Purchasing Strategy

In the past, a Logos recommended purchasing strategy was to hold off purchasing new volumes in a series that was part of the base package (e.g. commentaries), because Logos may include them for a very small price as part of a future version of that base package.

My recollection is that this strategy was advantageous from L3 to L4, but not from L4 to L5 (e.g. Latest NAC volumes and Ency. of Christianity were excluded from upgrade to L5). At least this was my experience.

Now, consider that from time to time Logos loses the ability to sell some resources or include them in base packages, such as those published by Moody and Baker, respectively.

A Logos salesperson says this purchasing strategy is still valid, but given foregoing, I’m thinking this is not such a good gamble anymore for important resources.

Your comments please.

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Comments

JT (alabama24)

Are there particular volumes you are considering?

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515625#Comment_515625

I don't think that there is any fool-proof purchasing strategy to guarantee that you will pay the lowest possible price but there are general principles. For instance, purchasing through Community Pricing is almost always less expensive and purchasing a set is usually better than individual volumes. Of course there are often significant sales to consider and some of the best sales happen around the launch of new versions of Logos or by upgrading.

I have often thought of the good advice a friend has often given me. Take the opportunity when it is there because it may not be there in the future. A case in point is the Moody resources.

In summary, nothing is guaranteed but good things come to those who are ready.

Deacon Steve

I'm not able to speak to scenario you describe in regard to new volumes of an existing set as part of a new base package (i.e. "hold off"). Logos' policy is to pay for a resource once and only once. I've only experienced a change in base packages one time. I was given credit for everything I owned before purchasing the new package. That included the "extras" that I had in my library above the original base package. It was not an exact one-for-one, but it was fair based on the discounts achieved through bundling of resources.

I've always felt that community pricing and pre-pub offerings are the way to go. They are the best value on a reasonable path to upgrading your library. If a new base package comes along in the future, I think you will find that Logos will do everything they can to make the "upgrade" worthwhile.

Sleiman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515642#Comment_515642

I have often thought of the good advice a friend has often given me. Take the opportunity when it is there because it may not be there in the future. A case in point is the Moody resources.

That's a great advice Bruce, thanks for sharing. This also applies to many other things in general in life.

Unix

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515726#Comment_515726

A strategy is to think about how likely it is that a certain resource will ever go on a sale. That's the strategy I've been using - the volumes I've bought for the regular price have not been on a sale since and don't seem to have ever been, other than initially on pre-pub, shipping years before I purchased them. It has happened me only once that the regular price for a volume that I bought was lowered long after my purchase: John by Barnabas Lindars. But it was lowered only little and I had started using it, so ... I really wouldn't have saved a lot by postponing the purchase.

When I purchased an individual volume from Anchor Yale Bible (I don't have any of the sets and none of the volumes as printed matter) I was thinking that perhaps this volume is going to be included in the sets and not sold individually anymore. Anchor Mark 8–16 by Joel Marcus? (it has transliterated Gk)

I have the Original Languages Library, and no equivalent base-package is sold to regular customers anymore, and I really don't feel like buying things with the Academic Discount anyway since none of such resources can ever be sold or given away to anyone, not even in a will (especially not to anyone who is already a Logos user since You can't have two installations running on the same computer very easily). If I would buy Biblical Languages at Academic Discount and if there would still be dynamic pricing (note that dynamic pricing is not voluntary) then I would no longer be able to ever sell or give away any base-packages. Same would happen if after the purchase of Biblical Languages upgrading the base-package again with dynamic pricing.

Note also that unfortunately none of the current base-packages are especially likely to disappear any time soon. So right now You don't have to buy a base-package just in case it disappears to never return again. I'm not denying that there will be changes, just saying that changes have already been made that are unlikely to change further in that direction: such as when the different small base-packages disappeared and the only thing that is sold now is Starter. (Bronze is equivalent to the old Scholar's.)

It's true that pre-pubs are a good way to save (other than if the resource in question is going to be included in a base-package in the near future of course), but can also become very addictive and unnecessary purchases become too tempting if You always look for pre-pubs. At the same time it's an unfortunate fact that looking for titles on sale is often the only way to save: so what I have done is that I have sometimes looked through what's currently on a sale and sorted by Newest (because I'm mainly interested in new books): http://www.logos.com/products/search?q=&Specials=On+Sale&start=&sort=newest&pageSize=15 ... right now that's 1001 results, 67 pages. I was able to get to page 64 or 65, then I quit the browsing, at page 64 or 65 You have NAC volumes - so fairly old. To not miss any sales You would have to do that browsing every month, but it would be tedious as You would see the same old pre-pubs month after month + follow http://twitter.com/logos. Although I have only once bought something on the twitter deal, and I returned the item and got a refund (Göttingen, it's been on a sale twice again after that, and I have contacted someone who will sell it to me used a little bit cheaper than any sale price).

