Why the wait on finished pre-pubs?

I think it's because when you have already purchased it in a package, then there is no harm to the user to go ahead and download it early; whereas, if you have ordered it via pre-pub, they have to stick to the release date because if they didn't, then some people would get a sudden and unexpected charge for the resource.  

My guess is they want to encourage us to buy base packages.

Jan Krohn said:

My guess is they want to encourage us to buy base packages.

This has been the theory over the decades (we're in the 2nd for prepubs).  Let's say it went in prepub maybe 7 years ago, and you see it in a package.  You're so excited you HAVE to have THAT package.  Sure there's a suspicious asterisk but WHO CARES!  BUY THE PACKAGE!!

But as it turns out the account is only partially true.  During major updates the Bellingham bank can handle only so much credit card volume.  And the Faithlife bank account has limits on how much money can be deposited (updates are so wildly successful).  The ONLY answer was to make the people who didn't throw caution to the wind, to wait some more.

And it's only fair.  True, it's takes Faithlife months and often years to just get around to a prepub.  Rumor suggests people actually 'need' resources.  Rumors!

How's that?  (Faithlife marketing really does thinks some of this stuff.)

JT (alabama24) said:

 Similarly, spreading out the dates allows others to jump in. 

Or jump out, recognizing the marketing silliness (me).

When I first became aware of this several Logos versions ago, two reasons came to mind, (neither of which have been verified by Logos):

1) We may be making an assumption that the product shipped in base packages is actually a 'finished' version, it may just be ready for a final QA check before release to those who ordered it on pre-pub but have not yet paid for it. Having already paid for the base package we may be getting a 'normally good enough' preview which may or may not need to get updated for final release (depending on whether the final QA check finds anything that needs to be fixed (some typos and incorrect hyperlinks get through into the released version anyway as many of us know, hence the report typo feature.)).

2) Not everyone has time to go through things and jump on new base packages as soon as they are released, so an intentional delay in release of prepubs now included in new base packages avoids the need for 'manual' refunds at the prepub price as it is now a lot cheaper in the base package that may get purchased just a few weeks (or days) later. (I know I have cancelled many prepubs that have been included in base packages, mainly because the base package price was significantly less than the cost of items I had on order as prepubs AND I got a number of additional lower priority volumes I might not otherwise have purchased.

I agree you have to be more careful with prepubs these days and judge for yourself how urgent it is to have that new volume or set in your library, these days for me it often depends on the discount offered on the prepub (many are offered now at significantly less than 50%, hence usually get put on the 'wait' list unless exceptionally interesting) - it all depends on how much you really 'need' that new title or collection, rather than being 'nice to have' or 'might be useful'.

Rosie Perera said:

I seem to recall hearing that processing people's credit cards for releases is still a manual thing, and it takes them time to get through them all

Well, that's interesting.  I thought CCs were a 3rd-party pass-thru and thus secure (Bob). But maybe he was talking about storing CCs only.