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='shieryda']Are you collecting a paycheck from this store? No? Then why bother to help the employees when they are clearly not doing their job? Especially if they're not gonna help you out in the first place.:roll:;)[/quote]

Well, just trying to build a good relationship. Plus the books were literally within reach.
 
[quote name='ZackScott']Well, just trying to build a good relationship. Plus the books were literally within reach.[/quote]

There's really no point in establishing a relationship after that exchange. You know where he stands as an employee: unsympathetic and lazy. You won't be getting any free guides from him or any leniency on coupons.
 
I picked up Dark Sector guide from BB last night right before they closed. And Assassin's Creed LE still rang up $24.99.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']There's really no point in establishing a relationship after that exchange. You know where he stands as an employee: unsympathetic and lazy. You won't be getting any free guides from him or any leniency on coupons.[/quote]There's the off chance he might say, "Oh alright" after you give him the other guides :D Unlikely but it doesn't hurt to be nice; if he had simply stormed out, or even just did nothing at all, the outcome may have been no different but it's not like giving the guides to this guy that's going to pull them anyway is going to make getting them any harder.
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']By now theyre gone. [/quote]

Correction, now they're gone \\:D/

I think the new rules to this thread discourage posts simply stating "I got x amount of xxxx guide." Hence, I will only say that I am a very happy man and got all 4 guides that were pennied :D. The LE Mario Galaxy was the hardest to find BY FAR, but the two that I did find I just had to ask. One remembered that he might have one in a drawer and gave it to me, the other was just sitting behind the counter and I asked if they had any left. Also given to me.

The really funny thing is, the first GS I went to (I hit up 7) had these two hot women working the counter, and I was able to sweet talk 'em O:) into giving me a copy. Their's were still in the back and hadn't been destroyed yet. It should be said that this was the Premier Edition, not the LE, so YMMV. I scanned another PE at a different location and got that for a penny, and when I went to yet another location that had like 5 of them, they scanned as $9.99.

Everywhere I went people were really cool about the penny guides (except for one store - :bomb:) and oddly enough, if you are genuinely nice and ask politely, they might just give them to you. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, a good attitude sometimes makes all the difference.

The duplicates are now on my list. Happy hunting everyone!
 
[quote name='heatdolphins45']Picked up:
Super Mario Galaxy LE X1
Madden 08 X1

They had about 5-6 more Maddens and a Turok but I didn't want to push my luck.[/quote]My BB has had Maddens on the shelf since it pennied. I never even picked it up; probably the only guide I've passed on. Just no interest to me, and apparently not many others since there are so many always there.
 
[quote name='ZackScott']Yesterday at a local GameStop, I price checked the Haze guide. I said I read online that it was on clearance. The clerk looked at it, and was like "oh..." and then tossed it aside then said "Actually, we're not supposed to have it. We need to send it back to the publisher." I then asked if he could sell it, and he said no, the guide must have been out by mistake. I then said there were three more on the shelf, and if he wanted me to hand them to him. He said yes, so I did. Then I left.

Also, I checked my local Toys R Us and the softcover Phantom Hourglass guide was still regular price.[/quote]

Can we get a second verification from someone else about the softcover PH guide being full price still?
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Can we get a second verification from someone else about the softcover PH guide being full price still?[/quote]

I'll try and check my TRU tomorrow.
 
One of the Zelda guides definitely did penny, it may have been the blue covered LE edition then. I believe Metroid Prime 3 pennied also at TRU.
 
Stopped by a local GS today and asked after their $.01 guides.

