Reduced price game guides, all stores. Thread 6

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3-17-07 Here should be most of the information that anyone would need in acquiring guides. please read ALL the information below before asking questions. most question are answered below. Again thank you 6669 for all your contributions to this thread and web site.



My wifes web site - Nice jewelry good prices.

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For hopefully the latestest most current up to date guide drops please refer to the

"CAG Strategy Guide WIKI page"

recent drop section

http://wiki.cheapassgamer.com/index.php/Category:Strategy_Guides_(recent_drops)

master list section

http://wiki.cheapassgamer.com/index.php/Category:Strategy_Guides_(master_lists)

they will be filetered from the thread posts to the WIKI page as often as possible. Thank you for your contribution.




Listed in the wiki is the most up to date compiled list of all known guide deals from the posts of this thread and similar threads. I will update the wikis lists as people post new guide deals. Everything listed in this thread “should” be the price listed or lower. These prices are typically company wide price reductions and not YMMV. But just because the prices are typically universal does not mean that they are guaranteed to be sold to you. Most stores have a destroy clause with the guide companies. So whether or not you get these guides depend on many many factors from how diligent a staff is to how reasonable or friendly one is. Good luck on any you may find and good luck on acquiring them. Please dont have a fit if a store wont let you have them just move on. Causing trouble rarely gets guides and most of the time stops others from getting guides in your area. If anything is incorrect or missing please post so corrections can be made.


Now you can just cut, paste, print, and GO!!!



What is a Penny Guide:

To answer this question fully, one first has to understand the longstanding legal agreemenat which [book] publishers have with book sellers such as Borders, Barnes & Noble and other chain and Mom & Pop shops, as well as other retailers who similarly sell their books.

For several decades, publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Random House, et cetera will send out X-number of a title to stores to be sold. After a time, when it is decided that those older titles have little chance of selling and the store shelf real-estate would be better used for newer publications, they issue a recall to the vendors to field destroy all remaining copies of titles A, B & C.

The stores then will pull those titles from their inventory to be field-destroyed, and in their systems mark the publications as 1¢. The 1¢ price is to indicate to the publisher that they are no-longer selling the pulled title, and it is also to serve as a Red Flag to any cashier who might ring up a title (on the chance that the titles were not pulled as legally they were required).

When the pull lists are sent out by the publishers, and the stores adjust the price in their inventory (and pull and field-destroy the books), the stores also are to report to the publisher the number of the books they pulled. (This is generally done at a corporate level.) The publisher then credits the stores full cost of the books.

So lets say, MegaChain orders 8000 copies of the Bread Baker strategy guide for their stores in North America for say, $4 a piece. They owe $32,000 to Publisher X. Bread Baker being a big seller and a hard game, then sells 6000 of those 8000 guides, leaving around 2000 guides on the shelves when Publisher X issues the pull demand. Publisher X then issues MegaChain an $8000 credit for the 2000 unsold copies of the guide.


According to IAmTheCheapestGamer, some retailers also have deals where each copy of pulled titles sent to their recognized Recycling Centers are additionally issued further credit for being environmentally responsible in the manner in which they field destroy each book.



How you can help: You can keep a printed copy of this list in your jacket, wallet, purse whatever and when you go to any store that carries guides look for guides for games that have been out typically around six months or more and ask for a price check or better yet use a store scanner if they are available. If they are anything less than cover price write it down for us. Also please when you post the info here if it looks like it’s a temporary sale, please post that as well otherwise it will be assumed to a be a permanent price reduction. If you scan a guide and it comes up a different price that what the master lists suggests please list the day and store that you had the guide scanned. Also please list if you physically saw a self-scanner’s price, physically saw a cash registers price or vocally heard a price from the store’s staff. This might sound like a lot and of course we will take what we can get but this will go a long way to having the best master list as well as ferreting out different store practices and policy’s. All help is appreciated and thank you.




