Reduced Price Guide Thread XIV (FAQ in 2nd Post)

Dark Rider

Dark Rider

CAGiversary!
Feedback
24 (100%)
The Reduced Price Guide FAQ/OP has been moved to the SECOND post. Read this first!
[customspoiler="Disclaimer"]
All credit goes to IAmTheCheapestGamer, floormat, and guinaevere. They ran this thread for years, and I can safely say we would not have penny guides here without them. Thanks for your work!
[/customspoiler]

Private message me if there is something incorrect or needs to be changed in the non-wiki pages.
Below is two years or so of guide drop info. If you want to see the full list, please refer to the third post of the Reduced Price Guide Thread XIV that can be found HERE.​

Note that date may be of confirmation, and not of drop.

CE/SE/LE=HARDCOVER GUIDE
Red=Gamestop drop
Blue=Best Buy drop
Pink=Toys R Us drop

 

Recent Drops (Last Six Months)

Dropped 3.23.16 at GameStop

Game Stop 1 Cent

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate CE

Just Cause 3

Halo 5 CE



Dropped on 3.26.14
 

Gamestop

Battlefield 4

Disney Infinity

Grand Theft Auto V

Remember Me

Super Mario 3D World

Dropped on 2.26.14

Gamestop 

Assassin's Creed IV: CE

Battlefield 4 CE
Grand Theft Auto CE

Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds CE

Skylanders Swap Force CE

Wonderful 101

Dropped on 2.14.14

Toys'R Us

Rage
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Mass Effect 3

Star Wars The Force Unleashed II

Dropped on 10.31.13

Gamestop 
 
Animal Crossing
Assassin's Creed 3
Borderlands 2 LE
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Cheat Code Overload: Winter 2013
Codes & Cheats Vol. 1 2013
Dead Island Riptide
Diablo III

Disgaea D2

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Legendary
Epic Mickey 2
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Halo 4
Hitman Absolution
Injustice: Gods Among Us

Injustice: Gods Among Us LE
Last of Us

Last of Us LE
Lego City Undercover
Madden 25
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Ni No Kuni
Pokemon Black & White 2 Pokedex
Resident Evil 6 LE
Resident Evil Revelations

Wind Waker LE
Dropped on 9.25.13

Gamestop
Army of Two The Devils Cartel
Dead Space 3
Metal Gear Rising Revengence
Star Trek
Super Mario Bros. Wii U
Epic Mickey 2 Limited Ed
Halo 4 Limited Ed
Hitman Absolution Limited Ed

Dropped on 9.04.13

Gamestop
 
Call of Duty Black Ops II CE
DMC: Devil May Cry
Dishonored
Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider CE       
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Had no luck with the new guides but a store I've been to many times since January randomly had a Tales of Xillia 2 guide there so I grabbed that.

 
Thought that was hilarious. Fair price for a guide that has been pennied out by two different chain stores ? Wasn't it also available at about $5 on sale awhile back ? I'm sure jokers like this doesn't help us at all. Add to that that pennied items at GS are supposed to be shipped back ( or go through field destruction for real ). Could be sad times for those of us who were able to get guides.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
spacegundam0079 said:
Thought that was hilarious. Fair price for a guide that has been pennied out by two different chain stores ? Wasn't it also available at about $5 on sale awhile back ? I'm sure jokers like this doesn't help us at all. Add to that that pennied items at GS are supposed to be shipped back ( or go through field destruction for real ). Could be sad times for those of us who were able to get guides.
Click to expand...
That's not even why I said that. It's just because it's such a stupid thing to do, keeping the $.01 price tag on it. Raises a lot of questions, from the buyer, from other sellers looking up rival listings, and especially Gamestop corporate looking at eBay listings to make sure that they're not letting their customers pull the wool over their eyes.

 
My experience in collecting guides or magazines has diminished.

for one they have no resale value specially if you paid retail. i'm talking about you're average guides btw not the minority that become rare and valuable.

what really made me give them up is how difficult they are to move and transport. Like 50 guides is as much weight as 300 video games.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
needler420 said:
My experience in collecting guides or magazines has diminished.

for one they have no resale value specially if you paid retail. i'm talking about you're average guides btw not the minority that become rare and valuable.

what really made me give them up is how difficult they are to move and transport. Like 50 guides is as much weight as 300 video games.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. I used to have every issue of OPM and numerous issues of EGM magazines. Then one year I had to move, and I never forgot the first moment I stacked a few dozen copies in a box, went to lift it, and went "well most of these aren't coming with me".
 
WingsDJY said:
Media mail is for "educational materials". It's debatable whether or not guides count.
Click to expand...
I'm not up to date (because I know they changed their services), but if something didn't qualify for media mail, it could be shipped as "bound printed matter".

