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='darkslime']How about we make a thread for each drop, not for each guide.

For example, the title of the thread could be;
Best Buy Guide Drop - MM/DD
and inside it could say all of the guides that dropped this time, for example

Burnout Paradise
Condemned 2
PES2008[/quote]

Possible, but I think one whole thread works just fine. We would have one for each store, each drop, etc etc. Too many threads to keep track of, etc. Also, we only learn of drops through users and such, some of them are not willing to make a whole thread and instead just post their finds here.
 
[quote name='Link927']Possible, but I think one whole thread works just fine. We would have one for each store, each drop, etc etc. Too many threads to keep track of, etc. Also, we only learn of drops through users and such, some of them are not willing to make a whole thread and instead just post their finds here.[/quote] I'm just thinking of it because its probably a PITA for IATCG to find all of the updates in here, and it would be easier if whoever finds penny guides updates about it.
 
I went to my local CC today and tried to buy the guides for Viva Pinata, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Tomb Raider Anniversary, but they all rang up full price. Are penny guides store specific? I just assumed that all CC's would have them pennied out at the same time.

Is it worth asking the manager why they're still full price or would that be a bad move?
 
[quote name='supaet']Got burnout paradise from bb, but it's 39 cents =.=''[/QUOTE]

They raised the prices on some guides I think to weird prices like that. PES 2008 rung up $0.03 for me instead of $0.01
 
[quote name='darkslime']How about we make a thread for each drop, not for each guide.

For example, the title of the thread could be;
Best Buy Guide Drop - MM/DD
and inside it could say all of the guides that dropped this time, for example

Burnout Paradise
Condemned 2
PES2008[/QUOTE]

That's stupid. Why are you trying to draw more attention to reduced guides? Do you have no desire to get guides in the future?

We are already dangerously close to hitting the point where there are so many people taking advantage of the way these companies' systems are set up that the companies modify their systems so we can't do it anymore. Reduced price guides need to be kept under wraps as much as possible now, and confining them to a single topic is the best way.
 
Isn't reducing clutter a big reason why we have like 17 threads related the penny guides as it is? Making a thread for every drop goes completely against that.

One thread works fine, IMO. It would be unnecessary to make more.
 
[quote name='darkslime']I'm just thinking of it because its probably a PITA for IATCG to find all of the updates in here, and it would be easier if whoever finds penny guides updates about it.[/QUOTE]

I believe one of the reasons we list all the guide drops in this thread is that it wouldn't alert the lurkers as much as, say, if each drop had their own individual threads.
 
[quote name='darkslime']I'm just thinking of it because its probably a PITA for IATCG to find all of the updates in here, and it would be easier if whoever finds penny guides updates about it.[/quote]

That's why I asked and many complied for a while with my idea of putting new drop info in RED text. Even if they put it in between spoiler tags, which automatically changes the font color to red but told me about doing so, then it wouldn't be a pita to find info bout drops between all of the other stuff in here.

[quote name='WingsDJY']I went to my local CC today and tried to buy the guides for Viva Pinata, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Tomb Raider Anniversary, but they all rang up full price. Are penny guides store specific? I just assumed that all CC's would have them pennied out at the same time.

Is it worth asking the manager why they're still full price or would that be a bad move?[/quote]

Asking a manager why something isn't coming up one cent, when most retail outlets feel that anyone who knows about pennied items is a suspicious customer, is a universally bad idea. It may simply be that your CC store is on a newer point of sale system, as some people who said their stores were using registers with color screens were having guides coming up full price still.

If that's the case, then those guides may not drop for a while, if they ever do.

If for nothing, if you have another local CC, look there and see if they have black & white screens on their registers. If they do and you can find those guides there, you may be in luck.

But whatever you do, DO NOT ask why the guides aren't coming up as 'pennied' or one cent. If you have the guides re-checked in a week or two and they still haven't dropped and they ask WHY you're having them checked, just tell them you heard they were possibly on 'clearance'.

