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Welcome to The 5th Annual Cheapy Awards, the only awards that recognize the best (and worst) in video game retail, nominate and voted on by the Cheap Ass Gamers, the most knowledgeable video game shoppers in the world! The CAGs nominated and voted in 11 different retail related categories and 4 CAG community categories.

Congratulations to Wet Ninja who has won a $500 Amazon Gift Certificate for participating in the Cheapy Awards voting.
Read on for the results!

Best Online Game Retailer: Amazon.com


Best Online Customer Service: Amazon.com


Best Online Deal: Amazon.com: Deal of the Day


Biggest CAG Shopping News: Amazon.com: Deal of the Day

After three years of EBgames.com domination, it seems Amazon is on its way to starting the next Cheapy Awards dynasty. This year, Amazon.com simply dominated the competition, winning every relevant Cheapy Award. Amazon's combination of great deals and superb customer service resulted in CAGs forking over their cash (and their hearts) to the new king of online video game retail. Congratulations to Amazon on their impressive victories!

Amazon has posted a response on their Game Room Blog.


Best Brick & Mortar Game Retailer: Best Buy

It's back-to-back victories for Best Buy as they pick up their second Best Brick & Mortar Retailer award.
Price matching, lots of coupons, and their Reward Zone program all helped put Best Buy in the winner's circle. It's also possible that CAGs just disliked other retailers more.


Best Independent Online Game Retailer: Play-Asia.com

Increased competition from GoGamer and Lion Games didn't stop Play-Asia from winning Best Independent Online Retailer two years in a row.
Consistent weekly deals, seasonal sales/contests, great service, and coupons with every order secured the victory for the Hong Kong based specialty retailer.

A Play-Asia.com spokesperson responded to news of their Cheapy Award with this statement:
"We want to thank everyone who voted for us in this year's Cheapy Awards. We thank our customers, the Cheap Ass Gamer members, and the great CheapyD who runs these awards year after year. Winning the Best Independent Retailer Award two times in a row certainly means a lot to us. It makes us proud of the things we have done well, but most importantly, gets us excited about things we can still improve in the coming year(s). The whole Play-Asia.com crew will be working harder than ever! Happy Gaming and World Peace!"


Brick & Mortar Deal/Sale of the Year: Toy R Us: Super Mario Galaxy w/Free $25 Gift Card

Toys R Us came in first and second in this year's Brick & Mortar Deal of the Year Award. A free $25 gift card with Super Mario Galaxy during its first week of release was a fantastic deal, eclipsing TRU's own Buy 2, Get 1 Free Sale, a perennial CAG favorite.


Best Game Trading Website: Goozex.com

Goozex's original take on video game trading won them the admiration of many CAG traders and one of the biggest landslide victories in this year's Cheapy Awards.
Instead of swapping directly with other users, Goozex traders trade their games for Goozex Points, and then use those points to get other games from other Goozex users. Although the system may seem unorthodox, it clearly words well for the CAG community.

Goozex's crew recorded this acceptance speech:

Best Game Value: The Orange Box

When one typically thinks of EA published games, the term "value" is usually does not immediately come to mind. However, with the release of The Orange Box, EA showed they can definitely put out a package well worth your $60. The Orange Box is full of quality content, containing the award-winning Half-Life 2 and its two expansion packs, along with the excellent first-person puzzler, Portal, and the team-based multi-player shooter, Team Fortress 2.


Worst Online Game Retailer: EB Games.com / GameStop.com


Worst B&M Game Retailer: EB Games / GameStop

Now the circle is complete. After winning Best Online Game Retailer three years in a row, EBgames.com (and GameStop.com) has gone from first to worst, picking up both Worst Retailer awards in the 4th and 5th Annual Cheapy Awards. After GameStop acquired EB Games, EB's website became a mirror image of GameStop.com, losing all the great deals they once provided. GameStop/EB recently announced some upcoming changes to their websites, which will hopefully help them break this cycle of shame. Unfortunately, it looks like used game listings still will not state if case and manuals are included. Only time will tell if GameStop/EB can pull themselves out of the gutter.


CAG Community Award: speedy1961


CAG Deal Buster: speedy1961

This year, we decided to break up the CAG Hero into two separate awards, the CAG Community Award and the CAG Deal Buster. It didn't seem like it really mattered though as last year's CAG Hero winner, speedy1961, picked up both awards anyway. For those of you living under a rock, speedy1961 provides the CAG community with the heads up on each week's Sunday ads. Speedy had a pretty rough year as Circuit City subpoenaed both CAG and DVD Talk in a (failed) effort to learn his secret identity.