The deciding factor used to be if the item contained ads, it did not qualify for media mail and it would have to go bound printed matter.

They later decided that if the ads are no longer active (like in a comic book from the 60s), the item could be shipped media mail.

I've spent hours on the phone with postmasters specifically about comic books and magazines. ;)

 
I was talking about that picture in the Ebay listing. Made me laugh. Seriously in the time to take a photo and put up a listing , you can't be bothered to remove the price tag. Sadness :(
 
Romeo said:
Exactly this. I used to have every issue of OPM and numerous issues of EGM magazines. Then one year I had to move, and I never forgot the first moment I stacked a few dozen copies in a box, went to lift it, and went "well most of these aren't coming with me".
Click to expand...
If I made a move that was 500 miles or more the amount of extra gas it would cost from my magazines and strategy guides would lower the suspension of my car and raise the gas mileage so much that its more practical to toss them or give them away. Unless you're renting a moving truck to begin with. A stack of like 50 guides or magazines weighs as much as like 300 games.

If i make such a move again id drop all my guides and mags off at the local game shop and tell them to hand them out.

not worth transporting and not worth selling. I tried before and have got caught trying to ship media mail and have to eat the costs. Unless you get a moving truck or sell local pickup its not worth it.

I wasn't joking when i said the weight would lower my cars suspension and that a average collection. Some of you have collections that aren't manageable they just haven't ran into the problem of moving yet. When they do they will have second opinions.

To add to the topic even when i get stuck in a game that i own the guide for i still find myself using online walkthroughs over the strategy guide. So that really makes it a collection of useless, space consuming and super heavy books.

At least with backlog of games maybe ill get to them one day and a box of a few hundred games isn't going to drop the suspension of my car down.

I look at it like TV guides. People were still buying them with their groceries at the supermarket yet using the tv guide channel for program time listings. In other words it was out of collectors habit till that even died off.

I might actually start trading off the guides and mags i have left before that happens again.

I have like over 100 game informer magazines. I had some of them so long since I'm a kid but the collection weighs as much as i do. I leave them at my dads and figure they will stay there till someone else comes for them or one day end up in the trash sadly but the truth..

Maybe if I don't stop acquiring books and magazines then ill rent a storage unit when i have enough to justify paying to store it. i would never store my games though they follow me where i go.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Guides that are not pennied out at TRU, just for your amusement and confirmation:

Assassin's Creed Rogue

Assassin's Creed Unity

Call of Duty Advanced Warfard

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 (yes, really)

Grand Theft Auto V

I went to a scanner and fought it for five minutes before finally getting MSRP prices for four of the above, then asked at the desk about BO2.

 
If anyone has an extra far cry 4 CE guide I would be willing to buy/trade for it. PayPal or i have a bunch of digital copy movies I could trade for it.
 
Rockabye said:
Guides that are not pennied out at TRU, just for your amusement and confirmation:

Assassin's Creed Rogue

Assassin's Creed Unity

Call of Duty Advanced Warfard

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 (yes, really)

Grand Theft Auto V

I went to a scanner and fought it for five minutes before finally getting MSRP prices for four of the above, then asked at the desk about BO2.
Click to expand...
Some of them, including BO2 I believe, need you to only scan part of the ISBN barcode for the price to show.

 
needler420 said:
If I made a move that was 500 miles or more the amount of extra gas it would cost from my magazines and strategy guides would lower the suspension of my car and raise the gas mileage so much that its more practical to toss them or give them away. Unless you're renting a moving truck to begin with. A stack of like 50 guides or magazines weighs as much as like 300 games.

If i make such a move again id drop all my guides and mags off at the local game shop and tell them to hand them out.

not worth transporting and not worth selling. I tried before and have got caught trying to ship media mail and have to eat the costs. Unless you get a moving truck or sell local pickup its not worth it.

I wasn't joking when i said the weight would lower my cars suspension and that a average collection. Some of you have collections that aren't manageable they just haven't ran into the problem of moving yet. When they do they will have second opinions.

To add to the topic even when i get stuck in a game that i own the guide for i still find myself using online walkthroughs over the strategy guide. So that really makes it a collection of useless, space consuming and super heavy books.

At least with backlog of games maybe ill get to them one day and a box of a few hundred games isn't going to drop the suspension of my car down.

I look at it like TV guides. People were still buying them with their groceries at the supermarket yet using the tv guide channel for program time listings. In other words it was out of collectors habit till that even died off.

I might actually start trading off the guides and mags i have left before that happens again.

I have like over 100 game informer magazines. I had some of them so long since I'm a kid but the collection weighs as much as i do. I leave them at my dads and figure they will stay there till someone else comes for them or one day end up in the trash sadly but the truth..