Clearance is a much more acceptable term than 'pennied'.
 
i'm new to penny guides. ive been to a couple stores (bb and cc) and when i bring them to the register i just say that i read somewhere that they were on clearance.

one person at cc said "WHAAATTT!! 1 CENT!!!!" i said "yeah..thats what i read they would be so i came to grab one" she said " dont get your wallet out..i have a couple pennies right here!" super nice lady. she wants me to let her know next time im there if there are more that she might like.

the closest i got to "trouble" is when there were a few cashiers talking to each other at the register i was checking out at. one of them went to check with the manager since they hadn't seen that before..but the manager ok'd it. they wrote down the titles to see if their sons needed any of them.

luckily there dont seem to be any other CAG's in my area.
 
With people who have guides coming up full price, are you seeing this price on the screen, or is it just what the cashiers are telling you? I've known some cashiers that, once they see it's ringing up for a penny, will just tell you the price on the back of the guide.
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']With people who have guides coming up full price, are you seeing this price on the screen, or is it just what the cashiers are telling you? I've known some cashiers that, once they see it's ringing up for a penny, will just tell you the price on the back of the guide.[/quote]

I always try to get them to show me the screen. You can't trust those retail employees!:D
 
My thoughts exactly. Sometimes employees tell me that they're whatever price is on the back of the guide. If that's the case, I just say thank you, I'm not interested. Then, wait until someone else's shift, or walk over to another register.

Incidentally, today is Monday. Anyone have any good leads for BB drops?
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']My thoughts exactly. Sometimes employees tell me that they're whatever price is on the back of the guide. If that's the case, I just say thank you, I'm not interested. Then, wait until someone else's shift, or walk over to another register.

Incidentally, today is Monday. Anyone have any good leads for BB drops?[/quote]

Check the BB website then cross reference that with what your particular store has and whatever is missing on the website might be a penny. I notice the Fire Emblem guide is not on the website and I don't see the Twilight Princess Wii Prima Guide (white softcover).
 
I actually have a pretty nice spreadsheet of that nature going ;-) I was thinking, that since they do their drops on Mondays, maybe I could check Sunday, and monday, and anything that's changed is more likely to be a drop. Sadly, nothing new is off the site that was there yesterday.

Guides not on the site:

Army of Two (with graphic novel)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Mass Effect (w/ Artbook)
Pokemon Diamong/Pearl (Prima)
Pocket Pokedex
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw

Backordered on site:

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Final Fantasy IV
The Incredibly Hulk
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (hardcover)
The Bourne Conspiracy
Soul Calibur IV
Soul Calibur IV Collector's Edition

Sold Out Online:

Orange Box


Can anyone tell me; does a guide usually completely off the BB website, when it pennies, or does it sometimes just go to "backordered" when it pennies?
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']Fallout 3 isnt out yet.. why would that be clearanced out? neither is brothers in arms[/quote]

I had to stand in line anyway and I go by the dates on the back of the preorder package. The brothers in arms one was out of date for preorder and the fallout was wishful thinking. I am doing fellow CAGs a favor by checking/posting. Once you start offering something to this thread, then you can start criticizing.

[quote name='Ubiiquitous']I certainly agree with you on the NG wall grafix. I have NO idea why not only that it's mentioned in this thread, but that there are SO many posts regarding it, since it has nothing to do with guides.
[/quote]

I understand your POV, but you guys are way too sensitive about what can/can not appear on a thread. The wall scroll is gaming related, costs .01, and is at a store a person would be going to anyway if they are picking up guides. Since this is a video game related website, I don't think it is a big deal that a gaming related item that is not 'a guide' is mentioned on this thread.

How about making this thread a penny items thread? Pretty much everything that I have seen pennied out is video game or entertainment related anyway.



.





 
[quote name='slowdive21']I had to stand in line anyway and I go by the dates on the back of the preorder package. The brothers in arms one was out of date for preorder and the fallout was wishful thinking. I am doing fellow CAGs a favor by checking/posting. Once you start offering something to this thread, then you can start criticizing.



I understand your POV, but you guys are way too sensitive about what can/can not appear on a thread. The wall scroll is gaming related, costs .01, and is at a store a person would be going to anyway if they are picking up guides. Since this is a video game related website, I don't think it is a big deal that a gaming related item that is not 'a guide' is mentioned on this thread.

How about making this thread a penny items thread? Pretty much everything that I have seen pennied out is video game or entertainment related anyway.

[/QUOTE]

My problem really isn't that the NG wall grafix was mentioned. It's the fact that there are so many posts regarding it. Somebody, originally, was in Best Buy looking for penny guides and saw that the NG wall grafix was also a penny, so that person mentioned it. That's totally cool. The issue was that if you look back at all the posts, there are so many posts surrounding that wall grafix. It's really the same thing with penny guides.