Congratulations (and thanks) to speedy1961, who had this to say in response to his double victory:
"These 2 awards mean the world to me this year especially in light of the fact that the villainous (or perhaps just misguided) CC tried to plant me in a hole in the ground and attempted to silence my voice forever. It really meant alot to me that CheapyD and all of CAG stood by my side during that painful & worrisome time. Thank you one and all for making me believe that my weekly scribblings have value and for showing me that what I do means a lot to my bretheren here at CheapAssGamer.com. Thanks!"


Most Memorable CAG Villain: JimmieMac

The 4th time is a charm for JimmieMac. In the past, he had previously lost out to trade scammers, but I guess every Icon has his day.

He had this to say:
"Victory is always sweetest when it is unexpected by others. When I first came to this site, I spoke no English and here I am today, crowned Most Memorial CAG Villain 2007.
It's been a boring and uneventful ride, but this is all I ever really wanted. So to all of you that voted for me, you."


Best CAG Forum Thread (non-deal): "CAG Fund for Child's Play"

It's the feel good story of the year! The CAG community raised over $27,000 for Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity. The community banded together to organize a raffle complete with a long list of great prizes. Congratulations to all of us!

Thanks to all the CAGs who participated in this years voting and nominatios for The 5th Annual Cheapy Awards. A special thanks to the award winning retailers who provided us with great deals and service in 2007. See you next year!

Previous winners:
1st Annual Cheapy Awards
2nd Annual Cheapy Awards
3rd Annual Cheapy Awards
4th Annual Cheapy Awards

Have the gift cards already been given out?

Um, I listed the winner in the 3rd sentence.

Haha, I want more acceptance videos!

how jimmie mac won in the midst of such good villains is beyond me... i demand a recount.

Your write-ups are getting shorter and shorter lol. Not saying it in a mean way, but as an observation

Originally Posted by scuba t Have the gift cards already been given out?

Yup, looks like Wet Ninja won it.

Edit: I love how the thread exploded as I was reading it. CheapyD had already addressed this by the time I finally got to the bottom, hit submit, and saw the thread refreshed with all these responses!

Holy crap, I was nominated for posting deals?

Freakin' sweet! And I won second place! .. by a thousand votes or so, but still! Second place! \o/

when you mention how EA made a hell of a deal with the orange box,
do understand this was Valve's doing, not EA
hell, if EA had their way, they'd probably charge you for extra classes in TF2
(they are charging for additional guns in BF: Bad Company xP)

Originally Posted by Scorch Holy crap, I was nominated for posting deals? Freakin' sweet! And I won second place! .. by a thousand votes or so, but still! Second place! \o/

Lol go scorch! Grats to all the winner. I need one of those bald caps for next years cheapyDday.

Originally Posted by xGunCrazyx when you mention how EA made a hell of a deal with the orange box, do understand this was Valve's doing, not EA hell, if EA had their way, they'd probably charge you for extra classes in TF2 (they are charging for additional guns in BF: Bad Company xP)

Valve was the developer of The Orange Box, EA was the publisher.

Sweet! Wet Ninja is a great person and I'm glad he won the gift card if it wasn't me.

BTW why did this take so long to post? Every year CheapyD sure does lay on the snooze button hard when it comes to the Cheapy Awards.

If Thorbahn3 won, I would've demanded a Florida style, hand recount. I look forward to next year and the entry of 'Developer with the least sense of the word "value"'. As it stands now, Ubisoft is way out in front.

Originally Posted by KingBroly If Thorbahn3 won, I would've demanded a Florida style, hand recount. I look forward to next year and the entry of 'Developer with the least sense of the word "value"'. As it stands now, Ubisoft is way out in front.

One for Marten, two for Marten.

The fact that Best Buy has won best retailer two years in a row in truly depressing.

I guess having no deals and bad service works for people.

Originally Posted by Ugamer_X The fact that Best Buy has won best retailer two years in a row in truly depressing. I guess having no deals and bad service works for people.

I think Cheapy had it right in his commentary, its the retailer we collectively hate least.

Thanks for posting the results Cheapy, and congrats to the winners!

Originally Posted by thorbahn3 BTW why did this take so long to post?

Tai.

And even if it isn't Tai, I wouldn't argue with this reason.

Originally Posted by gunm Tai. And even if it isn't Tai, I wouldn't argue with this reason.

Where the is your spoiler Japanese lady?!!!!

Amazon deserves all the praise it's getting. They truly have become a staple for online video game shopping. The dynasty begins!

Originally Posted by thorbahn3 One for Marten, two for Marten.

It's "Martin". I find your lack of Simpsons knowledge disturbing.