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='punkmaggit']Why for? :cry:[/quote]

[quote name='ZerotypeX']Went to a CC close to work and found the Rogue Galaxy guide, brought it up to the cashier and she rung it several times. Then she says its $21.XX (guide on back marked as $19.99), then I say "Is there something wrong earlier" and she says "yea" and goes to the back to find someone I guess. She came back and said $12.99. I just paid and left....to tired to deal with it. I will probably return it later, but on the receipt, it says "Service Labor &..." I believe I'm gonna have a fun time returning this someday or should I just keep it and let it be....hmm...[/quote]

Paid a little more than what people have been getting it at, so it had to be returned ;)
 
Speaking of percentages...:p

I went over to Best Buy and checked out the guides and yes, none of them pennied...HOWEVER

They had a sign that said that any guide was 50% off and if you bought the corresponding game with the guide, the guide came for free.

I picked up both Super Mario Galaxy Hardcover and Legend of Zelda and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Hardcover. They were priced $14.99 but with the 50% off, they came to $7.49. I also proceeded to get the Grand Theft Auto IV, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core guides as well. All of those were 50% off.

Of course they were NOT pennied but I figured take a chance and get the guides I want at a fair price before they were gone.

This deal may be YMMV to any Best Buy store.

--Michael
 
[quote name='Civickid96']Speaking of percentages...:p

I went over to Best Buy and checked out the guides and yes, none of them pennied...HOWEVER

They had a sign that said that any guide was 50% off and if you bought the corresponding game with the guide, the guide came for free.

I picked up both Super Mario Galaxy Hardcover and Legend of Zelda and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Hardcover. They were priced $14.99 but with the 50% off, they came to $7.49. I also proceeded to get the Grand Theft Auto IV, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core guides as well. All of those were 50% off.

Of course they were NOT pennied but I figured take a chance and get the guides I want at a fair price before they were gone.

This deal may be YMMV to any Best Buy store.

--Michael[/QUOTE]

Interesting, I need the hardcover PH guide so I might have to give them a visit tomorrow.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Interesting, I need the hardcover PH guide so I might have to give them a visit tomorrow.[/quote]
this is a store level offer, not company offer.
 
[quote name='the_punisher']I just picked up 10 Halo 3 guides for $.01, my first penny guides. If anyone wants them, PM me. And don't call me greedy, cuz they had a sh*tload more.

I also got those Ninja Gaiden II Wall Grafix for $1. 4 more if anyone wants some.[/quote] 0_o Is Halo 3 pennied at BB? They rang up 14.99 but had 4.99 stickers on them last week..
 
[quote name='darkslime']0_o Is Halo 3 pennied at BB? They rang up 14.99 but had 4.99 stickers on them last week..[/quote]

Its been really wierd, some places are pennied while others are still ringing up full. Well, I guess checking wouldnt hurt.
 
Get this, I went back to CC to return the TP guide and pick up the Phantom Hourglass guide. I picked up the PH guide, take it to the register and there's no barcode on it. It was opened and I realized that it was probably sealed with that back slip which was supposed to have the barcode on it. A manager tried for about 15 minutes to find a UPC on their computer but couldn't. So I just returned the TP guide.

Damn...:whistle2:(
 
[quote name='Link927']Its been really wierd, some places are pennied while others are still ringing up full. Well, I guess checking wouldnt hurt.[/quote]

At Best Buy? I've never heard of conflicting penny guide prices at BB, unless someone accidentally scans the wrong version of the guide.
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']Was it the regular Halo 3 guide or the Version Espanol (which pennied months ago)?[/quote]

It was the spanish version that dropped a while ago. Has anyone rechecked the english version this week? the_punisher didn't mention if it was the spanish version or not (or even what store he got it from, but he also got the Ninja Gaiden 2 wall graphics for $1 each which I thought was a Best Buy deal)
 
Went to pick up South Park S11 and saw a big 50% off videogames and accessories cart in the middle of the aisle. Nothing great as far as games, HOWEVER what I didn't like was the fact that they had some Dark Sector and Army of Two guides (Did Army penny?) and they were marked at 50% off the marked price. Dark Sector still had a $16.99 price tag on it so I'm guessing they were going to try and charge 50% of that. Didn't like seeing that...unless it would have come up a penny and you could have asked them to buy it at half a cent. ;)

They had a bunch of Halo 3 guides there too which were marked at $9.99. I took one up to the register to see if it was pennied but rang up $9.99 still.

