Reduced Price Game Guides: Thread Nine

Status
Not open for further replies.
IAmTheCheapestGamer

IAmTheCheapestGamer

Banned
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.


 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 0 Downvote
well it's decided...im going to post a list of not only all the guides from my haul today...but a list of all the ones i have...because im hoping to get some FF guides that im missing :(

If anyone got some extras of the following guides could you quote my post and tell me...or PM me...or have me PM you? pleeeaasssseeee:

Final Fantasy CC: Ring of Fates
Dragon Quest IV
Tales of Vesperia
Soul Calibur LE
Mass Effect LE
Fire Emblem
Lost Oddyssey

will post my haul/list after dinner and put it in my sig but anyone who has extras of those guides and would be willing to trade or something pleeaassseee let me know!
 
Wow. I went back to the BestBuy that I had my earlier score. All gone. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a hoarder, but they actually pulled all the guides, because there were still a bunch of older penny guides sitting there, very lonely.

So, I decided to say screw it and traveled to the next closest Best Buy. I wasn't going to, but I willed myself to and boy am I glad I did. Snagged two Tales of Vesperia (the only guide left that I wanted), Lost Odyssey, and a Fable II LE.

Then visited a third BestBuy. They had minimal selection, but I managed to grab a Mass Effect and a Lost Odyssey. A guy came over with a list as I was grabbing the two guides, presumably to pull the pennied out ones.

These are three Best Buys that never pull penny guides. They must have gotten notice to do these specifically.

Oh, and for the middle Best Buy (White Marsh, MD) there's still a Tales of Vesperia and two Lost Odysseys for any CAGs.
 
Man...I had the Warhammer Online and Ninja Gaiden 2 guides in my hands and even one of the employee's told me they were both a penny...yet at the cash register they weren't on file and the dude said I couldn't get em. :(
 
[quote name='Pelican']Man...I had the Warhammer Online and Ninja Gaiden 2 guides in my hands and even one of the employee's told me they were both a penny...yet at the cash register they weren't on file and the dude said I couldn't get em. :([/quote]

Like I said in the other thread, go back tonight or tomorrow and try again with a different cashier. The cash register employee lied to you about it "not being on file," or whatever.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']Like I said in the other thread, go back tonight or tomorrow and try again with a different cashier. The cash register employee lied to you about it "not being on file," or whatever.[/QUOTE]

they probably scanned the wrong bar code
 
[quote name='62t']they probably scanned the wrong bar code[/quote]

Oh, you're probably right. I completely forgot that they did that. All of my cashiers were competent today and scanned the correct barcodes.
 
The Assassin's Creed LE guides were not in the system. They were really cool though. They said they would penny it for me either way.
 
forgot to add earlier:

I didn't see ANY DS guides at all, so I casually asked an employee if they had any DS FF guides. He said, oh, are you looking for penny guides? I said I was, and he told me to wait a minute. I was thinking he was going to check with his manager to see if I could buy them (I had ~10 random ones in my cart) and he comes back with a cart loaded with a bunch of other random guides. He'd pulled them to PRICE MARK them @ a penny! lol. Got my pick of the bunch.

Really upset no FFIV or Tales (not that I expected Tales, but they had ~ 4 FFIV a week ago). Didn't find Crisis Core, but a buddy hooked me up with a pdf scan he found of it, so I at least have it if I want to replay the game.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']well it's decided...im going to post a list of not only all the guides from my haul today...but a list of all the ones i have...because im hoping to get some FF guides that im missing :(

If anyone got some extras of the following guides could you quote my post and tell me...or PM me...or have me PM you? pleeeaasssseeee:

Final Fantasy CC: Ring of Fates
Dragon Quest IV
Tales of Vesperia
Soul Calibur LE
Mass Effect LE
Fire Emblem
Lost Oddyssey

will post my haul/list after dinner and put it in my sig but anyone who has extras of those guides and would be willing to trade or something pleeaassseee let me know!
[/quote]

Hey Anime, we're are not allowed to trade in this thread.
But since a lot of people are looking for those very guides,
rest assured I did pick those up today and would happy to help those in need.
I got what I wanted by trading with other members just now, Fable II LE and Gears 2 LE.
So now I need to give back. I know for fact no other CAGs live in my area.
I had a haul of 120+ guides today. I only managed to get about half. I was tired.
I just don't wanna pay shipping is all.
 
