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
I just picked up a few more penny guides at CC today. I got:

2x Zelda Phantom Hourglass Softcover
3x Crysis
1x Mario Party 8
1x Devil May Cry
1x Brute Force (don't know why I bothered)

I gave one of the Zelda guides to a friend and I am keeping the other. I'll be flipping the rest of the guides at a local store.
 
wow... just found this forum.. thank you... found my first penny guides in the last too days.
the face on the game stop clerk is always priceless!

Cheers guys!
bug_nuts
 
Hey guys, I bought some penny guides too. I'm going to use one to play a game with and the other is going to go on the shelf for when i get the game and the other I bought cuz it was a penny.
 
[quote name='Kuros']I need a local store that buys guides.[/QUOTE]

happen to have a half price books near you?
i have not sold them guides yet but i see them on the shelf there!
 
[quote name='Kuros']I need a local store that buys guides.[/quote]

Found myself a new local store that took in guides for $0.50 of credit each. I traded in a ton of guides and walked out with these gems (all guides):

Brave Fencer Musashi :bouncy:
Kingdom Hearts
Metroid Prime 1 & Fusion
Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3/360)
Suikoden IV
Xenosaga I

The guy took them no questions asked! Best part is, he had a couple of really good/rare PS1 games that I'm sure I could rack up enough credit for (Tales of Destiny II, Vandal Hearts, Rhapsody, Final Fantasy VII, etc...)! Now I really can't wait for the next drop!
 
I had a local place give me $2.50 credit for Army of Two w/graphic novel bundle. I gave him all 4 I had. You never know. He looked them up on Amazon.com and gives a percentage of that. I went there yesterday and they had at least fiddy penny guides somebody had given them.
 
[quote name='Aznchaos3']That could be the case but it would be annoying since they always tell me they have to ship it back or w/e[/QUOTE]

I totally agree with you man
 
I found the Disgea 3 and Complete at local GS.. I can't believe that those guides are still out there.

Side Note: I checked Oblivion GOTY at GS and it's ringing up full price.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just making sure here.. Toy R' Us pennied guides are YMMV? I was in there today and they had a few guides. I would have checked but I had to leave.
 
[quote name='Doomtime']Just making sure here.. Toy R' Us pennied guides are YMMV? I was in there today and they had a few guides. I would have checked but I had to leave.[/QUOTE]

YMMV for me. At mine i brought up a few penny guides and she tryed to sell them for 9.99 each
 
I would gladly pay 5 bucks for the Socom:Confrontation (PS3) guide. If anyone gets a hold of it shoot me a PM

Just read the OP. Going to repost in the Trade section. Hell of a thread you got going here Cheapest:applause:
 
My wife told me that our local BB put back out several guild that were pennied then raised back up to normal price, Spore LE and Wario Shack It. She said whe would have check it out more ran out of time. She may go back later and double check to see if any pennied guild made it back out!
 
[quote name='iluvmywife']My wife told me that our local BB put back out several guild that were pennied then raised back up to normal price, Spore LE and Wario Shack It. She said whe would have check it out more ran out of time. She may go back later and double check to see if any pennied guild made it back out![/QUOTE]

Best Buy "de-pennied" those guides, if you will. Raised them back up to full price. I listed all of the former penny guides that got raised back up a few pages back in this thread.
 
[quote name='Josef']Best Buy "de-pennied" those guides, if you will. Raised them back up to full price. I listed all of the former penny guides that got raised back up a few pages back in this thread.[/quote]

And I thank you yet again for that list, since I removed those guides that went back UP in price from the second post. Sadly, those were the only guides out at the one BB I stopped at today, when just a month or two ago they still had Super Mario Galaxy hardcovers out on the shelf.

Oh and you're quite welcome, smiggity.
 
[quote name='Josef']Best Buy "de-pennied" those guides, if you will. Raised them back up to full price. I listed all of the former penny guides that got raised back up a few pages back in this thread.
Spore LE bundle
Crash: Mind over Mutant
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning bundle
Fracture
Madden 09 LE bundle
Wario Land: Shake It!
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway
Battlefield: Bad Company
Pokemon Pocket Pokedex Vol. 2
[/quote]

So those were de-pennied...wow BB has never done this to my knowledge! Well glad i went the day of the drop and was able to get Spore LE, Crash SW Clone Wars, Fracture, Madden 09 LE, BIA Hell's Highway, Battlefield BC, and Pokemon Pocket Pokedex!! I hope this doesn't mean the end to penny guides at BB or the possiblility of more de-pennied guides!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Just to fill you in. I looked at my receipt from my last penny purchases at BB and the cheats and codes Winter 2009 book was de-pennied. I wound up paying $4.99 for it without realizing... I had bought a DVD at the same time as the guides and the total transaction came up as $20 and some cents so I had no idea about the guide ($20 seemed like a reasonable total).
 