They let me in to the back room to take my pick of the two giant stacks of them that have just been sitting there, I got the following:

:ps3: Army of Two (Prima)
:360: C&C 3 (Prima)
:ps3: :360: :pc: Elder Scrolls IV Shivering Isles (Prima) (GOTY Edition was still $24.99)
:psp: Final Fantasy (Brady)
:psp: Final Fantasy II (Brady)
:ps3: Haze (Prima)
:ps3: Heavenly Sword (Prima)
:pc: LOTRO (Prima)
:wii: Mario Party 8 (Prima)
:ps2: MK: Armageddon (Prima)
:ps3: :360: :pc: Orange Box (Prima)
:wii: Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
:ps2: :ps3: :360: Rock Band (Prima)
:all: Star Wars II: Original Trilogy (Prima)
:wii: Super Paper Mario (Prima)
:wii: Super Paper Mario (Nintendo Power)
:wii: Tomb Raider: Anniversary (Prima)
:ps3: :360: Turok (Brady)

Some of them had price tags of $.01

Also, if you buy the game that goes with the guide you get 10% off.

Hope your luck runs as well :cool:
 
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I stopped by TRU today and tried to get the Super Mario Galaxy softcover. It didn't have a barcode on it, so the employees looked up the SKU. The girl punched it into the register and it came up as 19.99. Of course, I can't be certain about their accuracy.
 
[quote name='Torrwin']Stopped by a local GS today and asked after their $.01 guides.

....

Hope your luck runs as well :cool:[/QUOTE]

Nice find, sounds like you got some cool employees ;)
 
I was unable to find any of the TRU guides to scan today.

I hit up a Best Buy and got a couple dark sectors, AC:WW and a SPMario guide. I having trouble getting an Oblivion guide though.

They have 3 oblivion guides that look identical. Two have just a normal UPC, one has an extra UPC. The scanned the one w/ the extra UPC twice and it came up at $25. She claimed that it was the same for the other one. This is frustrating because its a guide I actually want.

I think it would be great if we could get people to post the UPCs for some of the drops that have multiple versions.

I went to a Gamestop and the manager informed me that they had ripped up all of the guides from the recent drop. I found a Condemned 2 guide and she let me have it. I then checked the dumpster but it was too late at night and I didn't have a flash light :cry:
 
[quote name='nlyonssmith']
I think it would be great if we could get people to post the UPCs for some of the drops that have multiple versions.

[/QUOTE]

Actually, I think the oblivion guide was posted a while back, and I remember that the stickered version was reported as full. Of course, I'd rather not flip back so many pages, so I dont blame you.
 
Zelda Phantom Hourglass was removed from the second post of the thread.

Oh and as for the Oblivion guides, I believe only the most recent one is unpennied. Any Oblivion guide with a tan cover SHOULD come up .01. Although, the same cannot be said for the seperate Shivering Isles guide which I saw over the weekend at a local BB.

The current Oblivion guides have a black cover, though the ones at my closest BB have two seperate UPC #'s for them, both ring up full price.
 
[quote name='punkmaggit']Well, I don't know if this is company-wide, but just talked to my contact at TRU, who said that they dont' even penny the guides out anymore. They just throw them away, or RTV the suckers. He asked if he could buy one and his manager said "Yeah, for $17."

I guess this varies from store to store, but it looks like I"ll be hitting up BB almost exclusively for penny guides now. TRU seems like a lost cause.[/quote]

It's always YMMV. I found a sealed Blue Dragon at TRU less than a month ago that rang up as a penny. Clerk was actually surprised, but sold it anyway.
 
[quote name='nlyonssmith']

I went to a Gamestop and the manager informed me that they had ripped up all of the guides from the recent drop. I found a Condemned 2 guide and she let me have it. I then checked the dumpster but it was too late at night and I didn't have a flash light :cry:[/QUOTE]

Props for the dumpster diving. you are a true cag.
 
i searched through but couldn't find the exact answer i am looking for. At Gamestop, will the price on the yellow price tag be $.01 or will it show up as the normal price until you take it to the register and have it rung up? or do you have to ask the salesperson if they have any penny guides? i wouldnt want to take a stack of guides to the register and have them rung up at normal price and then tell the guy no thanks.
 