It's almost like the punchline to a joke: "How many people does it take to post on penny guides/NG wall grafix/etc.? One person to post the initial drop and 482 people to tell everybody how many they bought."

That's the real issue with the NG wall grafix. Not that it was first mentioned, but how many posts it took over. It doesn't matter anyway. No matter what people say and no matter what the "rules" are for this thread, 90% of the posts are always going to be people talking about what and how many they bought at a store. That's why I have to check this thread multiple times a day. If I checked once a week, or so, I would have to sort through all the posts to find out any legitimate information.
 
[quote name='Pookymeister']One thread subscription = all your info.[/quote]

[quote name='Xizer']Reduced price guides need to be kept under wraps as much as possible now, and confining them to a single topic is the best way.[/quote]

Yep, make it difficult to learn about reduced price guides and which ones are pennied by putting all the info in one thread titled "Reduced Price Game Guides."

Lol. I give, peeps. Have it your way. I do appreciate the drop info here, despite the flaws.
 
This thread is fine the way it is, it would nice with less thread clutter but all in all the infor you need is in the second post of the thread so all this other stuff of Tom getting X guide and Jim getting Y guide from here or there is all clutter...

Any updates people find should be emailed to IATCG and he can update accordingly and make a post letting people know the thread has been updated..

But either way this thread functions and unless your just unable to read anything unless its bolded and colored and in huge text well then thats just one less person out there trying to hunt down penny guides and it takes some of the pressure off the regulars.
 
Question: Does anyone know of a pennied game guide discussion going on on other forums or anything? Or is this thread pretty much the sole repository of all pennied strategy guide information?
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']Question: Does anyone know of a pennied game guide discussion going on on other forums or anything? Or is this thread pretty much the sole repository of all pennied strategy guide information?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, this is the thread where all discussion information is supposed to go, but, sadly, it usually goes unused and everybody just dumps their personal stuff in here:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4776746#post4776746
 
I don't know about you guys but all the eb/gs places i've been going to doesn't sell penny guides anymore. when it rings for a penny they usually overide it for the msrp price now. I tried to ask them if they can sell it at 75% off but said they were told not to sell penny guides now. it's getting to be YMMV.
 
[quote name='oni-link']I don't know about you guys but all the eb/gs places i've been going to doesn't sell penny guides anymore. when it rings for a penny they usually overide it for the msrp price now. I tried to ask them if they can sell it at 75% off but said they were told not to sell penny guides now. it's getting to be YMMV.[/quote]

The general consensus is that its steadily going to get harder and harder. My local CCs that I had gotten difficult penny guides from like Double Agent and Army of Two now are overriding prices for DMC4 and rock band.
 
Just out of curiosity, how much luck do you guys have with this at Best Buy?

My local best buy often has several of the guides listed here as pennied, but they're listed as $10 or $20 on the shelf and when I get them checked, this is what they clerk tells me too.

Is BB just massively YMMV? or am I missing something?
 
[quote name='jporter313']Just out of curiosity, how much luck do you guys have with this at Best Buy?

My local best buy often has several of the guides listed here as pennied, but they're listed as $10 or $20 on the shelf and when I get them checked, this is what they clerk tells me too.

Is BB just massively YMMV? or am I missing something?[/QUOTE]

It's usually not YMMV for guides. Sounds like your store is just crappy. Some are better than others, but the majority of them are pretty good about penny guides. Sorry about that, man...
 
I might go down there tonight, if I don't hear from anyone before then, and have them scan a few guides. Probably Fire Emblem, Mass Effect w/ Artbook, Army of Two with the comic, and maybe Orange Box, and the Hardcover Zelda and Mario Galaxy.
 
[quote name='genfuyung']The general consensus is that its steadily going to get harder and harder. My local CCs that I had gotten difficult penny guides from like Double Agent and Army of Two now are overriding prices for DMC4 and rock band.[/quote]For GS, I'm not picking anything up, as the stores out here are nuts about it, from the ones I frequent.

BB, it's a mixed bag, depends on how closely the media guys are keeping up with their pulls. Back and forth on scores of guides.

CC, it's odd, as they never pennied anything out until recently, and now, I'm lucking out, for what's there.