[quote name='Taboner']The Assassin's Creed LE guides were not in the system. They were really cool though. They said they would penny it for me either way.[/quote]

I believe those were pennied out at an earlier drop.
 
Checked my local Best Buy in Mansfield, TX today, and absolutely every single penny guide was gone. Thanks, whichever hoarder obviously cleaned it out right away. There were at least 8 copies of Ring of Fates there yesterday. =_=
 
Went to 2 BB's today. One of em I picked up a nice little haul of about 14 guides, no Fable II LE though =(
The other one was completely cleaned out of penny guides... I did find this interesting though and snapped a quick pic with my phone
img0023gu6.jpg
 
They're definitely cracking down on enforcing guide pulls.


I hid some, and they found everything but these:


Mass Effect (LE)
Final Fantasty VII: Crisis Core
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate
Lost Odyssey x2 (both for trade)


Everything else was gone at every BB I went to today...

Orri~
 
Just got back from work and stopped by bestbuy in denver colorado. Did not find a single guide on the list. Asked one of the associates and he mentioned somebody came in earlier and bought a ton of guides. Oh well power to the hoarders. Takes the fun out of being a cheap ass gamer.
 
Went to 2 stores. One of which Never pulls their guides.
This time, ALL pulled.
Why are they being so persistent for this time? Geez.
LOOKING FOR GEARS 2. Please pm me if you find anything you'd like in my trade thread.
page 4, post 74.
Thank you.
 
[quote name='sunnysky']Went to 2 stores. One of which Never pulls their guides.
This time, ALL pulled.
Why are they being so persistent for this time? Geez.
LOOKING FOR GEARS 2. Please pm me if you find anything you'd like in my trade thread.
page 4, post 74.
Thank you.[/quote]

Gears 2 wasnt pennied
 
[quote name='rishiraja']Just got back from work and stopped by bestbuy in denver colorado. Did not find a single guide on the list. Asked one of the associates and he mentioned somebody came in earlier and bought a ton of guides. Oh well power to the hoarders. Takes the fun out of being a cheap ass gamer.[/quote]

I purchased a bunch of guides but I did not take more than one copy of anything from a store unless it was from an older drop. If I have doubles it's because I picked it up from different stores.

My list is 2-5 pages back or just search my name in this thread.

store on Colorado BLVD was cleaned before I hit it though

Got most of my guides from W. Colfax store and Wadsworth both of which had tons of guides left.

I'm going up to Thornton later tonight see if I can find Oblivion or Fable 2
 
I just bought Warioland, Spore and Crash 30 minutes ago. No problem purchasing them and no prompt at the register saying not to sell them. The cashier was surprised to see they were so cheap but I explained how Best Buy is always marking down stuff to a penny.
 
Attention Raleigh CAGs:

I went to recover my stash at the Glenwood BB tonight and I found out that I had one too many sets of the three DS FF guides hidden. I placed them back on the shelf so if you go out there tomorrow you should find one FF IV, one FFTA2, and one FFCC:RoF. Unless of course, they were purchased after I left.

Also, which one of you found my stash at the Garner BB? I had hidden a stack of guides behind a bunch of crappy third party Wii shoveripherals (third part steering wheels and wii sports attachments). It was not there when I went to recover it. I'm assuming it was the guy who had found a copy of LO this morning as that was one of the guides in the stack.
 