Trading: I spoke with the post office and found out that the cheapest form of mailing to the 48 contiguous states would be to use “media mail” It will take a little longer but it will also allow the least amount of money per transaction when trying to acquire guides for your collection. For an average guide weight of about 9 oz its $1.42 cents. All you need to do is put it in an envelope and ship it media mail. He mentioned no one should have a problem if you use the same envelope several times to cut down on costs. He also mentioned that when shipping Media mail that you cannot have any personal correspondence in the envelope. Only books and an invoice are acceptable. If trading is in you interest you do whatever is most comfortable for you and your trading party this was merely a FYI and a good way to keep it cheap.



Helpful links to check for reduced priced guides or guides in general. You will likely never find one cent guides here but various discounted guides and possibly some that you have been searching for.


Best Buy

Best Buy guide search


Circuit City

Circuit City guide search


EB Games

EB Games guide search


Gamestop (babages,software etc,funcoland)

Gamestop guide search


Overstock

Overstock guide search


Toys R Us (uhh best link I could find)

Toys R Us guide search


strategy-guides.net (another large site of guides)

strategy-guides.net guide search


bookpool (guides typically 45% off or so )

Book pool guide search


Looking for assistance: I am looking for some staff from Best Buy’s, EB’s, Gamestop’s and stores of the like. When EB Games or Gamestop has a price reduction their shelves can be empty in a day or two to even as little as just a few hours. EB and Gamestop have daily price changes so all depending on the store’s staff they could be all gone almost immediately. If I could get some staff that can either post here first thing any day that they have a price reduction on guides or that might be able to text message me with such price reductions so that I might be able to inform CAG’ers ASAP. Whether or not us the end user would actually be able to get them from a particular stores staff is very much an YMMV but if there is anyone who can help this would greatly increase the chance’s of CAG’ers being able to pick up guides from these locations. If anyone is interested and able to help please e-mail me at [email protected]. Thank you all for your consideration.



Thank you all for making CAG what it is and for all your contributions.


Disclaimer: This list is intended to help all guide hunters. Please feel free to print yourself a copy and get what you can find. Please do not post this list on another site. {e-mail me please if for some reason you would want to. [email protected]} Please just link to this thread, add to this list and help it grow. Thank you





all guides are now listed in the wiki please go there. thank you.
 
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In order for that to work, though, I'd have to pull the guides for them to make sure they get trashed in the first place, then get really lucky (the guides would have to be thrown out the same day or I'd probably miss them, no rain, guides didn't get torn up, etc.), and in this case I think they actually share a dumpster with a Chinese food joint. Ick.

EDIT: To hell with it, if you're in west Houston and inclined to do so, the store is near the intersection of 290 and 1960/SR-6. Good luck, knock yourself out, and hook me up with Animal Crossing if you score.

[quote name='Zmonkay']Here's a hint: Dumpster Dive! Seriously, sounds gross, but most GS/EB have a dumbster in the back that is JUST for cardboard, no food/nasty crap. Now, I don't think it's entirely legal to "steal" from the trash, but just don't let anyone see you. I personally haven't found much that way (the couple times I tried it had unfortunatley rained before, and they were ruined) but I know others who have had great luck with that[/quote]
 
[quote name='ummmmmm......']hey doc, bestbuy isn't better either. its not like you can ask a bestbuy employee to save you a penny guide. they do the same exact thing. they take their guides and throw them in the dumpster just like gs/eb. the only difference is that we can hide the guides in the store and wait until they get pennied out. policy is policy, if they gave guides away for free they would go out of business and the said employee could lose their job.

the only thing that gives best buy an edge for me is that we have people that work their and give us heads up when its time for pennying a guide.[/quote]


True except for one thing....I'VE NEVER BEEN DENIED A GUIDE AT BEST BUY IF IT'S ON THE SHELF!!!!!!!!!! At Ebgames and Gamestop they've always hassled me and i had to sweet talk them into giving me the guide, was so much of a hassle for one lousy guide that i DO NOT shop there for ANYTHING!!! They have bad attitudes and hassle you over a piece of garbage, i mean litterally, it's a piece of garbage that they give you a hard time over. Who wants to fight for a piece of garbage, anyways.