[quote name='sacreddoctor']So those were de-pennied...wow BB has never done this to my knowledge! Well glad i went the day of the drop and was able to get Spore LE, Crash SW Clone Wars, Fracture, Madden 09 LE, BIA Hell's Highway, Battlefield BC, and Pokemon Pocket Pokedex!! I hope this doesn't mean the end to penny guides at BB or the possiblility of more de-pennied guides!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/QUOTE]

A lot of the good ones are still pennied out though. I think BB may have gotten a little overzealous with the last drop and fixed their mistake a couple days after the initial drop. I still think BB will continue to penny out guides going forward, it may just be another month or two before the next round.
 
BTW, anyone else notice their Best Buys pulling the Fallout 3 LE? My store had a huge stack at the front of the store along with some regular guides. When I went back the other day all the standard guides were moved to the guide shelf and the LEs were nowhere to be seen.

EDIT: Just realized they're worth a lot now, so maybe a hoarder came through my best buy and bought them all.
 
Columbus ,Ohio Polaris BestBuy:

EA 25th Ann. Hardcover
Devil May Cry 4
God OF War :Chains of Olympus
Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood
Viva Pinata: TIB
Enemy Territory:Quake Wars
Rainbow 6 Vegas 2
Bully Scholarship Edition
Final Fantasy Ring Of Fates
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7
Orange Box
Mercenaries 2


Also had some that others reported were full price again, so i didnt bother.
 
I just picked up a fairly odd assortment of guides from my local CC (Probably my last visit there, too).

Viva Pinata
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Splinter Cell: Double Agent

There were probably more pennied ones there, but I was just going by memory and intuition.
 
Went to my CC and they had a lot of guides from the Gamestop Penny drops.

They also had Fallout 3 guides/ a few MGS4 guides/ 1 God of Way 2 guide that idk if it's pennied/ mass effects. I don't think any of those are pennied so I just left
 
Went to a local video game trading store (not a chain) and found a Double Jump guide Operation Darkness, Silent Hill 2 x2 (a brown cover and one that green color) and a dot hack part 2 mutation guide. Not sure if others have a local video game trading store but if you do it's worth a check to see if they have any guides!
 
I had the same problem with de-pennied guides at BB last monday. They had 2 spore le, 1 madden 09 le, at least 8 pokemon pokedex, and a lot of others. I was shocked when they all rang up at regular price.
 
[quote name='rkrocks123']Would it be possible to pm the depennied guides with a receipt if I purchased one before the price went back up?[/QUOTE]

Umm.... no. That would be really ballsy to try it though. Lemme know how it goes :)
 
[quote name='Doomstink']BTW, anyone else notice their Best Buys pulling the Fallout 3 LE? My store had a huge stack at the front of the store along with some regular guides. When I went back the other day all the standard guides were moved to the guide shelf and the LEs were nowhere to be seen.

EDIT: Just realized they're worth a lot now, so maybe ANOTHER hoarder came through my best buy and bought them all.[/quote]


FYP
 
This has been discussed several times. No store is going to price match or price adjust penny items. It's just not going to happen. When an item drops to a penny it is not a typical sale or clearance, so it is not eligible for price protection.
 
[quote name='rkrocks123']Would it be possible to pm the depennied guides with a receipt if I purchased one before the price went back up?[/quote]

Give it a shot. You never know until you try. I price matched a copy of the God Of War 2 guide that I picked up from BB to CC for a cent in the past.

It was hilarious, since I even asked for the 'extra 10%' or whatever it was that CC guaranteed they would pay on TOP of the PM. :lol:
 
I was at a Best Buy recently and was told that lately they have been taking pennied out guides off the shelf after a few days and field destroy them ... make sure you hit up your BB's early!
 
Too bad I didn't know any other guides that were pennied. I don't think anything other than the God of War 2 I picked up was pennied.
The had a lot of fallout 3 guides,Rainbow 6 vegas 2, MGS4, Mario Galaxy soft, mass effect, Mercenaries 2: World In Flames, Ninja Gaiden 2, Spore Official Strategy Guide Limited Edition Bundle , too human, fracture, Spiderman Web of Shadows everything else was bad.

