Reduced Price Game Guides: Thread Eight(MODS: Please lock, Thread Nine is up)

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IAmTheCheapestGamer

IAmTheCheapestGamer

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First off, let me welcome you all to the new guide thread. Second, I'd like to ask you all to please keep conversations not pertaining to guide drops or which ones you've grabbed to a minimum to avoid cluttering the thread. It's not that I don't enjoy the chit chat, but that it may stop others from locating information on the newest drops.

That being said, let me thank Cheapy for creating this site, without which I would've spent probably 10 times what I HAVE spent on games and guides. Moreover, let me thank each and every one of my fellow CAGs for continuing to contribute to making this site a great place to find out about sales and clearances of the items we as gamers use most. Without a great community, NONE of this would be possible.

Furthermore, I would like to thank our Wiki editors HeatDolphin and Rocko for updating the Wiki. Great job.

Now, with that out of the way(and before I get to rambling), let's get on to making this new thread.

Useful Information(and links):

Game Guide Trading Clearinghouse(old one, locked now):
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102021

Game Guide Trade Thread(current one):
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175548

PLEASE keep ALL trade requests in there or PM's. Thank you.

Reduced Price Guide Discussion Thread(please keep all conversation NOT related to guide drops HERE. Thanks.): http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169252

Guide Lists:

Master Drop List(by store, alphabetically):
http://wiki.cheapassgamer.com/index.php/Category:Strategy_Guides_%28master_lists%29

Recent Guide Drops(by date):
http://wiki.cheapassgamer.com/index.php/Category:Strategy_Guides_%28recent_drops%29

What is the purpose of this thread?

The purpose of this thread is to let our fellow CAGs know when a guide has dropped to a low price(it's NOT ALWAYS A PENNY), so they can go out and grab guides for themselves and for trading with other CAGs.

Anytime you have guide drops to report, post them here. Please specify at which store you found them and which guides you found and list them in alphabetical order. Thank you.

What are penny guides?

Penny guides are guides which have been on the market for a while and the publisher(or store chain) decide that the remaining stock of these guides have little to no chance of selling, so they issue an order to pull them from the shelves and destroy them. At that time, they are also marked as .01 in their inventory system, except in the case of BBV, which marks them .01 only AFTER pulling them.

Most stores have an agreement with the publisher that states that if they destroy the remaining stock of those items, they will receive a credit for their value from the publisher. This is why many stores are usually annoyed when we CAGs come in and buy the guides AT the penny price, since otherwise they would've received a full credit for those items.

According to an employee at a local BB, they also have a recycling program for the pennied stock, so as to not clutter landfill space with the guides. As to how true it is, I cannot confirm, but I would hope that the paper is at least recycled instead of just dumpstered.

Prior Reduced price game guide threads:
Guide Three:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50515&highlight=guide
Guide Four:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1496376
Guide Five:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85976
Guide Six:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116918
Guide Seven:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131717
Guide Seven and a half:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142400

Finally, below is a list of website links, each of which goes to their respective guide page. Whenever possible, I will update the links with better ones(if available).

Amazon
B&N
BestBuy
Borders
BookPool
CircuitCity
Gamestop
Overstock
StrategyGuide.net
ToysRUs

Thanks to floormat, who did threads 3,4,5 and 6 and provided me with the links to them.

Thanks to Gwen for allowing me the honor of giving something back to CAG by doing this new guide thread. I hope you all enjoy it and it isn't TOO hard to read.
 
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[quote name='Visc']Now the question I have is, should I call corporate and levy a complaint on this jackass store with all the other factors considered? I'd certainly like to give them a dose of karma.[/QUOTE]

Your best bet would be to let it go as if you complain it's only going to make it harder to get penny guides in the future if anything and they might even start cracking the whip at your good store down the road. I wouldn't have recommended mentioning that you've gotten penny guides at that store before or another store nearby!

I understand your point about them not letting you have something that was left on the floor by mistake but it's probably just going to get messy if it's penny guides.
 
[quote name='Visc']You know its sad how different two stores can be despite being so close...

I stopped at one Gamestop and one EB today. The first one I go to is always good to me, and today was no exception. Although I only received one guide each or Enemy Territory and Unreal Tournament 3 (the latter being sealed), I was also given a leftover Simon Belmont figure, and a leftover Silent Hill Experience. I also ended up buying a copy of Kingdom Hearts 2 for $10 from a kid trading stuff in, and let an associate buy his dreamcast he brought in for the same price, but thats another story....