Also i recommend Best Buy because when the PS3 lauch happened i was one of those goofballs that camped out for three days to get one. Best Buy bought us pizza, coffee, donuts, gave us Tshirts, Arbys, let us use their bathroom until they got a portopotty in, didn't mind us coming into the store every hour or so to warm up, they rock!!!!
 
[quote name='ummmmmm......']hey doc, bestbuy isn't better either. its not like you can ask a bestbuy employee to save you a penny guide. they do the same exact thing. they take their guides and throw them in the dumpster just like gs/eb. the only difference is that we can hide the guides in the store and wait until they get pennied out. policy is policy, if they gave guides away for free they would go out of business and the said employee could lose their job.

the only thing that gives best buy an edge for me is that we have people that work their and give us heads up when its time for pennying a guide.[/QUOTE]

Good point, but where I live, it's different, so I guess it's one of those YMMV things. The Best Buy stores near my house not only keep the guides out (as opposed to tossing them) they also encourage their sale. Those 2 near me even price the shelf and the guides directly as .01. I guess it's up to the manager in the store...

The other thing is, one EB I went to said he couldn't sell their .01 guides, because he'd lose his job, much like you said in your post. The funny thing is, his exact words to me were "if you REALLY have to have them, I can let them go for $9.99 each".

I, of course, said "no thanks", but it's funny that he said he'd lose his job if he sold them instead of destroying them, then immediately tried to sell them for $9.99. ??????????????????????/
 
One thing I've never understood is WHY the guides must be destroyed. It's pretty much every retailers policy. I understand it makes sense to get rid of them to make shelf space, but do retailers get some sort of kickback from guide distributer's for agreeing to destroy the guides? And then, I never understood why the get pennied out; it just causes trouble. Why not destroy it but leave the price alone, or just cut the price in half; joe blow would probably pick it up. I mean, can the money from the guide distributor really be $5-$10 a guide destroyed? I doubt it.
 
[quote name='GrilledWitOnions']One thing I've never understood is WHY the guides must be destroyed. It's pretty much every retailers policy. I understand it makes sense to get rid of them to make shelf space, but do retailers get some sort of kickback from guide distributer's for agreeing to destroy the guides? And then, I never understood why the get pennied out; it just causes trouble. Why not destroy it but leave the price alone, or just cut the price in half; joe blow would probably pick it up. I mean, can the money from the guide distributor really be $5-$10 a guide destroyed? I doubt it.[/QUOTE]

Guides have a huge mark up in stores. Most guides cost the store around half of what they sell for and sometimes even less. The markup is 50-70%. The deal with the guide makers is that stores receive full credit for whatever guides they don't sell. The only thing is that the guides can't be sold since they are getting credit. Shipping guides back to the manufacturer is costly and doesn't make sense, so stores destroy the guide and throw them away so no one can buy them and they don't have to ship it back to the manufacturer(although TRU used to ship penny guides to their distribution center to have them destroyed). When a guide that is a penny gets sold, it can cause stores to face problems with the manufacturer. The manufacturer credited the store for the unsold merchandise and now the store has sold a penny guide and instead of making $7.50 off the guide, they've made $15, while the manufacturer isn't getting any of that. Why the penny price? It's the easiest method to have the merchandise marked out so employees know not to sell it. Some stores used to set prices insanely high instead of a penny(like 99999.99) so if it did ring up at the register then nobody would buy it for that price. There are problems with that method, though, such as the value of inventory would be off along with the fact that in most states if something is marked a certain price and it rings up higher than that, they can face fines from the weights and measures group of the government. It's ok if something rings up at a lower price than is marked, but it can't ring up higher.
 