Maybe if I don't stop acquiring books and magazines then ill rent a storage unit when i have enough to justify paying to store it. i would never store my games though they follow me where i go.
Click to expand...
Perhaps it's 'growing up' in a way. Now that I'm in my 30s I stopped with the materialism and collectors mentality.

Regarding guides, I agree about not using them. I've been collecting hardcover CE guides and a decade or so now, soft overs since the 90s. Own every Assassin's Creed CE guide and never used a single one. A few weeks back when gamestop had 50% guides and some were down to $10 or less, I passed.

The 'lightbulb' dinged above my head a couple years ago with Ni No Kuni. I liked the guide, used it randomly. The problem was it was difficult to use, not because of how it was written, but simply because I play in the evenings with the lights out. Every time I needed into from it, I had to use my cell phone to light up the pages just to read it. At that point I just grabbed my iPad and searched for the info I needed.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Guys, I think Tales of Xillia 2, Assassin's Creed IV (BF) and Lego Batman 3 might be pennied at BB.  The normal computer at Customer Service couldn't find a price and the employee told me they couldn't be sold.  He then went to the "magical computer" and miraculously found the prices to be $34.99, $24.99 and $24.99, respectively.

 
GS pennied some stuff today.

PC Games:

Warhammer 40k DoW II Gold
MLB 2k11

Probably more stuff too.  Also, pennied stuff disappears off the GS website at 10AM ET.

Universal Portable Pop Up Mobile Speaker for Android, iPad®, iPhone®, iPod®, PC
by PDP

EDIT: that thing above, and also 5 other items dropped off the website from the PC category.
 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just was told that about a month ago they started sending penny guides back to the warehouse instead of trashing them at Gs. Any employees able to confirm that?
 
Darby27 said:
Just was told that about a month ago they started sending penny guides back to the warehouse instead of trashing them at Gs. Any employees able to confirm that?
Click to expand...
Local manager mentioned yesterday that they still just toss them into the dumpster. They don't bother ripping the covers off. That said, I'm still not dumpster diving.....yet

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Darby27 said:
Just was told that about a month ago they started sending penny guides back to the warehouse instead of trashing them at Gs. Any employees able to confirm that?
Click to expand...
Well that's what some of the strict stores always say in my area. I don't think it's true. I just got some penny guides from a manager yesterday. He said he would have to trash them because they didn't have enough space.

 
lol, found an ac rogue guide at another store and got it with a PC game. The transaction completed and then the girl noticed the price.

She wanted to return it and re ring it as 14.99

Nope. Transaction completed, I paid, its my property now.
 
Darby27 said:
lol, found an ac rogue guide at another store and got it with a PC game. The transaction completed and then the girl noticed the price.

She wanted to return it and re ring it as 14.99

Nope. Transaction completed, I paid, its my property now.
Click to expand...
LOL. "You got a good deal, you stole from us! Return it and pay more money!"

 
With the new pos at Gs, once they scan the item you are buying, you can slide your pur card and pay without them having to do anything. Just hit no for make a wish and then accept to pay.
 
Narukami said:
Perhaps he meant the FF XIII guide?
Click to expand...

Darby27 said:
Negative.
Click to expand...
I went to my local Gamestop and asked them to lookup that guide.

I'm in SF Bay Area, and they told me it might be available at the GS in Fremont/NewPark Mall, Oakland, and Sacramento (basically 3 stores out of 50 might have it).

But the price was $1.97, not $4.97??? And it was definitely FFXII (12) CE.

It's too far for me to go out of my way for, but thanks for the heads up!!!

 
tumbenhaur said:
I went to my local Gamestop and asked them to lookup that guide.

I'm in SF Bay Area, and they told me it might be available at the GS in Fremont/NewPark Mall, Oakland, and Sacramento (basically 3 stores out of 50 might have it).

But the price was $1.97, not $4.97??? And it was definitely FFXII (12) CE.

It's too far for me to go out of my way for, but thanks for the heads up!!!
Click to expand...
The tag was from last fall, so that makes sense. This was the same store that had a LBP3 guide tagged as $24.99, and that pennied out last October.

 
Getting back into the game after taking a long break. The Game Guide trading thread seems pretty dead, but if anyone has guides for the Ratchet and Clank series, Resistance 3, or Sunset Overdrive let me know. Trying to finish my collection. 

 
Devil May Cry said:
Getting back into the game after taking a long break. The Game Guide trading thread seems pretty dead, but if anyone has guides for the Ratchet and Clank series, Resistance 3, or Sunset Overdrive let me know. Trying to finish my collection.
Click to expand...
I have sunset overdrive. Interested in a trade? Send me a PM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top