As a whole, I think it's getting harder, yes.
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']
Can anyone tell me; does a guide usually completely off the BB website, when it pennies, or does it sometimes just go to "backordered" when it pennies?[/quote]

That's the REALLY weird part, in that some pennied guides were still listed on the site the last time I checked it from home and many of the guides that dropped going back as far as the drop with Heavenly Sword are listed AS .01 on the in-store version of the BB website.

So unfortunately, there's never been a really set way that BB does it, though I'd actually like it if they continued to list the actual guides as .01 on the site in-store. It would make it a whole hell of a lot easier.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That's the REALLY weird part, in that some pennied guides were still listed on the site the last time I checked it from home and many of the guides that dropped going back as far as the drop with Heavenly Sword are listed AS .01 on the in-store version of the BB website.

So unfortunately, there's never been a really set way that BB does it, though I'd actually like it if they continued to list the actual guides as .01 on the site in-store. It would make it a whole hell of a lot easier.[/quote] *agrees* But they don't want us to get penny guides, so they'll never make it easy.
 
Actually, the CC in my area crossed out the barcode and are now stickering the price of the guide...some msrp and some lower. GS/EB is no luck especially GameCrazy. I think in the near future we'll all have to settle for 50-75% off if we're even lucky. It's all the damn hoarders fault!!!
 
[quote name='neocisco']I'll give you $1 if you can sum it up even more.:lol:[/quote]Oooh oooh, ooh, lemme do it for him!!! Here's Pooky's summation of all things penny guides... ready? *clears throat* ahem...



My precious!!
 
3xauo.jpg
 
[quote name='darkslime']*agrees* But they don't want us to get penny guides, so they'll never make it easy.[/quote]

If it ends up that I can't get guides for .01 that I want, either for trade fodder or for myself, then the local shops should serve me well since they get a good selection of newer drops in within 2 weeks of them dropping. They cost $3-5 each there, but it's still better than $15-20 or more.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']If it ends up that I can't get guides for .01 that I want, either for trade fodder or for myself, then the local shops should serve me well since they get a good selection of newer drops in within 2 weeks of them dropping. They cost $3-5 each there, but it's still better than $15-20 or more.[/quote] True. I can usually get them for $3-5 also.

Gonna check game crazys for the first time tomorrow. WIsh me luck.

XD @ pookymeister.
 
Went to my CC today, and they had a bunch of Mercenaries 2 swag hanging out in a basket marked "free." There were posters, art books, and cards with codes on them for "Exclusive Mercenaries Outfits."


EDIT: Out of codes.
 
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where can you find guides for $3-$5. Wow you're really lucky that you CC did that the ones back here don't seem to have anything like that!!!
 
[quote name='oni-link']where can you find guides for $3-$5. Wow you're really lucky that you CC did that the ones back here don't seem to have anything like that!!![/quote]

A local shop sells them for $3 each, but since I was buying 5-6, they dropped it to $2 each a while back. Thing is, probably better than 50% of the guides were ones I sold them. :lol:
 
I'm starting to hate my local CC - all the pennied guides still rang up in the computer at $19.99 except Rock Band - which was 0.00, and after 20 minutes of internal confusions and arguing amongst themselves tried getting $10 out of me for each one.

I put it back and left.
 
Finally got my first penny guide.:D

It rang up $0.01 and the cashier was wondering what to do. Asked the manager and he okayed it saying something along the line of "if that is what system showed up to be", something like that, he was busy helping someone else so he talks very fast and I did not catch half of them.
 
Went to BB, today and checked Army of Two (with comic book), Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Mass Effect (with art book) and Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (Prima), since they were all off the site. None of them had pennied by Ao2 rang up for $7.80, so there's a good chance that a penniage is coming, maybe this monday.
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']Went to BB, today and checked Army of Two (with comic book), Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Mass Effect (with art book) and Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (Prima), since they were all off the site. None of them had pennied by Ao2 rang up for $7.80, so there's a good chance that a penniage is coming, maybe this monday.[/quote]

Fire emblem was marked down to I think 4.99 at mine... but it was a yellow plastered sticker.

So I agree.. we should see these in the next drop which should be either this or next monday :(
 
The Madden mini-guide pennied out today (Friday) at Best Buy. I have never seen the mini-guide, but it pennied out anyway.
 
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