[quote name='tubtub']Guides have a huge mark up in stores. Most guides cost the store around half of what they sell for and sometimes even less. The markup is 50-70%. The deal with the guide makers is that stores receive full credit for whatever guides they don't sell. The only thing is that the guides can't be sold since they are getting credit. Shipping guides back to the manufacturer is costly and doesn't make sense, so stores destroy the guide and throw them away so no one can buy them and they don't have to ship it back to the manufacturer(although TRU used to ship penny guides to their distribution center to have them destroyed). When a guide that is a penny gets sold, it can cause stores to face problems with the manufacturer. The manufacturer credited the store for the unsold merchandise and now the store has sold a penny guide and instead of making $7.50 off the guide, they've made $15, while the manufacturer isn't getting any of that. Why the penny price? It's the easiest method to have the merchandise marked out so employees know not to sell it. Some stores used to set prices insanely high instead of a penny(like 99999.99) so if it did ring up at the register then nobody would buy it for that price. There are problems with that method, though, such as the value of inventory would be off along with the fact that in most states if something is marked a certain price and it rings up higher than that, they can face fines from the weights and measures group of the government. It's ok if something rings up at a lower price than is marked, but it can't ring up higher.[/quote]Wow I never would have imagined ful credit for the guides, and everything else you said made sense too... just seems like there would be a better way than pennying them out since it causes so much trouble. Not that I care, I love getting things cheap, but if I were in change or something at a store (higher up), I would be thinking about ways to circumvent this problem.

Although I must say, you guys must get lazy stores. I have only ever found one oenny guide, at TRU, and it was DBZ Budakai tenkachai 2.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']It actually WAS @ CC, though don't they PM competitor coupons? If they do, I know what I'm doing for that God Of War II guide.[/QUOTE]
they might, but they might not
 
i managed to obtain god of war ii guide at circuit city for 4.99 + tax.

i used the actual coupon from gamepro and circuit city price matched the coupon
 
cool, i see your point. and yeah the being kind to customers is also a plus. its a great thing that your best buys are nice. from experience mine aren't the greatest in the world. its great to see the positives of customer/retailer relationships.
 
[quote name='Warner1281']That's it. Just make sure the wiki lists it as 1 cent for THAT particular store.[/quote]
Awesome. Can't wait for Best Buy tomorrow. So many guides, I hope they have some I want (who can say no to an awesome 1 CENT guide?)
 
[quote name='tubtub']Guides have a huge mark up in stores. Most guides cost the store around half of what they sell for and sometimes even less. The markup is 50-70%. The deal with the guide makers is that stores receive full credit for whatever guides they don't sell. The only thing is that the guides can't be sold since they are getting credit. Shipping guides back to the manufacturer is costly and doesn't make sense, so stores destroy the guide and throw them away so no one can buy them and they don't have to ship it back to the manufacturer(although TRU used to ship penny guides to their distribution center to have them destroyed). When a guide that is a penny gets sold, it can cause stores to face problems with the manufacturer. The manufacturer credited the store for the unsold merchandise and now the store has sold a penny guide and instead of making $7.50 off the guide, they've made $15, while the manufacturer isn't getting any of that. Why the penny price? It's the easiest method to have the merchandise marked out so employees know not to sell it. Some stores used to set prices insanely high instead of a penny(like 99999.99) so if it did ring up at the register then nobody would buy it for that price. There are problems with that method, though, such as the value of inventory would be off along with the fact that in most states if something is marked a certain price and it rings up higher than that, they can face fines from the weights and measures group of the government. It's ok if something rings up at a lower price than is marked, but it can't ring up higher.[/QUOTE]

So buying penny guides (or dumpster diving) is actually environmentally friendly! Get out there and save some trees, CAGs!
 
Let me explain a bit more as to what is done with the guides once they've been pennied/pulled. I was told this by a Best Buy employee who I've become quite friendly with. He usually recognizes me and the other local CAG(or FWer) who comes in soon after guides drop to try grabbing them.

We got to talking during the drop BEFORE this one about what happens to the guides after they've been marked for destruction. According to him, they send the guides that were pulled en masse to a recycler and get roughly .40 per guide for them. Now, if you couple that with getting credit from Brady/Prima and possibly Doublejump and any other guide pubs I missed, that sounds ALOT better than selling the guides for a penny each.

I hate to say it, but people(like me for a awhile) who come in and try to 'clean out' a store really do alert the stores as to their lax stance on pulling the guides(and the money they're losing in the process). And, even if(like I tried the last time with BB and even TRU) you try to explain that you're only trading these things with other people online and NOT Ebaying them, the store managers will almost ALWAYS think you're doing the latter.