[quote name='bbj77']i searched through but couldn't find the exact answer i am looking for. At Gamestop, will the price on the yellow price tag be $.01 or will it show up as the normal price until you take it to the register and have it rung up? or do you have to ask the salesperson if they have any penny guides? i wouldnt want to take a stack of guides to the register and have them rung up at normal price and then tell the guy no thanks.[/QUOTE]

that's what I always do. I give them an 'oops i thought that was on sale' or " i read the price wrong." And then I tell them to stick up their asses if they give me a look.
 
Picked up some penny guides at another GS today. There was a SMG Premiere in the stack that rang up $9.99. Is that not one of the two SMGs that were reported (the black hardback Collector's Edition and the Premiere)?

Also...what people keep calling the 'LE'...that's really the 'CE', right?
 
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[quote name='punkmaggit']The really funny thing is, the first GS I went to (I hit up 7) had these two hot women working the counter, and I was able to sweet talk 'em O:) into giving me a copy. Their's were still in the back and hadn't been destroyed yet. It should be said that this was the Premier Edition, not the LE, so YMMV. I scanned another PE at a different location and got that for a penny, and when I went to yet another location that had like 5 of them, they scanned as $9.99.[/quote]

[quote name='GuardianE']Yes, it's the Black Hardcover Collector's Edition that's been pennied.[/quote]

Ah, I see now where I thought the Premiere had also been pennied. Premiere is YMMV.
 
[quote name='bbj77']i searched through but couldn't find the exact answer i am looking for. At Gamestop, will the price on the yellow price tag be $.01 or will it show up as the normal price until you take it to the register and have it rung up? or do you have to ask the salesperson if they have any penny guides? i wouldnt want to take a stack of guides to the register and have them rung up at normal price and then tell the guy no thanks.[/quote]
To answer your question a bit more, no, most stores (GS/BB/TRU) don't sticker the guides as 1 penny, BUT if you take a list with you to the store from here, usually the titles in the second post are checked and rechecked and you can be positive they are pennied. It's rare that guides are different prices at different stores of the same chain.
 
[quote name='bbj77']i searched through but couldn't find the exact answer i am looking for. At Gamestop, will the price on the yellow price tag be $.01 or will it show up as the normal price until you take it to the register and have it rung up? or do you have to ask the salesperson if they have any penny guides? i wouldnt want to take a stack of guides to the register and have them rung up at normal price and then tell the guy no thanks.[/quote]

To add to what GrilledWitOnions has already told you, I will say that you should never really ASK for penny guides, since even though we DO score them on here it's considered a 'company secret' and they'll want to know HOW you know which ones dropped.

As far as finding a guide with a penny sticker on it, the only place I ever found one like that was out in FAR northern NJ out near Seacaucus the one time I was out that way. Although I will say that the one manager accidentally reshelved a guide with a penny sticker applied to it at a local Gamestop as well. WHY they put penny stickers on something they're just going to dumpster/destroy is beyond me, but companies are generally wasteful entities from my prior experiences in retail and elsewhere.

If you bring up the correct version of the guide, it should ring up .01, since price drops on guides are normally universal. It doesn't matter what the sticker price says, since it SHOULD be .01 in their system. The only times I've ever seen this be wrong is when they add a second UPC via a sticker to a guide or when the employees do a price override when something comes up .01 .

Let me elaborate a bit more on the 'correct version' thing for guides, since I know that it does get sometimes confusing. There are 3-4 companies which put out guides for games: Prima, BradyGames, DoubleJump and Nintendo(Nintendo Power guides).

Prima guides have a little red rectangle on the front cover, usually in the lower left or right corner, BradyGames has the publishers name along the top of the guide's front cover usually, Nintendo also has their Logo slapped across the top of the guide and DoubleJump usually does it the same as Nintendo and Brady from what I've seen.

For some games, there may be 2-3 versions of a guide, released by the various publishers. For most Atlus RPG games, their guides are normally done by DoubleJump exclusively from what I've seen.