The EB I mentioed is less than a quarter mile away, so I walked over to it. They had 5 or 6 guides left in the front of the store behind the glass counter. Key part being that they were still in the front of the store. I asked to buy them, as I have gotten guides here before. The kid behind the counter, being new decided he had to ask his manager, who was also new. The manager told him that he wasn't allowed to sell the guides. I mentioned that they were still in the front, I had gotten guides that very day from another store in the chain, and this very store itself has sold me penny guides in the past, but he adamantly refused. This is now a store I refer to as The Douchebag Store.

Now the question I have is, should I call corporate and levy a complaint on this jackass store with all the other factors considered? I'd certainly like to give them a dose of karma.[/quote]

You're not entitled to the guides, so no, of course not.
 
[quote name='FOnewearl']Your best bet would be to let it go as if you complain it's only going to make it harder to get penny guides in the future if anything and they might even start cracking the whip at your good store down the road. I wouldn't have recommended mentioning that you've gotten penny guides at that store before or another store nearby!

I understand your point about them not letting you have something that was left on the floor by mistake but it's probably just going to get messy if it's penny guides.[/quote]

Oh I made sure I didn't mention that it was my good store I got the guides from, I made reference to another store in the chain thats about a 25 minute drive away. I don't want to put any of the staff at one of the few good GS in jeopardy, so I make sure not to refer to them whenever possible - except for here of course.
 
I'm not sure if this is going to happen universally across the country anytime soon, but I was finally denied for a guide @ Best Buy earlier today(2-3pm). I took up a bunch that I didn't see on the site for a quick batch of PC's, along with a guide I knew was .01(Baseball2k7) and one that would ring up 2 prices(God Of War II guide with the price sticker over the original UPC).

The cashier said 'wow, we must be clearing these out since it's a 2k7 guide' when she scanned the baseball guide, then she scanned the GOW 2 guide's regular UPC. I mentioned that there's another UPC on there, so she scanned that too. She said 'I have to go talk to my manager'.

I'm like 'uh oh'. So, the manager type comes over and starts giving me this shpeel about how they 'have to charge the price that is on the sticker or cover', even on the pennied ones. Mind you, I didn't want any of the guides I took up anyway(New Super Mario, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, GOW 2, Baseball2k7), cept for maybe the pennied ones. I just wanted to verify that none of the older guides had dropped today.

We got into a whole thing about how I've bought them before from this store and what not and how you should be allowed to buy the items for what they ring up, yadda yadda.

So, I'm not sure if it's going to end up going chainwide, but it appears at my local store that there's a crackdown even further on penny guides being sold.

Oh and on an unrelated note, CAGs should be on the lookout for dual format HD-DVD/SD-DVD players that may be on clearance at their local stores. My store had the 360 HD-DVD add-on, as well as numerous Toshiba and other HD-DVD/SD-DVD players on clearance(mostly open box) for $49.99(360 add-on) to $129.99. Most of the dual format players were upconverting models, which may add a little value to those cheap prices. Just wanted to give people a heads up, though that deal may be a YMMV type clearance.
 
I hit up a new Best Buy on a whim yesterday and much to my surprise I found the Folklore guide with an actual 1 cent shelf tag. Also got R&C, My Sims, and a few others (including a Golden Compass - they had about 20. I picked one up for the kids since it has a poster in it ;)). I didn't have a list with me so I was just going off memory - who knows what else I missed. But they really didn't seem to have a lot of guides there in any case - just a few in scattered locations. Is the Gears of War guide a penny now? They had that I know...

Now if I could only find a Folklore game at Target (where it is on clearance).

Edit - DOH! Indeed Gears of War is a penny it seems. Damn, I'll have to get back up there again soon. I just thought since it was the "360 and PC" version it would be newer and not pennied. Oh well, so much for my overanalysis. For whatever reason I did remember Tabula Rasa being pennied though (also one of the newer drops) and got one of those.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']
Oh and on an unrelated note, CAGs should be on the lookout for dual format HD-DVD/SD-DVD players that may be on clearance at their local stores. My store had the 360 HD-DVD add-on, as well as numerous Toshiba and other HD-DVD/SD-DVD players on clearance(mostly open box) for $49.99(360 add-on) to $129.99. Most of the dual format players were upconverting models, which may add a little value to those cheap prices. Just wanted to give people a heads up, though that deal may be a YMMV type clearance.[/quote]
HD-DVD plays both DVD's and HD-DVD's, dual format is implied; and yeah, I've heard BB and WM are clearancing these out pretty cheap.
 
