. I halfheartedly voted a little bit this past week, but have stopped voting and won't be purchasing anything from the MM for the first time in forever.

DMB

Please everyone. The Logos high rollers get a discount suite at the Bellingham Holiday Inn (and complementary Ovaltine).

Wild Eagle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038751#Comment_1038751

I stopped voting not even completing round one for two reasons:

1. Bible books vs Bible books. I appreciate the new approach that this year it is something different, but I find myself that I can't vote one Bible book over the other. Theological Books like Romans are more appealing, while other books less famous like Numbers, Habakkuk, Nahum, can give insights that I never thought about, some golden nuggets which no one talks much. All Books are important to me, and lately since I spent much more time on famous/more known/more taught Books, I tried to spend more time on ignored once.

2. Since the least famous Books will be voted out right away, those will fall to the most expensive brackets which I can't afford anyway to start with because of the bundles, but those are the actually I need the most in my library. Books like Romans, I have 273 commentaries, and books like Nahum, 92.

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038737#Comment_1038737

For years, my largest expenditure in Logos for the year was during MM, but this year I have already lost interest.

Last year my MM purchase was twice my previous largest Faithlife purchase in the last 15 years. This year it will be zero. Personally, I prefer the breadth of Authors or Commentary sets over the depth of Bible Book collections when making large purchases. I don't begrudge any who are enjoying this MM. I only offer my personal perspective for those Faithlife employees who debrief the event in preparation for future years.

Rick Ausdahl

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038761#Comment_1038761

I've also always been on-board during MM. But this year, after my first look at the offerings, my anticipation balloon rapidly deflated and hit the floor. I thought "Hmmm ...I guess nothing for me this year". I didn't even check out the voting during the first couple of rounds. But then during round 3, I took at peek to see what was happening. Still no real excitement or interest, but I decided to cast my votes in that round in the off-chance something was to happen later in the process to peak my interest.

I do agree though that it's nice to see up front what's included in the bundles.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038785#Comment_1038785

I agree with the general sentiment but do want to point out that many in the forums have been asking for something different. Well, we got different! [:P]

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038788#Comment_1038788

Bring back the real March Madness and not this “Matching” none sense!

Do what you did last year. Commentary sets brackets or even better Base Package brackets 👍😁👌

DAL

Friedrich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038737#Comment_1038737

For years, my largest expenditure in Logos for the year was during MM, but this year I have already lost interest. Even with the winner, whatever that might be, I will not be interested. Too much money for resources I am not interested in. The approach might have seemed like a good idea from a seller standpoint, but not so much for a buyer - at least not for one that has a healthy amount of resources already. Not complaining. This keeps me from overspending. lol

Unfortunately I have to agree. MM is always a highpoint of my year andI have always bought at least two or more items during MM. But this year I am participating,but I will not be able to buy simply because the prices are way, way out of my budget's league

Sure, my initial impression is: far too big a chunk on any set to be that viable and realistic for me to purchase. But I will wait till the final set or two are selected and see what the cost is. I DO like some of the "studies" type monographs (such as found in Acts collection) that I might normally overlook. But I'm only mildly interested because it IS a huge outlay from the start with few of the works I REALLY want.

Coupled with high-end priced mobile Ed, not really a great way to get en masse support.

That all said, I kinda felt like the 19.99 Anchor Yale commentary sale was my MM this year. Fantastic prices on several great authors/works. I loaded up what I could.

Oh, and one more thing: Verbum, you gotta work on your website functionality. It's like crazy trying to figure out what of those Church Father's collections I own and what it costs. I have to work far to hard to figure out if I wanna get anything.

Ted Weis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038799#Comment_1038799

The sentiments expressed here are generally mine as well.

I appreciate that Logos tried something new, but the prices are too high.

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038803#Comment_1038803

I appreciate that Logos tried something new, but the prices are too high.

I agree. I don't think any of the bundles I've looked at so far would be worth the cost to me. My cheapest bundle so far is just over $110 and the most expensive is north of $300. I am sure they are much more for those who are not blessed with as many resources as I already have.

Add to this cost the fact that many of the books in each bundle are not ones I'd choose and it looks like this MM isn't likely to get many, if any, of my dollars.

In the future, should FL do this sort of thing again, I'd recommend they choose 5-6 really good books on each Bible book, and then give the discount on however many of them we chose to buy (not requiring we buy them all).

Mike Tourangeau

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038812#Comment_1038812

In the future, should FL do this sort of thing again, I'd recommend they choose 5-6 really good books on each Bible book, and then give the discount on however many of them we chose to buy (not requiring we buy them all).

