u must study more about ICOs. because there are many types of ICOs. some of them containing only 1 step for token sale and some others may have more than 1 step to sale tokens.
some of ICO's, use pre-sell options for distributing tokens before presenting the tokens. you can check ICO's site to see that the ICO is in witch steps.
Important: Due to unprecedented demand it is likely we will sell all tokens in the public pre-sale, with no ICO. ** First batch of KYC emails have been sent - 6th Feb. **
it means that welcoming to pre-sell is very high;so tokens may have been sold before starting main ICO.