Not all was lost today as I stopped into CC this morning too, saw some Yoshi's Island guides and was able to snag one for a penny.
 
Well, I got sort of lucky at TRU on a few guides. I spotted a Blue Dragon guide on the shelf & thought it had pennied there, so I took it up to the register & had the guy scan it. (He seemed cool as I had been talking to him previously) It came up out of the system, so he says "I guess I can sell it at whatever price I want" I was like, "Cool! let me grab a few others" So I took the Blue Hard Cover Twilight Princess & Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn guides up & the same thing...out of the system. So I said, "How about $5 for all of them?" He was like "ok" So he rang them up as Merchandise @ $5. Sweet deal! I then got home & noticed on the receipt that only a couple of games I bought were on the receipt with no $5 charge at all so I guess I got them for free.:drool::hot:
 
i went to ciruit city yesterday and they had a couple of penny guides so i brought them up to the counter. Both rang up for a penny and the guy couldnt believe it so he kept ringing them up. Finally he just told me that i had to buy the game to get it at that price. Maybe Ill have better luck next time.
 
[quote name='shiningslade']Well, I got sort of lucky at TRU on a few guides. I spotted a Blue Dragon guide on the shelf & thought it had pennied there, so I took it up to the register & had the guy scan it. (He seemed cool as I had been talking to him previously) It came up out of the system, so he says "I guess I can sell it at whatever price I want" I was like, "Cool! let me grab a few others" So I took the Blue Hard Cover Twilight Princess & Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn guides up & the same thing...out of the system. So I said, "How about $5 for all of them?" He was like "ok" So he rang them up as Merchandise @ $5. Sweet deal! I then got home & noticed on the receipt that only a couple of games I bought were on the receipt with no $5 charge at all so I guess I got them for free.:drool::hot:[/quote]

Thanks for the info...I added those three as a YMMV/Out Of System(OOS) drop to the list in post 2. Can anyone else verify if these ring up the same for them??
 
[quote name='Viper45']It was the spanish version that dropped a while ago. Has anyone rechecked the english version this week? the_punisher didn't mention if it was the spanish version or not (or even what store he got it from, but he also got the Ninja Gaiden 2 wall graphics for $1 each which I thought was a Best Buy deal)[/quote]

No, these are all english. I would know, becuase i can't read spanish, and i'm keeping one for myself. Reading through it, there didn't appear to be anything i didn't understand.

xD

Summary: No, they're not spanish. Full english, and btw, the Ninja Gaiden II wall scroll looks badass. Now i just need the game.....
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Thanks for the info...I added those three as a YMMV/Out Of System(OOS) drop to the list in post 2. Can anyone else verify if these ring up the same for them??[/quote]

I can check my TRU, but I believe those have already been pulled.
 
I believe the Fire Emblem one was still at the one TRU a little ways from me, but the closest store has close to zero guides out anymore. So hopefully, I can check and with any luck confirm or deny the out of system status.
 
[quote name='the_punisher']No, these are all english. I would know, becuase i can't read spanish, and i'm keeping one for myself. Reading through it, there didn't appear to be anything i didn't understand.

xD

Summary: No, they're not spanish. Full english, and btw, the Ninja Gaiden II wall scroll looks badass. Now i just need the game.....[/quote]


Really? Well, that means we have conflicting reports now for the english version of the Halo 3 guide at Best Buy. I wonder if there are multiple SKUs for this one...
 