[quote name='onikage']I found these for $.01 today at GS:

Ace Combat 6
Final Fantasy I (PSP)
Final Fantasy II (PSP)
Unreal Tournament III

Surprisingly, all had $.01 stickers on them.[/QUOTE]

Yeah my brother confirmed these at Denver Gamestop as well. He is going to give me his Unreal Tournaments but is keeping the 1 each of Final Fantasy 1 & 2. He said he thinks there was another first person shooter guide but couldn't remember which one it was.
 
I found only:
Final Fantasy I PSP
and
Quake Wars: Enemy Territory...
at Best Buy.
I hope Radiant Dawn price drops next month to an even cheaper price. :|
Best Buy is more looser with their penny guides, they even advertise it on the rack.
 
So other than Blue Dragon & Folklore, BB has been pretty lazy with ths last drop. I found about 15 guides last night, Heavenly Sword, Quake Wars, Metroid 3, Tabula Rasa, etc... So keep checking your stores fellow CAG's. :)
 
while walking past the EB full of douchebags at the mall today I noticed a pleasent surprise; a guy I knew from another GS was tranferred there. So I went in to give the guides another shot - turns out they left an Ace Combat 6 on the shelf so I went up to buy it, only to be rung up by the sane guy who asked his manager last time and denied me. He asked the co-worker I knew what he should do, and as I knew he would, told him to sell it to me. He then prodeced to tell them of their old practice of scanning them out of the computer and putting them in the front counter as hand outs. I also wound up with a 2nd SIlent Hill Experience UMD, so this store may have a redeeming factor to it, provided I go in when the guy I know is working.
 
[quote name='offensive_jerk']i have never seen a penny guide at BB...[/QUOTE]
There's a couple of BB (you did mean Best Buy, right?) locations in nice areas that I frequent. They never have penny guides. I also have a ghetto BB that I hit up when everywhere else is dry. They never disappoint.

My personal favorites are BBs in crappy areas, near awful construction that makes them a pain, etc. They're often a gold mine.
 
went to GS today and saw Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion guide 2nd edition. i asked to buy it and the guy just gave it to me, there were other guides under it but i didnt think they were pennied.
 
Well I didn't score that much, but I went to Best Buy this week and found a good number of penny guides. I picked up

3X Gears of War PC
and
2X Tabula Rasa.

I found an Animal Crossing Wild World guide, but it rang up full price. :( I thought those guides weren't sold anymore. Could it be a rule to never expect first party Nintendo guides to never go to the penny price?
 
[quote name='detectiveconan16']Well I didn't score that much, but I went to Best Buy this week and found a good number of penny guides. [/quote]

I'm new to this whole penny guide thing. Does this mean that my Best Buy will have pennied out these same guides, or is this done on a store-by-store basis?
 
[quote name='carlcarlson']I'm new to this whole penny guide thing. Does this mean that my Best Buy will have pennied out these same guides, or is this done on a store-by-store basis?[/quote]
Each Best Buy will have the same guides pennied in their system, although some guides (such as Gears of War and Oblivion) have multiple SKU's (reprints of the guides) or BB places stickers over the UPC so it rings up differently (very rarely). These are noted with particular part numbers or wording when listed.

But, each compny will have different guide drops, so a BB drop doesn't necessarily mean a GS drop.
 
I don't know if this has ever been mentioned before, but I found a couple of Battalion Wars II guides for a penny at Gamestop today. They actually had $0.01 stickers on them. I just bought one, but am going back there tomorrow and am considering picking up the other if anyone is interested.

I really don't follow this scenario at all, but just thought I'd give a heads up if no one had mentioned it before.
 
Needs verification.....then I'll add it to the second post on the thread. We also still need verification on any others that may have dropped @ Gamestop recently.
 
DSCF1412.jpg


Receipt? ;)

BTW, the guide I got was from Prima. I'm not sure if there's a different version or not.
 
