Reduced Price Game Guides: Thread Nine

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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(KEEP ALL TRADE REQUESTS HERE OR IN PM'S)
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(KEEP ALL DISCUSSION NOT RELATED TO GUIDE DROPS HERE!!!)
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169252

Guide Lists(master drop lists and recent drops):

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

Recent Guide Drops(by date,also check the second post in this thread):
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
Guide Eight:
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167157

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
Barnes&Noble
BestBuy
BookPool
CircuitCity
Gamestop
Overstock
StrategyGuides.net
ToysRUs

Thanks to floormat, Guinavere and anyone else who has created and maintained the guide thread before, as well as to all of those who find out either advance information on drops or provide a list of which ones dropped when we do have a drop.

The post below this one contains a list going back at LEAST six months of the more current guide drops, which stores they occured at and which ones dropped. Note that sometimes(Oblivion guide, Quake Wars: Enemy Territory)there are multiple versions of a guide, be it that there are Prima versions, Brady versions and the occasional Nintendo and Doublejump guides.

Please specify WHICH version has dropped when mentioning possible guide drops. Thank you.


 
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[quote name='ozzymandd']Don't worry - it's a feature, not a bug :lol:

If I remember correctly, the package that the system is referring to is all the other pennied out guides. It was instituted for the very reason you discovered - to prevent the penny guides from being sold. One of our fine CC insiders knows more about it, though, and can set the details straight.[/quote]

That pretty much sums it up, actually. Pennied guides haven't been able to be tendered for a few years now.
 
[quote name='ozzymandd']
Frankly, it does such a good job keeping penny guides out of our hands that I have to wonder why BB, GS, and TRU don't do something similar.[/quote]

Like eugaet said.......SHHHHHHHHH, don't give them ideas. Honestly though, I wish they did with guides like Target supposedly does with clearance stuff that doesn't sell and donates it to Goodwill or Salvation Army. I just think it's a complete waste of time/energy/paper to print these things up and then 1-6 months later(sometimes WAYYYYY less than even a month, as we've seen in the past)junking them and tossing them into a dumpster to end up in a landfill someplace.

I mean, I know they get credit for proving they're destroyed and all, but it just seems like a total fuckin' waste to even bother printing them if so many end up as garbage. According to the guy who apparently gave me the false info about the Assassin's Creed hardcover pennying from Best Buy, who contradicted a former employee who I used to converse with at length about store policies and procedure and what not, they DO NOT have a company wide recycling program for guides or other waste paper.
 
How do you guys find out which ones are penny guides?

Bring up a stack & ask them to check the price? or buy a stack then return all the ones which aren't penny guides?
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Like eugaet said.......SHHHHHHHHH, don't give them ideas. Honestly though, I wish they did with guides like Target supposedly does with clearance stuff that doesn't sell and donates it to Goodwill or Salvation Army. I just think it's a complete waste of time/energy/paper to print these things up and then 1-6 months later(sometimes WAYYYYY less than even a month, as we've seen in the past)junking them and tossing them into a dumpster to end up in a landfill someplace.

I mean, I know they get credit for proving they're destroyed and all, but it just seems like a total fuckin' waste to even bother printing them if so many end up as garbage. According to the guy who apparently gave me the false info about the Assassin's Creed hardcover pennying from Best Buy, who contradicted a former employee who I used to converse with at length about store policies and procedure and what not, they DO NOT have a company wide recycling program for guides or other waste paper.[/QUOTE]

It would certainly benefit Goodwill/Salvation Army if BB/TRU/CC/GS donated guides. I dropped off a good fifty or so guides at a local Goodwill. They were mostly crap - Need for Speeds, Major League Baseball 2k7, old B&W PC guides, etc. When I went in to look around the books about a week later, they were gone.

There's a market for everything, even crappy guides, if priced right.
 
[quote name='TURBO']How do you guys find out which ones are penny guides?

Bring up a stack & ask them to check the price? or buy a stack then return all the ones which aren't penny guides?[/quote]

READ THE FIRST AND SECOND POSTS ON THE FIRST PAGE OF THE THREAD!!!! I CAN'T SAY IT CLEARER THAN THAT.

:roll::roll::roll::whistle2:#:whistle2:#:whistle2:#
 
gtfo-56265.jpg


O RLY?