Either way, I'm happy as I managed to trade for the 2 main guides I wanted from this recent drop, but I still wish the stores in PA were like the ones in Jersey in some spots, where they mark the shelf AND the guides @ .01 and make it REALLY easy for people to grab them.

I do hope this explanation as I was told it helps clear some things up.
 
yea it is weird how when they refuse to sell it to you claiming you will resell them. I paid for shipping and send them to friends (expensive for me since I ship guides oversea. cost $$8.85 to ship a guide to Peru)
 
[quote name='Azumangaman']Awesome. Can't wait for Best Buy tomorrow. So many guides, I hope they have some I want (who can say no to an awesome 1 CENT guide?)[/QUOTE]

Probably will be too late. The guides were already in limited supply in the first place and the last drop took place almost 2 weeks ago. It's 99% likely that they're all gone, but good luck, none the less...
 
[quote name='62t']yea it is weird how when they refuse to sell it to you claiming you will resell them. I paid for shipping and send them to friends (expensive for me since I ship guides oversea. cost $$8.85 to ship a guide to Peru)[/quote]

Of course, the best for me is the local Gamestops' DM, who thinks all of his clerks must be giving me the information on what dropped and is ready to fire ANYONE who gives or sells a guide, especially to me since I sent in a friend and they were given at least one guide for free.

Thing is, I still think it must be how brazen I was at one point with grabbing the guides, walking up with stacks of them that got me essentially 'barred' from buying anything that's not full priced.

I just laugh, especially since most of the local stores have now been ordered to stuff their back rooms full with the guides to keep people from buying the pennied ones I suppose which will ALSO keep people from buying the regularly priced ones AT ALL. I haven't heard one person recently asking if there's a guide available when buying some newer games.

And actually, I would rather see these guides going to people who'll use them, instead of in a dumpster. But, you can't always get what you want, I suppose.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']And actually, I would rather see these guides going to people who'll use them, instead of in a dumpster. But, you can't always get what you want, I suppose.[/quote]


Amen, such a waste and such bad PR for their customers, i personally will NEVER buy ANYTHING from EBgames or Gamestop because they are such jackasses about it by just throwing away a perfectly good guide. I mean, why not give them away when you purchase a game or discount them to a dollar or two. Jeez!
 
[quote name='sacreddoctor']Amen, such a waste and such bad PR for their customers, i personally will NEVER buy ANYTHING from EBgames or Gamestop because they are such jackasses about it by just throwing away a perfectly good guide. I mean, why not give them away when you purchase a game or discount them to a dollar or two. Jeez![/QUOTE]

I agree. I don't understand why they just don't bundle them with games to help clear out inventory.
 
Just picked up GOW II guide for 4.99 at BB thanks to CC price match with $5 GamePro coupon!

Awesome! Not 0.01 awesome but still pretty good for me.
 
[quote name='jgamezcua']Just picked up GOW II guide for 4.99 at BB thanks to CC price match with $5 GamePro coupon!

Awesome! Not 0.01 awesome but still pretty good for me.[/quote]

You actually got BB to pm and use a coupon? Nice!!:applause:
 
damn, can't wait for nba street homecourt guide to be pennied...i hope i catch this when it happens since i dont check this thread everyday :(
 
[quote name='swetooth9']damn, can't wait for nba street homecourt guide to be pennied...i hope i catch this when it happens since i dont check this thread everyday :([/QUOTE]
Assuming you're trying to get it from Best Buy just check in during the last week of the month ;) That guide won't be pennied out until this summer though I'd predicting...
 
[quote name='swetooth9']damn, can't wait for nba street homecourt guide to be pennied...i hope i catch this when it happens since i dont check this thread everyday :([/QUOTE]
dont worry sports game guide are low in demand so you should be able to get it from other CAGer for cheap
 
[quote name='loxthefox']Best Buy Alert!

Rainbow Six Vegas has been removed from the site.
Lego Star Wars II dropped to $10.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the LSW II guide has been $10 for a couple of weeks. Also, as stated earlier in the thread, Best Buy pennies out their guides at the beginning of its fiscal month. It's been a few weeks since the last, so I'd imagine there might be a couple weeks left, or so, until the next.

