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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All the guides in my area are no longer available for in store pickup. That changed in a matter of minutes since I posted (I didn't take more than 1 of any guide I wanted). Good luck tomorrow!
 
All guides were instock when I checked in my south Miami area, but I only opted for guides I'd use: LOTRO/RE:UC/Bioshock.
 
[quote name='Purkeynator']any reason why they wouldn't ship them? I have a feeling we will get cock-blocked at the store.[/quote]

Unless there's some sort of free shipping code I wouldn't get them shipped. It's $4.99 per guide shipped apparently.
 
Odd, past penny guides are up there on that link at regular price... Tabula Rasa, Heavenly Sword, Metroid 3 & a couple of others. I got them for a penny before though.
 
Ordered a majority. Didn't have DQM or Bioshock, but had extras of a couple, like Advanced Wars and Revanant Wings. Looking to trade for DQM and Bioshock.

I'll be stopping by today and will keep an eye out for anything new as well.

EDIT: N/M, they actually had them in store. Still have extras of AW and RW, but not looking to trade for anything (cash offers welcome :) ).
 
I've done instore pickup before with penny guides with no problem. Anyways I ordered 6 that I will personally use and i'll swing by after work to check for extras.
 
I've got twelve of them set for in-store pickup. I have to wait until I get off work this afternoon, so my fingers are crossed.

Bah. Just got my confirmation order and none of them are available for pickup, despite the fact that the site said they were. What a fun game!
 
I ordered singles of the seven guides I wanted, and have them set as in-store pickup across two stores, and both of them should have them in the quantities that should let the order go through.

Don't forget that if the item is listed as unavailable, two things are the case:
1) There's 0-2 of them on the shelf, as it's only listed as pickable for in-store pickup if there's 3 or more in-stock. There still may be some on the shelf, though not 3 or more of them.
2) Someone at the store marked them as "No Pick", which means they couldn't find them on the shelf when trying to do an in-store pickup order. When that happens, there could be none or there could be dozens of them, and someone couldn't find them in-store, so they assume there's none to be had. Once that happens, no one can mark them as pickable for in-store pickup.

Also, if the orders are marked as "No Pick", you can call BB.com and have them set up for free shipping, so that's always a backup option.

Furthermore, the last few times this has happened and the item has been available on BB.com for penny orders before the store opened, I was able to do orders for in-store pickup without any issue, so they should go through and get fulfilled. Normally the ops reps who handle doing in-store pickup are in before the media guys, so they normally grab the orders and fulfill them before the media guys can pull the guides. The ops reps don't get copies of the order more than what they need to pull, so they can pull them and we don't have to worry about them not marking the item available when they're $0.01.

08:20 CT update: All of my guides are listed as being available for pickup, so I'm good to go, in theory.
 
Got confirmation that my order is ready for pickup. I just ordered 8 guides 1 each of ones I wanted.

On the phone with bestbuy now having em ship me guides i ordered from 2nd store for free so i'll have extra's to hook up people who didnt get any :)

*edit* they changed it and are shipping me more guides.

3X FF Revenant
3X bioshock
3X Resident Evil
3X DQM

Good ole Bestbuy \\:D/
 
I put in for a few. They're confirmed at 2 stores for me to pick up, although I got a call from one saying that they pulled them from inventory for destruction early and they have the covers torn off if I still want them. He didn't say which store of the two he was calling from, but I don't care. I ordered duplicates of the ones I wanted, so I'll have an extra for interested CAGs
 
Updated the second post with new drop info. Normally, I would've been up at 2-3 am when the BB site updated to show new drops, but I'm glad someone was on top of this.

Thanks for the info Phorrest.
 
fuck fuck fuck. All are showing as OOS online and not available for instore pickup. I knew it was bad when I saw the drop on SD before CAG.

All I wanted was Advance Wars DOR and FF12 RW! My BB moved their guides to a different dept since the last drop, as they were no where to be found in-store - not in the PC or console game areas nor books. I guess my BB did away with guides altogether so this is the end of an era for me.
 
[quote name='Caliburn']fuck fuck fuck. All are showing as OOS online and not available for instore pickup. I knew it was bad when I saw the drop on SD before CAG.

All I wanted was Advance Wars DOR and FF12 RW! My BB moved their guides to a different dept since the last drop, as they were no where to be found in-store - not in the PC or console game areas nor books. I guess my BB did away with guides altogether so this is the end of an era for me.[/quote]

It may be like the one I hit where they took all the guides and tossed them on a rolling rack thats back in a corner where nobody sees it. I asked and when the guy showed me it was filled with stuff that was long gone at other stores. The only thing that irks me is the way they are just thrown on the cart most are bent and what not and most of them are still full retail.
 
[quote name='Derrick1979']It may be like the one I hit where they took all the guides and tossed them on a rolling rack thats back in a corner where nobody sees it. I asked and when the guy showed me it was filled with stuff that was long gone at other stores. The only thing that irks me is the way they are just thrown on the cart most are bent and what not and most of them are still full retail.[/quote]

I haven't seen anything like that at my store before, but that just means I'll have to look harder. With dumb luck, the guides have been rolled near the HD Theater or classical music sections that hardly garner attention at my store, since the guides weren't within a 30 foot radius of any gaming section. Thanks for the ProTip.
 
I stopped by my local BB shortly before opening today, and there was this overweight, scummy-looking guy standing near the door (kind of reminded me of me). I just knew he was there for my guides, but strangely enough, I later found most of what I was looking for anyway. Hurray! :D
 
Both my BB are cleaned out, I stopped by for lunch and found nothing! Someone post the SD thread so I can go thumb it down. I really wanted a Bioshock guide badly.
 
