Private sale, pre sale, public sale

[Planeparke]

An ICO (initial coin offering) is an event by which a token/coin is distributed to the public bybthe developers.
It is divided into different stages, each with it's different specifications and clauses.
The project developers holds the rights to skip or omit any of the stages.

All the different stages can sometimes be confusing to investors, or anyone connected to the ICO, so let's walk through the stages of an ICO.
An ICO is usually divided into three parts;

1) Private sale
2) Pre sale
3) Public sale

- Private sale: The private sale is usually reserved for big investors.
The minimum investment in this stage is higher than all the other stages. And the bonuses per investment is also significantly higher than other stages.

During the private sale the project reaches out to potential investors (or group of investors), who are interested in the goals and targets of the project. As the project at this stage is still at the development stage, so the investors are basically investing in an idea.

- Pre sale: This could be private pre sale, or public pre sale, and hence it's could come before the private sale or public sale.
In essence, the pre sale ushers in the next stage of the ICO. It allows the project developers to decide how to best handle the sale, in terms of duration and bonuses.
The pre sale also has more bonuses than the suceeding stage. And the minimum investment is also higher.

- Public sale: This is also called crowd sale, as it is open to the entire public, this stage usually has the most publicity and the lowest bonuses.
It also has the lowest minimum investment option.

The project developers can choose to stretch any of this stages or omit any depending on the outcome of the TGE (token generation event).

[chenille]

Maybe you can add another stage of an ICO, but not every ICO has it, even if the number is increasing these days...
In addition it's often not visible at the beginning if an ICO has this last step.

All the different stages can sometimes be confusing to investors, or anyone connected to the ICO, so let's walk through the stages of an ICO.
An ICO is usually divided into three parts;

1) Private sale
2) Pre sale
3) Public sale

4) Exit scam

- Exit scam: the last step of some ICOs is indeed the exit scam. This means the ICO owners are taking the raised money and vanish forever. The project will not be completed because this was never planned. The investors have lost all their money and the ICO owners are now rich. But on the onther side they have to hide now because they are criminals and being searched for stealing money.

To avoid investing in SCAM ICOs it's important to review every ICO in a very detailed way - or to stay away from ICOs. The money you haven't spent, you can't lose.  

[Planeparke]

I would be careful to include that next time, as its becoming more rampant.

[forestgunman]

Thank you for the well written article, I used to mix private sale up with presale, now I know the difference! Keep up with the great work!

[jseverson]

Maybe you can add another stage of an ICO, but not every ICO has it, even if the number is increasing these days...
In addition it's often not visible at the beginning if an ICO has this last step.

All the different stages can sometimes be confusing to investors, or anyone connected to the ICO, so let's walk through the stages of an ICO.
An ICO is usually divided into three parts;

1) Private sale
2) Pre sale
3) Public sale

4) Exit scam

- Exit scam: the last step of some ICOs is indeed the exit scam. This means the ICO owners are taking the raised money and vanish forever. The project will not be completed because this was never planned. The investors have lost all their money and the ICO owners are now rich. But on the onther side they have to hide now because they are criminals and being searched for stealing money.

To avoid investing in SCAM ICOs it's important to review every ICO in a very detailed way - or to stay away from ICOs. The money you haven't spent, you can't lose.  

Lmao you hit the nail right on the head. You could also put a slash in there for failure. Most of them also go through this step because they care more about marketing and raising funds than actually putting out a product that's actually useful. It's an inevitable outcome if everyone who buys your product cares more about what it's going to be worth in the future than what it actually brings to the table. This creates a vicious cycle where both parties are at fault.

[Pump to Moon]

General explain, you failed to delivery value in your post.

[seoincorporation]

Maybe you can add another stage of an ICO, but not every ICO has it, even if the number is increasing these days...
In addition it's often not visible at the beginning if an ICO has this last step.

All the different stages can sometimes be confusing to investors, or anyone connected to the ICO, so let's walk through the stages of an ICO.
An ICO is usually divided into three parts;

1) Private sale
2) Pre sale
3) Public sale

4) Exit scam

- Exit scam: the last step of some ICOs is indeed the exit scam. This means the ICO owners are taking the raised money and vanish forever. The project will not be completed because this was never planned. The investors have lost all their money and the ICO owners are now rich. But on the onther side they have to hide now because they are criminals and being searched for stealing money.

To avoid investing in SCAM ICOs it's important to review every ICO in a very detailed way - or to stay away from ICOs. The money you haven't spent, you can't lose.  

Exit scam is one of the more important stages, fun to see how devs run with the money from the first 3 stages, is important because 90% from icos have that 4th stage, and yeah, they end like criminals and hide from law is the only way to enjoy that money because stealing still a crime in any country.

To know the coin/token sale stages isn't a reason to avoid getting scammed, doesn't matter at what stage you buy if at end all will gone.

[mstepniak]

people are really tired with scam ICOs and if somebody has good idea is really hard to collect money even for soft cap

[Hagmonar]

Exit scam is one of the more important stages, fun to see how devs run with the money from the first 3 stages, is important because 90% from icos have that 4th stage, and yeah, they end like criminals and hide from law is the only way to enjoy that money because stealing still a crime in any country.

To know the coin/token sale stages isn't a reason to avoid getting scammed, doesn't matter at what stage you buy if at end all will gone.

Why does most of the investors only settle in buying their tokens from these phases of ICO even though it is better to buy in decentralized exchange. When the main sale ends, usually decentralized exchanges will list the token in a much cheaper price than their actual ICO stage, thus making it very profitable if the project turns out to be good.