I was just at GS and asked about penny guides. The guy said that they immediately trash all discounted guides, they don't even put them out. He said their DRM is a real stickler about it and even rips the covers off before pitching them. He said all GS stores use this practice. So I'm wondering, is this really the case and you just have to get lucky and be there when it's happening, or do some stores still put them out?
 
A good rule: Don't blatantly ask about .01 guides. At best it makes clueless employees aware of them. At worst some employees will immediately go and trash them. It's one thing to check on specific titles but directly asking about .01 guides in general is a virtual guarantee for rejection.
 
[quote name='neocisco']A good rule: Don't blatantly ask about .01 guides. At best it makes clueless employees aware of them. At worst some employees will immediately go and trash them. It's one thing to check on specific titles but directly asking about .01 guides in general is a virtual guarantee for rejection.[/quote]


what he said....
 
[quote name='carlcarlson']I was just at GS and asked about penny guides. The guy said that they immediately trash all discounted guides, they don't even put them out. He said their DRM is a real stickler about it and even rips the covers off before pitching them. He said all GS stores use this practice. So I'm wondering, is this really the case and you just have to get lucky and be there when it's happening, or do some stores still put them out?[/quote]

Do you perchance live in my area(Northeastern Pennsylvania)? I ask because the DM around here is a stickler like that, even though I was getting stuff from their stores are recently as a year ago. Hell, I was walking out with STACKS of stuff from each store, until he dropped the hammer.

Oh and definitely DO NOT ASK ABOUT PENNY GUIDES DIRECTLY, as others have said. It only alerts the employees to them and may cause trouble if a higher up were in the store when you ask.
 
Found a little gem of a BB this week and was able to score:

Resident Evil 4 2008 calender (X2)
Super Paper Mario (X2) Prima
Pokemon Battle Revolution (X2) Prima

They had a ton of Paper Mario and Pokemon guides but I was already getting enough looks about walking up there with 6 items and a total of $0.06 lol I was dissapointed though because they had some God War II guides still ringing up at full retail.

On a side note they had this Legend of Zelda:Twighlight Princess guide that was like a freakin 10lb hard cover novel that was regular $29.99 US down to $14.99.
 
[quote name='Derrick1979']On a side note they had this Legend of Zelda:Twighlight Princess guide that was like a freakin 10lb hard cover novel that was regular $29.99 US down to $14.99.[/quote]Is it this one?
[guide]
I scored this for $10 at BB when it was released; I thought it was worth it.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Do you perchance live in my area(Northeastern Pennsylvania)? [/quote]

Nope, Richmond Va.

Ok, so not asking directly makes sense. This guy seemed cool about it, but I can see how some employees would react.

So now my question is, how do you know what guides have been discounted? GameStop doesn't have scanners for customers to check prices on, and I've read that they don't usually put .01 tags on them.
 
[quote name='carlcarlson']

So now my question is, how do you know what guides have been discounted? GameStop doesn't have scanners for customers to check prices on, and I've read that they don't usually put .01 tags on them.[/QUOTE]

The first post in this thread has the master lists of all penny guides broken down by store (of course 99% of those on the list have long since vanished from shelves as they're bought cheaply or pulled by staff and destroyed.)

Keep an eye on this thread - when a new round of penny guides hit, you'll find posts here on the same day listing everything that dropped.

In general guides drop 3-4 months after the game's release - with exceptions mainly for games that are still highly popular/big sellers. When out browsing and you see a guide that may or may not be pennied out ask for a price check because you heard it might 'be on sale.' Don't bring a whole stack for the guy to check and don't get angry if you find a guide that is a penny but get the 'not allowed to sell it' excuse. At this point, try to haggle by offering to do a pre-order on something or if there's a game you wanted to buy, try to tie it into getting the penny guide along with it.
 
[quote name='Derrick1979']Found a little gem of a BB this week and was able to score:

Resident Evil 4 2008 calender (X2)
Super Paper Mario (X2) Prima
Pokemon Battle Revolution (X2) Prima

They had a ton of Paper Mario and Pokemon guides but I was already getting enough looks about walking up there with 6 items and a total of $0.06 lol I was dissapointed though because they had some God War II guides still ringing up at full retail.