[quote name='Taboner']70 Guides

1 Cab

in NYC

ouch[/quote]


Thanks for leaving plenty for the rest of us! That's not sarcasm, I found TONS today at a single store, and left more than 2/3 of it behind. I went to all the stores in Manhattan (after 6pm EST, I might add), and I couldn't tell which store this could have been. Two had nothing, but they looked as if everything had been neatly pulled, and weren't decimated at all. The others were reasonably fruitful.

[quote name='BarbblerElf']I'm in New Jersey and before I take a bus to NY tomorrow did any NY cags clear out their best buys totally?

Edit: And man some of you are lucky to have 5+ stores to visit. I have 1 near me and the rest are a few miles away in NY[/quote]

The only store worth going to at this point is the one on Broadway and Houston. There are a few Mass Effect Bundles left, one Elder Scrolls IV GOTY, 3-4 each of Fire Emblem, DQIV, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect (regular), Ninja Gaiden II, Brothers in Arms, and Mercenaries 2. There were also some FFT:A2 and FFCC:RoF, Madden LE bundles, Soul Calibur IV LE, Spore LE, and probably a lot more I'm forgetting. Basically, it's got everything good except FFIV, FFXII, ToV, Fable II LE, and Lost Odyssey (which I didn't see a single copy of :cry:).

Edit - If you're making the trip all the way to NYC, you might want to make sure you get to the store at opening to get what you want, in case any other NYC CAGs see this post and hit the store up.
 
[quote name='anch']btw, don't bother with the Pasadena store.
A guy filled his basket with more than 30 guides while flipping through all the guides there.[/quote]

I saw that guy at checkout when i was just coming to get some guides. I guess he pretty much clean out the place. all i saw was only clone wars and a buncha of warcraft guides left. But at least i scored 1 lonely Spore bundle guide:) so it wasn't a total lost.
 
[quote name='Rave Child']Thanks for leaving plenty for the rest of us! That's not sarcasm, I found TONS today at a single store, and left more than 2/3 of it behind. I went to all the stores in Manhattan (after 6pm EST, I might add), and I couldn't tell which store this could have been. Two had nothing, but they looked as if everything had been neatly pulled, and weren't decimated at all. The others were reasonably fruitful.



The only store worth going to at this point is the one on Broadway and Houston. There are a few Mass Effect Bundles left, one Elder Scrolls IV GOTY, 3-4 each of Fire Emblem, DQIV, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect (regular), Ninja Gaiden II, Brothers in Arms, and Mercenaries 2. There were also some FFT:A2 and FFCC:RoF, Madden LE bundles, Soul Calibur IV LE, Spore LE, and probably a lot more I'm forgetting. Basically, it's got everything good except FFIV, FFXII, ToV, Fable II LE, and Lost Odyssey (which I didn't see a single copy of :cry:).

Edit - If you're making the trip all the way to NYC, you might want to make sure you get to the store at opening to get what you want, in case any other NYC CAGs see this post and hit the store up.[/quote]

Haha. I only do my business in one store. I did leave some crappy Warhammer guides though. And you just told me the store: Broadway and Houston:p
 
[quote name='Taboner']Haha. I only do my business in one store. I did leave some crappy Warhammer guides though. And you just told me the store: Broadway and Houston:p[/quote]

So you already cleaned out that store?
 
One of my local BB's claims to have basically stopped carrying guides. Despite my unflagging faith in the veracity of Blueshirts, I scoped out the usual places but indeed could not find a guide section. Just a stray copy or two of Gears 2 guide. It only occured to me then that I hadn't seen a guide section there in weeks, if not months. Hopefully not the start of a trend...

Fortunately 3 other stores still had guides, and no evidence of pulling. No problems purchasing, either - just one cashier questioning the price, which led another Blueshirt to deliver the best line all day: "If it rings up at a penny, you've got to sell it for a penny."