Vahn is our resident Best Buy representative in this thread, and he'll keep us updated when/if RSV and any other ones drop to a penny. I'm hoping for RSV and SC: DA, personally....
 
[quote name='loxthefox']Yeah, it won't be until early May when the next drop occurs.[/quote]I would imagine it would be next week or the week after, depending when April starts for them. Most likely the 2nd.
 
[quote name='loxthefox']Yeah, it won't be until early May when the next drop occurs.[/quote]
Why wouldn't they do guide drops in April, and this being in prep for that drop?

[quote name='botticus']I would imagine it would be next week or the week after, depending when April starts for them. Most likely the 2nd.[/quote]
See, that makes more sense. Vanh probably will know about it next weekend, in prep for it, and then they'd go the first week in April. They might go on the 1st, which is a Sunday, if BB tries to get sneaky with it.
 
[quote name='freshzen']Why would they remove the guide 6 weeks in advance then?[/QUOTE]

Who knows.....but they did the same thing last time. For instance, Saint's Row was removed but didn't drop to a penny for about a month or so. Either way, it will be about 2 weeks until the next penny drop, at least....
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Why wouldn't they do guide drops in April, and this being in prep for that drop?[/quote]

The "source" has zero credibility. He's just a lurker.
 
[quote name='neocisco']The "source" has zero credibility. He's just a lurker.[/quote]
True, which is why I'm waiting for Vahn to say something either way at the end of next week. We know he's proven his credibility numerous times.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']True, which is why I'm waiting for Vahn to say something either way at the end of next week. We know he's proven his credibility numerous times.[/quote]

I don't know, that Vahn seems a little shady...;)
 
yea, still a way away for this guide to be pennied out..just got released the end of feb

but neither of my BB's have this guide..only the EB games stores...

[quote name='freshzen']Assuming you're trying to get it from Best Buy just check in during the last week of the month ;) That guide won't be pennied out until this summer though I'd predicting...[/quote]

[quote name='62t']dont worry sports game guide are low in demand so you should be able to get it from other CAGer for cheap[/quote]

i hope so, that would be nice since the only places that carry it here are EB..and each one i've been to, there has only been 1 guide

hope i can get the CAG hookup in a month or two :)
 
somebody PMed today asking information on when the next drop should happen, and if Best Buy follows suit like it usually does, you might be seeing the next drop a week from today, so maybe next Monday, that is my guess. Cause like I stated before, they do it every fiscal month, which lasts about every 4 weeks, so it might be a week from today, if not, 2 weeks from today, either way, its happening on a Monday. And if it happens like last time, then I should have the news to you wonderful CAGers the Saturday prior to the Monday drop, giving you guys more then enough time to go out and hide the guides you want. There is always the chance though that Best Buy gets sneaky and springs the guide drop on a monday with no warning like they have done in the past as well. But like in the past, as soon as I find out, you'll find out, just won't get more certain ideas until we get closer to the date. Vahn.
 
I would also assume that Madden 07 Guide would be added. It is presently $9.99, as well as the Splinter Cell Double Agent and Scarface Guides. I think that there are acouple others that are $9.99 also. I think these would be candidates for a .01 drop. I'll check later this week.
 
[quote name='guinaevere']Thanks for the info vahn.


So the watch so far list for BB for Monday is:
RSix Vegas
Lego Star Wars II slight possible


Any others?[/quote] Scarface: The World Is Yours
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Need For Speed: Carbon

That's it for the current $9.99 guides. Glad I picked them all up when they were $6.99 - $5 coupon, for $1.99 each. The SC: DA guide and R6: V guides were $4.99 AC, as they weren't on-sale at the right time to be $6.99.

As an aside, I saw the secondly revised Oblivion guide, which had a "Now For PS3" bullet on the front cover, over at WalMart.
 
[quote name='guinaevere']Does it mean anything that I can't find the following on the site?

Bullet Witch
Justice League Heroes
Viva Pinata[/quote]
I've never seen guides for those games at BB, so they may not carry those guides.
 
Fine, ruin my fun with your mean ole logic.
tongue.gif
 
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