I hope this clears up some issues you may be having and helps you to score some guides. Happy hunting!!
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']To add to what GrilledWitOnions has already told you, I will say that you should never really ASK for penny guides, since even though we DO score them on here it's considered a 'company secret' and they'll want to know HOW you know which ones dropped.[/quote]

"Internet." YOU DO NOT MENTION CAG ...and it never hurts to ask. I've scored some really good guides that way. If the clerks are being complete fucks, then you'll get shot down. That's it (course, some people can't handle rejection ;))
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']
Although I will say that the one manager accidentally reshelved a guide with a penny sticker applied to it at a local Gamestop as well. WHY they put penny stickers on something they're just going to dumpster/destroy is beyond me, but companies are generally wasteful entities from my prior experiences in retail and elsewhere.[/quote]
Well, when I worked at GS, they had reprices happen each day and sticker's would automatically print out (from what I remember). So I'm guessing the people figure, "Well the stickers already made..." It would make it easier to tell which guides are to be destroyed too. I never saw any guides penny in the short time I was there though, but it could be that I just didn't work the right times/days.
 
[quote name='punkmaggit']"Internet." YOU DO NOT MENTION CAG[/quote]

He's right.

You mention Slickdeals and Fatwallet.
 
Well I haven't seen it mentioned but I got Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness at GS.
I could take a pic of the $0.01 price tag if further verification is necessary.
(later though cause I'm going out)
They even had two sitting there but I only grabbed one.
Maybe I'll get the other tomorrow.
 
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness pennied at Gamestop today. May have a little better chance of success since its a small Doublejump book

Edit: perhaps I should read till the end of the thread next time. I guess this is a confirmation then.

Dave
 
Went back through, re-edited the second post on the first page, removed the old formatting and respaced what was misspaced. Why the fuck do giant gaps keep showing up in the old lists at the bottom of the recent drops list?!?!?!?!?!
 
[quote name='jgamezcua']Persona 3 guide also dropped to a penny at GS.

Was denied at my local even though it was stickered at 0.01.[/quote]

The Doublejump guide? Oh, man. Can someone confirm this?
 
[quote name='jgamezcua']Persona 3 guide also dropped to a penny at GS.

Was denied at my local even though it was stickered at 0.01.[/quote]

I rarely if ever go into Gamestop, so these reports are just bizarre to me.

If a store repeatedly puts merchandise on the floor that they refuse to sell at the marked price, I would think there would be a BBB/Consumer Affairs issue. OTOH I haven't reread the OP lately about the background on these pennied guides. The whole thing seems like bizarre game.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']ok so someone PLEASE explain the Mario Galaxy hardback guide drop?! i've now been to 2 BB's and each said the guide was $14.99?! :whistle2:([/quote]
I don't think Galaxy dropped at BB at all; the Hardcover did drop at GS, the softcover dropped at TRU.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']ok so someone PLEASE explain the Mario Galaxy hardback guide drop?! i've now been to 2 BB's and each said the guide was $14.99?! :whistle2:([/quote]

The drop was at Gamestop, not Best Buy. :cool:
 
Picked up Madden 2008, Turok, Naruto, Rock Band, Gears of War, Silent Hill 4, and Viking: Battle for Asguard at Gamestop - the guy even told me that they were pennied out and just let me grab a bunch. Even went to the back to give me some doubles for the girlfriend - first time I've ever had luck with that.
 
Interesting experience at CC today:

Leafed through the rack and found Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Yoshi's Island DS, and I figure both are old enough that they're probably pennied, so I took them up. Sure enough, they were; the cashier looked confused but said if that's what the computer said he's "not gonna worry about it."

But then he tried to complete the transaction (I was buying 2 DVDs as well) and he said the computer wouldn't let him sell the guides without something else. The guides were part of a "package," he said, so they could only be sold with some other item--but the computer's "not smart enough" to say what that item is. That's right, the computer said it was part of a bundle, but COULDN'T SAY WHAT THE OTHER PART OF IT WAS. How stupid. He guessed it was the games themselves, but I said I already have the games, and anyway, the guides were just on the rack so I should be able to buy them solo.