Just took god of war 2 to the register

So I flopped the guide onto the table at the register. The guy grabs it and scans it. I'm holding my wallet,(Grabbing a $1 bill :lol:), to pretend like I don't know it will ring up a penny. He doesn't look at the screen just yet. He hits total and looks at me. Then he takes a quick look at the screen and says
"Your total is one cent. Wait?!? A PENNY?!?! omg It's a PENNY!!"
Then he looks toward the cashier next to him.
"Yo this is a Penny. LOOK."
She looks and see it."OMG wow. How many you want to buy, like 20.!" (everyone lol'd)
Then he tells every cashier about it Pretty loudly. Then another employee walks in and my cashier says
"Yo you want to buy this book? Only a PENNY! LOOK!!! He shows her the receipt. Look zero zero 1."
He then asks if I want a bag....(Probably since the bag costs more than the guide :D)
I said no and walked out.
Penny Guide = $.01
Seeing the look on the cashier's face the first time he sells one.....Priceless
 
[quote name='Doomstink']BTW, anyone else notice their Best Buys pulling the Fallout 3 LE? My store had a huge stack at the front of the store along with some regular guides. When I went back the other day all the standard guides were moved to the guide shelf and the LEs were nowhere to be seen.
.[/quote]

When did Fallout drop?
 
[quote name='Dhuk']When did Fallout drop?[/quote]

It didn't, I just think that a hoarder bought the 10+ LEs that my Best Buy had. I was curious to know if anyone else had seen their Fallout 3 LE guide mysteriously disappear.

The guide became "rare" last week I guess.
 
[quote name='2sday']just curious- do any other items besides guides every penny at any other store?[/quote]

Yeah. I picked up a 42 inch projection HD tv at bestbuy the other day for a penny.

J/k :D:bouncy::lol:
 
[quote name='whitereflection']What's the Fire Emblem guide in the second post? If it's for Shadow Dragon, it rang up full price for me and doesn't seem to be in the delisted list.[/QUOTE]

It is for the Wii FE since Shadow Dragon isnt even out yet
 
[quote name='2sday']just curious- do any other items besides guides every penny at any other store?[/quote]

The only other thing I ever saw were the Ninja Gaiden wall scrolls get dropped to a penny. Might want to check for any left over swag from pre-orders too, because they have just givin me them after the game came out for free at BB & GS.

[quote name='Doomstink']It didn't, I just think that a hoarder bought the 10+ LEs that my Best Buy had. I was curious to know if anyone else had seen their Fallout 3 LE guide mysteriously disappear.

The guide became "rare" last week I guess.[/quote]

I went at 10am after the BB drop, and someone took EVERY penny guide from both my best buys. horders suck, I always leave a lot for others to take.
I'm gonna check my BB tomorrow to see if they have any Fallout 3 LE left. Looks like they are going 60 - 70 international on ebay, I might try to flip a few. Thanks for the heads up.
 
[quote name='asdxfm']I went at 10am after the BB drop, and someone took EVERY penny guide from both my best buys. horders suck, I always leave a lot for others to take.[/quote]


Had you read any of the posts after the 2/2 BB drop, you would have known BB pulled the guides from a lot of the stores. Those who did horde the guides before they were all pulled were able to share their loot with other CAGs.
 
[quote name='asdxfm']I went at 10am after the BB drop, and someone took EVERY penny guide from both my best buys. horders suck, I always leave a lot for others to take.
I'm gonna check my BB tomorrow to see if they have any Fallout 3 LE left. Looks like they are going 60 - 70 international on ebay, I might try to flip a few. Thanks for the heads up.[/QUOTE]

If you went at 10am, how could it have been a hoarder, since Best Buy opens at 10am???
 
[quote name='2sday']just curious- do any other items besides guides every penny at any other store?[/QUOTE]

Yes, lots of promo items from movies. I have gotten a Peter Pan metal lunchbox, Jungle Book tin bank, Fantastic Four figure with DVD, Shrek activity books and some die cast motorcycles for a penny at Best Buy.
 
went out of town this weekend to antique shop, low and behold there is a bestbuy, i walk in with my girl and see about 50 penny guides. i love going to the out of the way ones. just a random thought, but i have noticed once a year is hard as hell to get guides from best buy, but rest of time they sit there for months
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
bread's done
Back
Top