LOL

On Topic:
Has Nintendo suddenly ceased production of Nintendo Power guides?
 
[quote name='ozzymandd']It would certainly benefit Goodwill/Salvation Army if BB/TRU/CC/GS donated guides. I dropped off a good fifty or so guides at a local Goodwill. They were mostly crap - Need for Speeds, Major League Baseball 2k7, old B&W PC guides, etc. When I went in to look around the books about a week later, they were gone.

There's a market for everything, even crappy guides, if priced right.[/QUOTE]

They probably threw them away
emotsshyz1.gif


Also, how dare you call Black & White "crap." That is one of the best PC games ever created.

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Like eugaet said.......SHHHHHHHHH, don't give them ideas. Honestly though, I wish they did with guides like Target supposedly does with clearance stuff that doesn't sell and donates it to Goodwill or Salvation Army. I just think it's a complete waste of time/energy/paper to print these things up and then 1-6 months later(sometimes WAYYYYY less than even a month, as we've seen in the past)junking them and tossing them into a dumpster to end up in a landfill someplace.

I mean, I know they get credit for proving they're destroyed and all, but it just seems like a total fuckin' waste to even bother printing them if so many end up as garbage. According to the guy who apparently gave me the false info about the Assassin's Creed hardcover pennying from Best Buy, who contradicted a former employee who I used to converse with at length about store policies and procedure and what not, they DO NOT have a company wide recycling program for guides or other waste paper.[/QUOTE]

Indeed... we should contact those "save the Earth" groups and inform this of this. I bet they could pressure these companies to quit throwing away guides.
 
[quote name='Xizer']They probably threw them away
emotsshyz1.gif


Also, how dare you call Black & White "crap." That is one of the best PC games ever created.

Indeed... we should contact those "save the Earth" groups and inform this of this. I bet they could pressure these companies to quit throwing away guides.[/quote]

First off, I think they were talking about the guides printed IN black & white, not THE Black & White guide but I think you already knew that. Sorry if that's what you meant as my sarcasm detector is broken tonight.

Second, I could just imagine some modern day hippies chanting outside GS, BB, TRU and CC stores to 'save the trees' and recycle or donate their stuff.

Mind you, I DID think about contacting some enviro groups about this a while back, but since I couldn't find any direct contact info, I gave up on that quest. :whistle2:#
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']READ THE FIRST AND SECOND POSTS ON THE FIRST PAGE OF THE THREAD!!!! I CAN'T SAY IT CLEARER THAN THAT.

:roll::roll::roll::whistle2:#:whistle2:#:whistle2:#[/QUOTE]
I did & i don't see an answer to my question there. It just says information provided by people in this thread. my question was re: how people in this thread who provide the information find it out.
 
[quote name='TURBO']I did & i don't see an answer to my question there. It just says information provided by people in this thread. my question was re: how people in this thread who provide the information find it out.[/QUOTE]

They might work for the company, some track website changes as a sign of an impending drop, some simply take guides to get them price checked... your question before COULD HAVE been misconstrued because it wasnt worded clearly enough
 
[quote name='zman73']They might work for the company, some track website changes as a sign of an impending drop, some simply take guides to get them price checked... your question before COULD HAVE been misconstrued because it wasnt worded clearly enough[/QUOTE]
Well i wasnt asking how I could find out. I was asking how "you guys" find out which ones... :p

it's kinda hard to miss the massive list & wiki ;)
 
[quote name='zman73']They might work for the company, some track website changes as a sign of an impending drop, some simply take guides to get them price checked... your question before COULD HAVE been misconstrued because it wasnt worded clearly enough[/quote]

[quote name='TURBO']Well i wasnt asking how I could find out. I was asking how "you guys" find out which ones... :p

it's kinda hard to miss the massive list & wiki ;)[/quote]That's how any of us (including you) find out. The massive list and wiki represent the collective knowledge of many, many individual CAGs.