By the way, if you're trying to beat pullers/hoarders and the BB website says your store opens at 9 am, hit the snooze or stop for a free Grand Slam on the way... most of them don't open until 10.
 
were you able to get any guides at the bb in soho, nyc (bway & houston)?

everytime that i have gone there in the past the cashiers say no
guess they were told they couldn't sell any of them
 
[quote name='Taboner']Haha. I only do my business in one store. I did leave some crappy Warhammer guides though. And you just told me the store: Broadway and Houston:p[/quote]

Wow, I knew that was a totally epic store, but it didn't look like the guide section got touched. I figured you cleaned out 23rd & 6th, which was even more fantastic than Bway & Houston last drop but had nothing today. That's pretty amazing.

[quote name='BarbblerElf']So you already cleaned out that store?[/quote]

As I posted earlier, I went to that store at 7:30 pm, and got a massive haul. I also posted everything that I left. I went to all the stores in Manhattan between 6-8pm, and mentioned that was the only store in the city worth going to still.
 
From what some of you are saying, I guess you saved me a 2 hour bus ride, no going to NY for me. Man it sucks that there is only 1 best buy near me. I will try to see if they restocked the guides tomorrow, though I know I will be disappointed when they didn't. If they didn't I guess I could always pick up the rest of the Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Cores they have. That's all the penny guides they have left.

Edit: I was going to go to the one on 44th And 5th NY (Store 1028). Did you hit that one?>
 
[quote name='Rave Child']Wow, I knew that was a totally epic store, but it didn't look like the guide section got touched. I figured you cleaned out 23rd & 6th, which was even more fantastic than Bway & Houston last drop but had nothing today. That's pretty amazing.



As I posted earlier, I went to that store at 7:30 pm, and got a massive haul. I also posted everything that I left. I went to all the stores in Manhattan between 6-8pm, and mentioned that was the only store in the city worth going to still.[/quote]

Did you go to the 86th & Lex store?
 
[quote name='anch']btw, don't bother with the Pasadena store.
A guy filled his basket with more than 30 guides while flipping through all the guides there.[/quote]

how did the guy look like?
 
I went to the BB in Naperville, IL and the only guides they had was the Spore LE and the MassEffect LE. They had a crapload of WoW guides but I passed.

I had my girlfriend check back in Joliet and she nabbed a copy of Fracture, Spiderman WoS, and Battlefield Bad Company.

The only ones I really wanted were the Spore, MassEffect, NinjaGaiden 2 and Lost Odyssey. So at least I got half of what I wanted. I am very jealous of you that scored so very much. My stores looked like they actually cleaned out most of the stock seeing as the ME and Spore ones I found stashed away by the WoW. The guides by the videogames themselves were few and far between.
 
I wonder if the stores that do not pull the tags change the other prices for the other items. Can those of you who find these guides look at the price of Mirrors edge (either PS3 or 360 - they are both the same) and see if it says $59 or $49? Or the Blu-Ray Bourne 3-pack and see if it says $89 or $84? These are just two examples of price changes that also happened on Monday. I am just curious as to if these stores that do not pull guides do ANY price changing r if they ignore it.

Oh - and there was no company wide memo about pulling the guides.
 
[quote name='ozzymandd']Wow, I was feeling bad about my haul until I read the last few pages of this thread. We seem to be in another massive crackdown. Never fear, though - BB seems to do this every year-year and a half, but they've always gotten lax again after a drop or two.

Anyway, the Colonial Heights BB that has been so good to me in the past was a wasteland, with depressing gaps in their massive guide sections everywhere. They had an absolute ton of guides, a rolling rack filled top to bottom. They were all gone...

...except for Final Fantasy XII! Well, and Mass Effect, which isn't as strange. I've been watching this particular FFXII guide for a long time now. It's been the only copy they've had for more than a year, and has floated around the store during the many reconfigurations. Why it (and the lone ME guide) weren't pulled is anyone's guess. Pretty sure it wasn't a hoarder, though - I got to the store just after opening. I actually took a couple of my coworkers with me, one of whom was excited at the (admittedly slim) possibility of finding a Tales of Vesperia guide. We all came away pretty disappointed, but at least I found what I did.