On a side note they had this Legend of Zelda:Twighlight Princess guide that was like a freakin 10lb hard cover novel that was regular $29.99 US down to $14.99.[/quote]

Yup, I know exactly of which freaking 10 lbs TP guide you're talking bout. Some of you guys can get guides for a penny, but in that case, I got a guide for free. :cool:
 
Most of the time I go in for penny guides under a nickel, the cashier tells me to keep my change and she pulls some pennies out from the side of the register for it.
 
[quote name='carlcarlson']Nope, Richmond Va.

Ok, so not asking directly makes sense. This guy seemed cool about it, but I can see how some employees would react.

So now my question is, how do you know what guides have been discounted? GameStop doesn't have scanners for customers to check prices on, and I've read that they don't usually put .01 tags on them.[/quote]

Pretty much, you just need to keep an eye on this thread, which you can do by clicking on USER CP towards the top of almost ANY page on CAG. If you don't see it on the first page of threads you've posted in, simply click on 'subscriptions' under the threads subheading along the left side of the screen in the USER CP.

That's how I keep track of topics I've posted in that I want to keep an eye on.

Oh and if you use one of the internet kiosks in Best Buy to go on their website, they may actually list the guides on there for 1 cent. If you have a credit card and it's showing up as IN STOCK at your store(usually the stores nearest you with it in stock will be bolded once you input a city/state or zip code to check for availability), you could try to do an online order for store pickup. Or, if you wish and they show it as 1 cent online from your house, you could try and place an order from home, then go in store to pick up.

Although, they may have actually pulled and destroyed the guides already, but not updated the system properly.

Also, Toys R Us is one of the toughest stores, if not THE toughest to get guides from when they penny. But, sometimes, if you use the 'heard it was on sale' shpeel, you could get a clerk who will just say 'that's some sale' and ring up the guide like normal but you only pay the .01 price.

I've had massive 'scores' before, where I walked out of a given store with 20-60 guides, with more left on the shelf and lately, I've had next to ZERO luck when trying to grab guides.

These tips, along with everything everyone else said about grabbing guides, should help you to score your first guides in no time at all. Just hope that you're not in an area with a District Manager like we have around here, who is tough as hell on any clerk selling a penny guide, which results in a near zero chance to nab ANY guides anymore.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Pretty much, you just need to keep an eye on this thread, which you can do by clicking on USER CP towards the top of almost ANY page on CAG. If you don't see it on the first page of threads you've posted in, simply click on 'subscriptions' under the threads subheading along the left side of the screen in the USER CP.

That's how I keep track of topics I've posted in that I want to keep an eye on.

Oh and if you use one of the internet kiosks in Best Buy to go on their website, they may actually list the guides on there for 1 cent. If you have a credit card and it's showing up as IN STOCK at your store(usually the stores nearest you with it in stock will be bolded once you input a city/state or zip code to check for availability), you could try to do an online order for store pickup. Or, if you wish and they show it as 1 cent online from your house, you could try and place an order from home, then go in store to pick up.

Although, they may have actually pulled and destroyed the guides already, but not updated the system properly.

Also, Toys R Us is one of the toughest stores, if not THE toughest to get guides from when they penny. But, sometimes, if you use the 'heard it was on sale' shpeel, you could get a clerk who will just say 'that's some sale' and ring up the guide like normal but you only pay the .01 price.

I've had massive 'scores' before, where I walked out of a given store with 20-60 guides, with more left on the shelf and lately, I've had next to ZERO luck when trying to grab guides.

These tips, along with everything everyone else said about grabbing guides, should help you to score your first guides in no time at all. Just hope that you're not in an area with a District Manager like we have around here, who is tough as hell on any clerk selling a penny guide, which results in a near zero chance to nab ANY guides anymore.[/quote]

Awesome, thanks for all the info. I'll definitely be checking back daily. I'm looking forward to when the Mass Effect and Blue Dragon guides get discounted. I see those all over the place, and I would love to have them!
 
[quote name='carlcarlson']Awesome, thanks for all the info. I'll definitely be checking back daily. I'm looking forward to when the Mass Effect and Blue Dragon guides get discounted. I see those all over the place, and I would love to have them![/QUOTE]

The Blue Dragon guide has already been pennied at Best Buy.
 
[quote name='Josef']The Blue Dragon guide has already been pennied at Best Buy.[/quote]

Bah! Ok, well then I guess I can't wait until it's pennied at GameStop, because I know they have a bunch of them. Hopefully this means that it won't be long?
 
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