Feel free to help out. ;)
 
At TRU I saw a bunch of Super Paper Mario and PBR guides and figured they were pennied. The price checker didn't recognize either one, but when they lady at the cash register rang them, they came up as $14.99 each. >_
 
[quote name='TURBO']I did & i don't see an answer to my question there. It just says information provided by people in this thread. my question was re: how people in this thread who provide the information find it out.[/QUOTE]

1. from people who work at retail stores or know people who work there
2. people grab guides and scan them at the store.
3. price sticker at 1 cent (rare)
4. online web site show 1 cent (rare)
 
I was disappointed when i went to the new best buy that opened a week ago about 4 miles from me and they didn't even have strategy guides. Boo
 
[quote name='Brenex']I was disappointed when i went to the new best buy that opened a week ago about 4 miles from me and they didn't even have strategy guides. Boo[/quote]Same here w/ the new Best Buy that opened sometime in the past couple months. No strategy guides at all. Eventually, I did see one Civilization Revolution guide on the shelf...but that's it. I'll have to check again during the next drop to see if they started stocking them.
 
[quote name='62t']1. from people who work at retail stores or know people who work there
2. people grab guides and scan them at the store.
3. price sticker at 1 cent (rare)
4. online web site show 1 cent (rare)[/QUOTE]
ah. Yea i was wondering. I was considering how i could contribute to this thread. but my local GS is run by total douches; if i asked them to price guides for me they'd probably refuse & question why i'd want them to.

B&N, Borders, TRU & CC i probably wouldn't have any hitches though. I'll give it a try.
 
[quote name='TURBO']ah. Yea i was wondering. I was considering how i could contribute to this thread. but my local GS is run by total douches; if i asked them to price guides for me they'd probably refuse & question why i'd want them to.

B&N, Borders, TRU & CC i probably wouldn't have any hitches though. I'll give it a try.[/quote]

You can try at B&N, Borders and CC but I don't believe they penny out the guides or the system actually prohibits the sale from going through (see earlier posts in this thread about CC penny guides).

For CC you need an override and it's usually to some price other than a penny. That's the only way I've ever gotten penny guides from CC and it was usually for a couple of bucks.

Other CAGs have reported that Borders and B&N do not penny out the guides. See the old thread links at the beginning of this thread if you care to read up on it.

BB and GS/EB are typically a CAG's best bet.
 
I would think Borders and B&N know about the procedure of pennied books, not just guides. Plus, we generally dont have reports regarding pennied guides at bookstores anymore.
 
With regards to getting penny guides at Circuit City, it really matters who rings you up.

This past Thursday, I went over to Circuit City and picked up 3 clearance games. While I was looking around, one of the sales associates was re-doing the entire Nintendo DS section and was polite and kind enough to help me find Wario: Master of Disguise and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker.

I then asked him about the old guides and he told me that he wouldn't be surprised if some of them were a penny. He and I then went to the guide section and he helped me look at any guide that I thought would be a penny. I found a few guides and then proceeded to the register. It helped that he told the nice gal that the guides I was buying were a penny. Like many of you reported, the computer wouldn't allow them to sell them to me for a penny. Fortunately, the girl WANTED to get rid of them and so she scanned them individually to get the SKU, then rang up my games and called it a day.

On my receipt, all it had were the three clearance games I bought but nothing about the guides. I guess I got lucky. :roll:

--Michael
 
[quote name='Civickid96']With regards to getting penny guides at Circuit City...[/quote]Which guides did you get? I'm curious if they've already been reported as pennied on the wiki/thread or not.

I may give CC a look-see this week.
 
I got the following at Circuit City the other night:

1. Super Mario Advance 4 (Prima)
2. WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain.
3. Perfect Dark Zero (Prima)
4. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Premiere Edition
5. Black (Prima)
6.Doom 3 (Prima)
7. Yoshi's Island DS (Nintendo Power)
8. Super Paper Mario (Prima)
9. Viva Pinata
10. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Prima)
11. Rainbow Six Vegas (Prima)

I know they're old guides, but since I'm collecting them, it was a nice find. Plus, they ended up giving them to me since I was buying other things.

--Michael
 
[quote name='Civickid96']I got the following at Circuit City the other night:

1. Super Mario Advance 4 (Prima)
2. WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain.
3. Perfect Dark Zero (Prima)
4. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Premiere Edition
5. Black (Prima)
6.Doom 3 (Prima)
7. Yoshi's Island DS (Nintendo Power)
8. Super Paper Mario (Prima)
9. Viva Pinata
10. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Prima)
11. Rainbow Six Vegas (Prima)

I know they're old guides, but since I'm collecting them, it was a nice find. Plus, they ended up giving them to me since I was buying other things.