After work, I went to the new BB on Laburnum, across from the White Oak shopping center. I had better luck there - all the guides I scouted yesterday were still there. I found a couple Fracture, Wario Land, Sonic Chronicles, SW Clone Wars, and Spider-Man Web of Shadows. Not great, but it was a brand new store with a very small guide section, so I was lucky to get what I did.

The Mechanicsville and Glen Allen BB's that had a lot of guides yesterday were cleaned out today, as was the West Broad BB. That leaves the Midlothian and Hull Street BB's, but I doubt things were any different there.[/quote]

Ah, another Richmond area CAGer! I hit the Broad BB at opening just in time to see the lady pulling everything. She was kind enough to hook me up with a couple though, which was cool. I really wish I would have hid more yesterday, I only stashed one Mass Effect guide and it was still there. I checked the Brook Road BB after work and there was a HUGE hole on the shelf. I debated checking the dumpster but decided against it. Ah well.
 
I got lucky at my BB in the Bay Area. Went after work and got at least 1 of everything they had. I went back and got one of Spore LE, Fire Emblem, Crisis Core,FF Tactics a2 and Dragon Quest 4. Still a lot of guides left...
 
[quote name='BarbblerElf']From what some of you are saying, I guess you saved me a 2 hour bus ride, no going to NY for me. Man it sucks that there is only 1 best buy near me. I will try to see if they restocked the guides tomorrow, though I know I will be disappointed when they didn't. If they didn't I guess I could always pick up the rest of the Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Cores they have. That's all the penny guides they have left.

Edit: I was going to go to the one on 44th And 5th NY (Store 1028). Did you hit that one?>[/quote]

From what I remember, they had:

Battlefield: Bad Company
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway
Crash: Mind over mutant
Fracture
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames
Sims 2 Free Time
Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood
Spiderman: Web Of Shadows
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duel
Too Human
Viva Pinata:Trouble in Paradise
Wario Land Shake It!

They didn't even have anything good when I went at 9:00am, I just got a Viva Pinata, BIA, and Battlefield.

[quote name='Taboner']Did you go to the 86th & Lex store?[/quote]

I did, and they had nothing very good, EXCEPT a Fable II LE that I snagged. Pretty much the same stuff as the 44th & 5th store. Only the Noho store had anything worthwhile really.
 
Well, around 1pm I hit up BB #1, and found an AMAZING cache of unspoilt guides!

Yeah, it was all Fracture though :lol:. They must have pulled everything else and just missed that one. I bought it just 'cause I was there and had to get something. So, 1 cent spent (though the cashier just took it from the penny pile).

However, BB #2 was much better - got ME, Spore, LO, and several others, though they didn't have some of my other wants like Vesperia, Viva Pinata TIP, Fable II LE, FF Tactics A2... Oh well - there's a couple more to try later hopefully.
 
The original BB I thought I failed at, the guy actually came back up to me and offered to look in the back. I lucked out and he came back with the ones I wanted... got Vesperia, FE:RD, Fable II: LE, and one FFT. Rest I could careless about.

I saw so many Gears 2 LEs, it's not even funny. Wonder when those will drop?
 
[quote name='trezzi']Went to 2 BB's today. One of em I picked up a nice little haul of about 14 guides, no Fable II LE though =(
The other one was completely cleaned out of penny guides... I did find this interesting though and snapped a quick pic with my phone
img0023gu6.jpg
[/quote]

They just need to do that will all the guides, instead of throwing them away and filling up our land fills even more. Heck, I'd even buy the ones I want at a $1.
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']Two stores, neither had done pulls, only 1 lost odd and vesperia total betweeen the two.

Lots left, Chronis.[/quote]

Awww,
 
Hey guys... THIS IS NOT THE TRADE THREAD!!! Don't post lists of wants/have-to-trades in here, because those threads are deleted. Keep it up, and you'll be spanked.

Also, I'm moving some of the chit-chat and haul posts to the Discussion Thread. Posts which are informative, that tell your fellow CAGs what stores have stuff left and other related information are being kept here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
bread's done
Back
Top