This is a good idea......I wonder if Faithlife would consider breaking up the collections?

Paul Caneparo

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038824#Comment_1038824

In the future, should FL do this sort of thing again, I'd recommend they choose 5-6 really good books on each Bible book, and then give the discount on however many of them we chose to buy (not requiring we buy them all).

This is a good idea......I wonder if Faithlife would consider breaking up the collections?

Although it wasn't a MM sale, I guess Faithlife came close to Mark's idea last year with their Best Commentaries sale where they offered 50% off the top 5 rated commentaries for each book of the Bible as rated on www.bestcommentaries.com .Now that was a sale where the problem was working out which books to buy as there was so many great possibilities!

Matthew

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038732#Comment_1038732

One thing I have found helpful this year - and want to recognise - is that we can see what resources are included in each option.

To the best of my knowledge this is the first year it has happened.

I hope this continues in the future.

This. [Y] [Y]

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038849#Comment_1038849

I guess Faithlife came close to Mark's idea last year with their Best Commentaries sale where they offered 50% off the top 5 rated commentaries for each book of the Bible as rated on www.bestcommentaries.com

Yes, I remember that. It was great idea for a sale. Of course, it wasn't March Madness and so the discounts were not as high as the winner gets in MM.

I was also thinking not just commentaries, but other books as they've done this year. Fewer and with the option to buy them individually.

Robert S Stramski

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038849#Comment_1038849

Although it wasn't a MM sale, I guess Faithlife came close to Mark's idea last year with their Best Commentaries sale where they offered 50% off the top 5 rated commentaries for each book of the Bible as rated on www.bestcommentaries.com .

I would be all over this!!

Robert

Kevin Wang

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038932#Comment_1038932

Investing in the new Galaxie bundle will limit anything else I can buy this month. The relatively expensive MM deals probably won’t get as much attention from me as compared to times past. A doctoral student doing deep studies into a specific book may find this helpful.

JohnHubris

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038949#Comment_1038949

TLDR: MM dosn't give you good value for money because they are full of "filler" resources. Regular dynamic pricing upgrades are far better value for money.

The "less desirable" resources heavily outweigh the "more desirable" resources in any given collection. Money is far better spent on collections which have significantly "more desirable" resources.

For example the James collection: $297.59. (My cost with student discount and dynamic pricing.)
The only "more desirable" books would cost me purchased separately $58.36:

1. An Exegetical Summary of James ($11.17, $639.99 for the 32 volume set, $683.14 w/ Platinum upgrade)

2. High Definition Commentary: James ($27.20, $124.99 for 5 volumes)

3. Lexham Discourse Commentary: James ($19.99, $43.49 for 3 volumes)

Instead of buying three of the cheapest MM collections at $891 and getting maybe 10 "more desirable" resources
OR
I could upgrade to platinum ($683.14) and get the HD Commentary set ($124.99) and the Lexham Discourse commentary set ($43.49) for $851.62.

FYI: Platinum Upgrade ($683.14)
NT Exegetical Summary Set ($639.99),
PNTC Set ($327.99 purchased through Chinese Silver),
NAC Set ($358.50),
Tyndale commentary Set ($232.23)
Plus heaps of other "more desirable" resources!

Positive Logos marketing spin: Logos dynamic pricing and library upgrade pricing is good; while March Madness has been too good previously.

Josh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038988#Comment_1038988

TLDR: MM dosn't give you good value for money because they are full of "filler" resources. Regular dynamic pricing upgrades are far better value for money.

The "less desirable" resources heavily outweigh the "more desirable" resources in any given collection. Money is far better spent on collections which have significantly "more desirable" resources.

For example the James collection: $297.59. (My cost with student discount and dynamic pricing.)
The only "more desirable" books would cost me purchased separately $58.36:

1. An Exegetical Summary of James ($11.17, $639.99 for the 32 volume set, $683.14 w/ Platinum upgrade)

2. High Definition Commentary: James ($27.20, $124.99 for 5 volumes)

3. Lexham Discourse Commentary: James ($19.99, $43.49 for 3 volumes)

Instead of buying three of the cheapest MM collections at $891 and getting maybe 10 "more desirable" resources
OR
I could upgrade to platinum ($683.14) and get the HD Commentary set ($124.99) and the Lexham Discourse commentary set ($43.49) for $851.62.

FYI: Platinum Upgrade ($683.14)
NT Exegetical Summary Set ($639.99),
PNTC Set ($327.99 purchased through Chinese Silver),
NAC Set ($358.50),
Tyndale commentary Set ($232.23)
Plus heaps of other "more desirable" resources!