--Michael[/quote]

Many of those are 'newer' but Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain is from like 2003, I think?

Talk about never throwing anything away.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Many of those are 'newer' but Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain is from like 2003, I think?

Talk about never throwing anything away.[/quote]

That's what I was thinking. I think that was the last WWE game I ever bought. :lol:

--Michael
 
Hmmmm, the Metroid Prime 3 Premier edition might be worth looking into. Thanks dude!

As far as regular bookstores penny-ing out guides, I really don't know - I found an FFVII guide the other day, still marked at $19.99, but I had no idea what it would scan in at. Do the Borders usually have price scanners (the CAG's best friend)?
 
[quote name='punkmaggit']Hmmmm, the Metroid Prime 3 Premier edition might be worth looking into. Thanks dude!

As far as regular bookstores penny-ing out guides, I really don't know - I found an FFVII guide the other day, still marked at $19.99, but I had no idea what it would scan in at. Do the Borders usually have price scanners (the CAG's best friend)?[/QUOTE]

Well, they do have those kiosks, might wanna try looking it up?
 
You won't find .01 guides at the chain bookstores. Pennied out items are a daily occurrence with them and even if you did find one still on the shelf the checkout clerk knows better than to sell it.
 
[quote name='Civickid96']That's what I was thinking. I think that was the last WWE game I ever bought. :lol:

--Michael[/quote]

The last one I ever bought was Smackdown Vs. Raw 06, but before that it was the second Smackdown on the original Playstation.

Personally, I liked those better, since you could do some truly insane stunts in it, like putting your opponent onto a table, then flying off the ropes and going through them and the table. I've tried it in the more recent SD vs Raw games and they must've taken that out.

My one buddy and I sit there and play for HOURS on the game before HCTP though, which I believe is called Shut Your Mouth.

I really wish that CC would allow guides to penny and show up on the registers as such though, since then I'd have an even tougher spot than TRU to try and grab guides from then.
 
I checked the one Gamestop around here that I normally get an occasional guide from, found a copy of the Mario Galaxy hardcover on the shelf and almost shit myself since I never find any at this store anymore. Unfortunately, the one manager who is cool about letting the guides go when they come up .01 wasn't there for the day already, so I have to stop back tomorrow or something to see if he'll let it go.

They also still had 10-12 copies of the FFXII hardcover guide sitting on the shelf as well.

Oh and I checked the Assassin's Creed Artbook/Guide combo today at BB, still $24.99.
 
Did you check the hardcover FFXII there? One of my stores has a dozedn or more, but they are tucked away somewhere and is a pain for the employees to get them, so I never want to bother them just to check prices. I'd hate for them to get PO'ed and stop giving me the ones that have pennied!
 
I checked out a GS that I knew had a P3 guide, and well, they cleaned up their guide rack apparently >_< Of course, I asked them, and the guy was kind enough to bring it out for me ^_^ I would throw the guy a preorder or two, but its pretty far off and I rarely visit.
 
My friend and I were biking around Broadway, where all the stores are looking for penny guides and cheap shit in general. In BB I got Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution for $1.99 + tax, and at Saver's I got a Beavis And Butthead Do America DVD for 99 cents and the Wipeout longbox and manual for free. It was ok so far. Then we decided to go to CC.

First we looked at the games and played the Rock Band demo for a little while, then saw the guide rack. It was overflowing to the game shelves and onto the floor with guides. I thought it wouldn't work, because everybody says CC is YMMV, and almost every TUcson retail employee is a douchebag. First, we rang up the Viva Pinata guide and it turned out a penny. The clerk was like woah and was all excited. We then basically grabbed almost all of the guides on the shelf that were semi-old and dumped them in a pile, and the clerk rang a ton up, and kept a few for himself. A bunch of people were staring at us. XD

Once we had about 40 guides the manager came up and asked what was happening. The clerk told her that all the old guides rang up for a penny, and she was like oh, I'll have to check on that, and went away. She came back in about 10 minutes and said it was ok with her but she had to check with her boss. She called her boss on the mic and he responded and was all surprised, but said it was ok.