Sometimes I also look for used items on http://www.stilltruth.com - last time I looked ~24 hours ago the forum was still under reconstruction after an online attack. But You have to give careful consideration as to how trustworthy the seller is. There are some amazing things for sale. I have also been able to spot people posting against the rules here on the Logos forums, either in General or Logos 5, selling Logos books, and I bought from one of them and he was very reliable.

That's, in addition to that I get some emails from Logos, about all of it. The email lists I'm subscribing are: Company Updates, Personalized Offers, Catholic, Church History & Biography, Controversial Issues, Greek Studies, NT Studies, Theology, Weekly Sales, Black Friday, March Madness, Vyrso Alerts, Vyrso Free Books, Android Updates. (Sometimes I have the Weekly Sales email list un-ticked.)

Some of these lists seem to just promote base-package upgrades, such as Android Updates and Catholic.

I don't use the homepage in the software. When surfing You sometimes see blog headlines to the right, and just to make sure I've surfed to the blog sometimes when I've had time to. The homepage seemed to be just pointing to the blog.

Another, perhaps better strategy that I've unfortunately very rarely been using, is to look monthly whether the particular items You want are on a sale + subscribe to Weekly Sales. What You would still be missing would be coupon codes in emails.

Personalized Offers sounds like a really good emailing list, but unfortunately it mostly just reminds about pre-pubs and very very few of them are especially interesting to me. I rarely click on them because I suppose they track the clicking and send more offers about the same. Coupon codes are usually for things like Systematic Theologies or the NT use of the OT i.e. uninteresting to me (I don't think the latter book is especially good/unbiased).

Scott S

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515625#Comment_515625

Are there particular volumes you are considering?

The UBS and NIGTC volumes come to mind. Logos released a few UBS volumes today and that got me to thinking about this purchasing strategy. I let the order go through, because in posing my question, I pretty much talked myself out of waiting, at least for these works. There are more volumes to complete UBS set. Today's release did not include Isaiah, which Amazon lists as published last month. Kindle-only-price is $140.

Scott S

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515740#Comment_515740

Thank you to the others who commented.

Unix

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515740#Comment_515740

I would see it as unlikely that Logos offers a good deal on the UBS Translator's Handbooks, as A-company offers much better deals (I have the NT-set there, I've discussed it very recently in: Should I purchase a few books for some future friend?). I also bought the Upgrade on pre-pub, but I'm not going to buy the OT-set (and it's not even offered by A-company). Logos is probably going to charge extra upon including the Upgrade in a base-package and may even include the whole set in Platinum instead of Gold in the future (just a guess of course):

The UBS:
Are there particular volumes you are considering?

mike

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515748#Comment_515748

purchasing strategy?

for me: wait for BlackFriday sale, Christmas sale, MarchMadness sale, Logos 6 sale where they bundle more books.

fgh

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/515739#Comment_515739

I really don't feel like buying things with the Academic Discount anyway since none of such resources can ever be sold or given away to anyone, not even in a will

That's a myth that Bob has now debunked: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/73199/510742.aspx#510742.

Matthew C Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/516037#Comment_516037

That's a myth that Bob has now debunked: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/73199/510742.aspx#510742.

It did not start as a myth. It was/is? in the academic license agreement. Bob just decided to be generous, again.

mike

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/516043#Comment_516043

That's a myth that Bob has now debunked: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/73199/510742.aspx#510742.

It did not start as a myth. It was/is? in the academic license agreement. Bob just decided to be generous, again.

I don't really understand .. So you call sell the Academic Account? the answer is very vague ..

Can you sell the books you've purchased with Academic Account also? this is also vague..

No definite answer.. yes or no.

Unix

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/516171#Comment_516171

The part about will doesn't matter to me, I would be selling/giving the books when I get too old, not knowing when I die:

That's a myth that Bob has now debunked: http://community.logos.com/forums/p/73199/510742.aspx#510742.:
I really don't feel like buying things with the Academic Discount anyway since none of such resources can ever be sold or given away to anyone, not even in a will

Yeah exactly, what is a long enough time? What if You've upgraded a base-package or some other dynamic pricing bundle with Academic Pricing only a few years before wanting to sell? One thing is for sure: Logos is not going to let customer return the upgrade. Someone at Logos is going to control all this and it would be weary for the customer to start explaining and giving reasons for selling:

Can you sell the books you've purchased with Academic Account also? this is also vague..
No definite answer.. yes or no.