[quote name='QiG']I put in for a few. They're confirmed at 2 stores for me to pick up, although I got a call from one saying that they pulled them from inventory for destruction early and they have the covers torn off if I still want them. He didn't say which store of the two he was calling from, but I don't care. I ordered duplicates of the ones I wanted, so I'll have an extra for interested CAGs[/quote]I haven't received any calls yet from them, though if I show up there tonight and find guides with torn covers, I'm going to have more than a lengthy chat with them.

[quote name='h3llbring3r']Both my BB are cleaned out, I stopped by for lunch and found nothing! Someone post the SD thread so I can go thumb it down. I really wanted a Bioshock guide badly.[/quote]That's the SD thread:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=790015
 
[quote name='MaxBiaggi3']I stopped by my local BB shortly before opening today, and there was this overweight, scummy-looking guy standing near the door (kind of reminded me of me). I just knew he was there for my guides, but strangely enough, I later found most of what I was looking for anyway. Hurray! :D[/quote]

The solution for next time: deliver a pre-emptive strike to the right knee with a lead pipe, just to be certain that you will arrive at the guide section before he does.:)
 
Fresh back from the local stores. Four of them (RE:UC and DQM:J) indeed are missing the covers, but when I checked the rack they had some Bioshock still there, so I grabbed one. The second store I went to, I checked the rack first and found covered copies of Bioshock, Advance Wars and RE:UC I was looking for and just bought those.. deciding if I still want to bother with the pick-up.

If anyone missed the boat, CML... shipping costs will basically kill the deal aspect when bundled with a convenience fee, but if you're after them, they're still pretty cheap.
 
Advance Wars? . . . that wasn't on the list earlier. fuck . . . I checked a bunch (about 12) random guides but I didn't do that one. Oh well, I'll check later. Nothing to add to the list.

Interestingly Mario Galaxy is $20 but the hardcover collector's ed. is $15.

I saw the post for drops at 9:45 and I could get away from work . . . I sprinted straight to BB and found a number of the guides . . . alas, no Bioshock.

Funny, the clerk was new and was like "cool" when I came through but when I came back with the stack to check he was ready to call his manager but I reassured him that these were unlikely to be .01.
 
[quote name='schultzed']Advance Wars? . . . that wasn't on the list earlier. fuck . . . I checked a bunch (about 12) random guides but I didn't do that one. Oh well, I'll check later. Nothing to add to the list.

Interestingly Mario Galaxy is $20 but the hardcover collector's ed. is $15.

I saw the post for drops at 9:45 and I could get away from work . . . I sprinted straight to BB and found a number of the guides . . . alas, no Bioshock.

Funny, the clerk was new and was like "cool" when I came through but when I came back with the stack to check he was ready to call his manager but I reassured him that these were unlikely to be .01.[/quote]Oddly enough, the Zelda Phantom Hourglass guide was $29.99 on the website, though at BB, I picked it up for $14.99 - $10 RZ certs on Friday.

Also odd about the SMG CE guide being cheaper than the non-CE SMG guide.
 
I got to my BB about 10 minutes after they opened. I picked up 2 copies of Bioshock and the only 2 copies of DQM. They still had several copies of Bioshock. Unfortunately, none of the other pennied out guides was to be found. I also tried the FFXII, but that's still full price. I'm still waiting for that one to go down.
 
My local Best Buy had restocked penny guides since last week! Guides long since off the shelves must have been located in the back and tossed out on the stands... I picked up 27 guides, never more than 1 of each title. There were still an absolute ton of them left.

Just as a CYA side note, this is a BB that I frequent because it's in a bad part of town and few people shop there. I keep going there expecting it to be shuttered. YMMV obviously.
 
[quote name='speedracer']My local Best Buy had restocked penny guides since last week! Guides long since off the shelves must have been located in the back and tossed out on the stands... I picked up 27 guides, never more than 1 of each title. There were still an absolute ton of them left.

[/QUOTE]

You suck . . . :)
 
No guides left on the shelf in Downer's Grove. I asked an employee (Mike) if they had any Bioshock guides in back. He told me he'd check in just a moment, and he re-appeared 2 minutes later with one copy. He told me I was "lucky", and they were supposed to send them back today. He told another employee who walked up to him to chat to "take a hike" as he was explaining the penny guide process to me, and the other guy was like "Yeah, I know this one is a penny".

Mike walked up front with me, and told the cashier that it should ring up as a penny. Another employee at the Customer Service desk rang up my guide, and the first cashier yelled over to him "That's supposed to ring up for a penny". He told her that it did, and I was on my way out the door.

Some excellent customer service for once.:D
 
Wow, I found multiples of the ones I wanted (Bioshock, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy). and breezed through checkout. The girl acted like it was a normal occurance. I guess the penny guide river is flowing again?
 
I have a feeling we may see new penny guides tomorrow at Best Buy. Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and Fire Emblem seem likely candidates.
 
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...Guides&sp=+currentprice+skuid&id=abcat0711000
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin 8695575
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles 8630458
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 8630261
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings 8624875
WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2008 8624857
Sim City Societies 8604913
Halo 3 (Spanish Edition) 8554744
World In Conflict 8535374
Bioshock 8513833
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Agmar World 8400045
Halo 2 (PC) 8355022

Are all a penny on the BB site.
 
All the guides in my area are no longer available for in store pickup. That changed in a matter of minutes since I posted (I didn't take more than 1 of any guide I wanted). Good luck tomorrow!
 
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