The guy rang them all up, we had to do multiple times because you could only ring up like 15 in one purchase. After there were only two left the boss called the clerk on the mic and said that we could only get one of each guide. We freaked out. Then the manager said it was ok since he had already rang us up. The guides I ended up with were:

18,000+ codes and cheats
Rainbow Six Vegas
Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga
Yoshi's Island DS
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Metroid Prime Corruption
The Ultamite National Pokedex
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Super Paper Mario x2
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Zelda Phantom Hourglass x2
Lord Of The Rings Online
Madden 08 x2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Viva Pinata
You & Wii

My friend got about the same except for guides that they only had one of, which we just split up by who wanted them, and the employee got about 10 guides. Not a bad deal. ^_^
 
Good find Darkslime.

I've been checking out the Circuit City locations around me and I just got today:

1. The Godfather (Prima)
2. Mario Party 8 (Prima)
3. You and Wii

At this location, there were more Yoshi Island DS and another copy of Mario Party 8.

This time, the employee rang me up and I did pay 3 cents and leave with my guides.

--Michael
 
[quote name='Civickid96']Good find Darkslime.

I've been checking out the Circuit City locations around me and I just got today:

1. The Godfather (Prima)
2. Mario Party 8 (Prima)
3. You and Wii

At this location, there were more Yoshi Island DS and another copy of Mario Party 8.

This time, the employee rang me up and I did pay 3 cents and leave with my guides.

--Michael[/quote] Thanks. lol I think the guy who runs the store at the swap meet is a CAG lurker because he takes all of the good clearance stuff, and alot of penny guides. Maybe he didn't go to CC because everyone talks about not being able to get anything.
 
Nice to know you can still find some guides at CC. Of course, I dont think my CC stocks guides that much, they rarely have any, and when they do, its usually just for the more popular games. They have about 8 different guides at most when I go in. Then again, their game selection is pretty bad too.
 
Meh. I took a few of the reported CC penny guides to the register to check out (tried to get an employee scan them at a station in the middle of media, but he was new and couldn't figure out how to access the system) and none of them scanned...or so I was told, I couldn't see the screen. Employee took them to talk to his manager and returned to state they were the price marked on the back cover. Hmmm. May try again later.
 
[quote name='darkslime']My friend and I were biking around Broadway, where all the stores are looking for penny guides and cheap shit in general. In BB I got Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution for $1.99 + tax, and at Saver's I got a Beavis And Butthead Do America DVD for 99 cents and the Wipeout longbox and manual for free. It was ok so far. Then we decided to go to CC.

First we looked at the games and played the Rock Band demo for a little while, then saw the guide rack. It was overflowing to the game shelves and onto the floor with guides. I thought it wouldn't work, because everybody says CC is YMMV, and almost every TUcson retail employee is a douchebag. First, we rang up the Viva Pinata guide and it turned out a penny. The clerk was like woah and was all excited. We then basically grabbed almost all of the guides on the shelf that were semi-old and dumped them in a pile, and the clerk rang a ton up, and kept a few for himself. A bunch of people were staring at us. XD

Once we had about 40 guides the manager came up and asked what was happening. The clerk told her that all the old guides rang up for a penny, and she was like oh, I'll have to check on that, and went away. She came back in about 10 minutes and said it was ok with her but she had to check with her boss. She called her boss on the mic and he responded and was all surprised, but said it was ok.

The guy rang them all up, we had to do multiple times because you could only ring up like 15 in one purchase. After there were only two left the boss called the clerk on the mic and said that we could only get one of each guide. We freaked out. Then the manager said it was ok since he had already rang us up. The guides I ended up with were:

18,000+ codes and cheats
Rainbow Six Vegas
Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga
Yoshi's Island DS
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Metroid Prime Corruption
The Ultamite National Pokedex
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Super Paper Mario x2
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Zelda Phantom Hourglass x2
Lord Of The Rings Online
Madden 08 x2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Viva Pinata
You & Wii

My friend got about the same except for guides that they only had one of, which we just split up by who wanted them, and the employee got about 10 guides. Not a bad deal. ^_^[/quote]

Congrats!
Can you post any other titles you might remember?
Thanks
 
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