I should stress it didn't seem like the guy was trying to obstruct me, he said the computer wouldn't physically let him sell the books without the other thing in the transaction.

So he called some other guy over who also didn't know WTF was going on, then he called some other guy over who I think was a manager, but he was in a T-shirt and jeans and had no nametag--there was no indication he was even an employee. Anyway, he looks sort of confused too, but says what they "used to do" is get orders to destroy old guides or ship them to someone else to destroy them, and that's probably what these are. So not knowing what the "real" price was supposed to be, he offered to sell them to me for $5 each; since the computer wouldn't sell them, he deleted those items and rung up a generic "PC ITEM" with a custom price.

I was more annoyed at being denied a penny guide when I've never had problems before (although I've never gotten guides at this CC before), so I said if I couldn't get them for the price they rung up at, I just wouldn't get them. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten them since $5 is still pretty cheap and I do have those games anyway in my backlog. I might head back tomorrow on the off-chance they just put the guides back on the shelf and try to bargain again, but it's likely they just trashed them instead.

Long story short: even if the cashier's perfectly willing to sell a penny guide, the computer can still screw it up.
 
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[quote name='faceless007']Interesting experience at CC today:

Leafed through the rack and found Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Yoshi's Island DS, and I figure both are old enough that they're probably pennied, so I took them up. Sure enough, they were; the cashier looked confused but said if that's what the computer said he's "not gonna worry about it."

But then he tried to complete the transaction (I was buying 2 DVDs as well) and he said the computer wouldn't let him sell the guides without something else. The guides were part of a "package," he said, so they could only be sold with some other item--but the computer's "not smart enough" to say what that item is. That's right, the computer said it was part of a bundle, but COULDN'T SAY WHAT THE OTHER PART OF IT WAS. How stupid. He guessed it was the games themselves, but I said I already have the games, and anyway, the guides were just on the rack so I should be able to buy them solo.

I should stress it didn't seem like the guy was trying to obstruct me, he said the computer wouldn't physically let him sell the books without the other thing in the transaction.

So he called some other guy over who also didn't know WTF was going on, then he called some other guy over who I think was a manager, but he was in a T-shirt and jeans and had no nametag--there was no indication he was even an employee. Anyway, he looks sort of confused too, but says what they "used to do" is get orders to destroy old guides or ship them to someone else to destroy them, and that's probably what these are. So not knowing what the "real" price was supposed to be, he offered to sell them to me for $5 each; since the computer wouldn't sell them, he deleted those items and rung up a generic "PC ITEM" with a custom price.

I was more annoyed at being denied a penny guide when I've never had problems before (although I've never gotten guides at this CC before), so I said if I couldn't get them for the price they rung up at, I just wouldn't get them. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten them since $5 is still pretty cheap and I do have those games anyway in my backlog. I might head back tomorrow on the off-chance they just put the guides back on the shelf and try to bargain again, but it's likely they just trashed them instead.

Long story short: even if the cashier's perfectly willing to sell a penny guide, the computer can still screw it up.[/QUOTE]

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.

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 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]

Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! :whistle2:#
 
Stopped by a GS today to ask & try my luck with the Disgaea and Persona 3 guides...Persona 3 they said they don't have (told me to try the publisher's website) and Disgaea...one of the guys actually went to the back to check...and both of them said they are pennied out...and they are keeping them.:cry: I would've felt better if they just tell me they don't have either of them, instead of saying they're keeping them themselves!
 
[quote name='yuy104']Stopped by a GS today to ask & try my luck with the Disgaea and Persona 3 guides...Persona 3 they said they don't have (told me to try the publisher's website) and Disgaea...one of the guys actually went to the back to check...and both of them said they are pennied out...and they are keeping them.:cry: I would've felt better if they just tell me they don't have either of them, instead of saying they're keeping them themselves![/QUOTE]

Did they actually say they were keeping them, or did they say they couldnt sell them?
 
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