Positive Logos marketing spin: Logos dynamic pricing and library upgrade pricing is good; while March Madness has been too good previously.

This is the math that I was guessing at in my head - it does seem like they tried really hard with expensive filler materials that are not very desirable. It's a bit disappointing and hopefully not indicative of a wider issue that's going to continue to reoccur.

Phillip Chong

Agree. Regardless of who wins, I won't be buying any of these bundles. There are so many filler commentaries/resources while leaving out so many of the best ones! It may be cheaper to just buy the best ones even without discount!

Rick Ausdahl

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038785#Comment_1038785

I've also always been on-board during MM. But this year, after my first look at the offerings, my anticipation balloon rapidly deflated and hit the floor. I thought "Hmmm ...I guess nothing for me this year". I didn't even check out the voting during the first couple of rounds. But then during round 3, I took at peek to see what was happening. Still no real excitement or interest, but I decided to cast my votes in that round in the off-chance something was to happen later in the process to peak my interest.

I do agree though that it's nice to see up front what's included in the bundles.

I took a look at round 4, but decided it wouldn't be right to vote any more as I'm very unlikely to purchase any bundle. I've realized that on the "Book" side of the bundles, I already have a good percentage of the resources I'm really interested in. But even if I was interested in enough of the remaining resources to consider a purchase, the bundle cost is much more than I want to spend for several resources on a single book of the Bible--even with dynamic pricing applied to the MM sale prices.

I see more of interest on the "Mobile Ed" side of the bundles, but there I hit one (or both) of two roadblocks. 1) There are just enough courses in the bundle that I'm not interested in that it leaves the bundle price unappealing. 2) The bundle is just too large to be affordable for me, even with dynamic pricing applied to the MM sales prices.

But it's OK. I have benefitted from many sales and appreciate the many sales opportunities Faithlife has provided. I also realize there are likely many people who are in different walks of life and at different stages of life than mine, for whom this MM sale may be very appealing. I'm happy for them! [:)]

NathanL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1038752#Comment_1038752

"I'm incredibly disappointed, and somewhat disillusioned, at Faithlife for their decision to structure the MM the way they did this year. As many others have said, this was always the highlight of the year for me, where I'd often spend a good bit of coin. Not this year. I halfheartedly voted a little bit this past week, but have stopped voting and won't be purchasing anything from the MM for the first time in forever."

This is accurate for me.

Mattillo

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1039782#Comment_1039782

[N]

Agreed... This sale gets a thumbs down for me

John Kight

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1039796#Comment_1039796

I think they are discounting individual volumes now... or at least this one (I haven't checked others)

Mike Tourangeau

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1039799#Comment_1039799

Whatever it was it is no longer that way......Let's hope!

John Kight

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1039812#Comment_1039812

Weird! The discount has not been removed for me as well. [:|]

Kolen Cheung

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1039814#Comment_1039814

See these

https://www.logos.com/march-matchups-ot-2

https://www.logos.com/march-matchups-nt-1

https://www.logos.com/march-matchups-nt-2

It is obvious that these are still under constructions because other links (mobile ed, ot-1, etc.) are still broken. So let's wait patiently.

But good news is they're listening and they are doing whatever they can to sweeten the deal. Hopefully all those negativity will go away.

Happy bidding.

John Kight

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1039838#Comment_1039838

NICE! I might actually get a few things now. Thanks Faithlife!

Wild Eagle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1039939#Comment_1039939

UPDATE: it’s official, they are discounting individual books

https://community.logos.com/forums/t/180067.aspx

Thank you Faithlife 👌👍🙌

JohnHubris

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1040012#Comment_1040012

Awesome way to listen to feedback

Friedrich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1040019#Comment_1040019

not really sure where to put this (General?) but this resource was not discounted:

https://www.logos.com/product/55657/johns-use-of-ezekiel-understanding-the-unique-perspective-of-the-fourth-gospel

Mike Tourangeau

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1040559#Comment_1040559

not really sure where to put this (General?) but this resource was not discounted:

https://www.logos.com/product/55657/johns-use-of-ezekiel-understanding-the-unique-perspective-of-the-fourth-gospel

Good catch. Looks interesting

John Fidel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1040562#Comment_1040562

Isn't the book of John still in the running? Maybe that's the reason.

David Carter

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1040586#Comment_1040586

Isn't the book of John still in the running? Maybe that's the reason.

Indeed [Y] Currently beating Genesis 57% to 42%