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Went to the BB today. Got FFXII DS, Dark Sector, and Unreal Tournament.
I wanted to get the Twilight Princess hardcover, but it was marked $15 for lack of price and barcode.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Thanks for the info...I added those three as a YMMV/Out Of System(OOS) drop to the list in post 2. Can anyone else verify if these ring up the same for them??[/quote]

Confirmed: I picked up a Blue Dragon guide at TRU for $.01 about 2 months ago.
 
The second posts says the blue hardcover Twilight Princess is pennied/something. But the blue hardcover is Phantom Hourglass. Twilight Princess is a brown hardcover.
 
[quote name='Coyotezeye']Where is everyone finding the $.01 Halo 3 guides? BB or CC?[/quote]

Apparently its the spanish version at BB?
 
I was at a blockbuster today and saw the twin snakes guides and onimusha 3. Both rang up full price... they are pretty old though.
 
[quote name='genfuyung']I was at a blockbuster today and saw the twin snakes guides and onimusha 3. Both rang up full price... they are pretty old though.[/QUOTE]

blockbuster doesnt penny guides so dont waste your time.
 
[quote name='Coyotezeye']Where is everyone finding the $.01 Halo 3 guides? BB or CC?[/quote]

Halo 3 Spanish Edition is only pennied at EB/GS. Some people have reported finding Halo 3 for a penny at BB, but only with a manual price markdown at the register which is an Extreme YMMV.
 
[quote name='heatdolphins45']Halo 3 Spanish Edition is only pennied at EB/GS. Some people have reported finding Halo 3 for a penny at BB, but only with a manual price markdown at the register which is an Extreme YMMV.[/quote]

My local BB began marking down the Halo 3 guides a couple months ago. They were $3, then $1.50, then $0.50. They still rang up for $19.99, but they had stickers on them and were manually adjusted at the register. Even if they were to be pennied chain-wide, I'm pretty sure they're all gone now at my local store.
 
[quote name='heatdolphins45']Halo 3 Spanish Edition is only pennied at EB/GS. Some people have reported finding Halo 3 for a penny at BB, but only with a manual price markdown at the register which is an Extreme YMMV.[/quote]
I got 3 halo 3 spanish guides at best buy for a penny each.
 
Is there anything different about the spanish version? Cover wise? I'm just wondering if I've been passing it everytime I go.
 
[quote name='Link927']Is there anything different about the spanish version? Cover wise? I'm just wondering if I've been passing it everytime I go.[/quote]

Nothing. The spine just says the official guide in spanish.
 
I thought that Phantom Hourglass was the blue hardcover, but as I said before, I've been simply cut and pasting whatever people report finding in whatever way they report it.

As for me, I cleaned out my two local CC's of ALL of their copies of Army Of Two lately( 9 of them). All but one were sealed in shrinkwrap. I also got 2 sealed copies of the Tomb Raider Anniversary(brown PS2 only edition I believe)guide.

I also picked up today(NOT a penny each though):

GTA Vice City
GTA III
Lost Kingdoms II
Red Dead Revolver(HEAVY cover wear)
GTA IV

for $12 total($2.40 per guide).

I also picked up another Frontline: Fuels Of War guide today from the same GS I picked up a copy from LAST time, so now I have two of those too.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']how did you pick up all those guides for $12 TOTAL?[/quote]

My one local shop has guides for $3 each(most of them being penny guides I had forever and sold them for .25 each after getting sick of seeing em collect dust), but they had the GTA IV guide sitting there on the shelf for $5 and each of the other ones were supposed to be $3 each.

I asked the guy working if he could give me a deal on the five guides I picked up there. So, it worked out to $2.40 each, though GTA IV is reserved for a friend who wanted one.

Although, upon checking the RDR guide further, it's had some decent usage and has a bit of wear to it.

They also had a Genesis/SNES Mortal Kombat II guide which I would've picked up(they had it at their other store for a LOOOOOONG time), but some of the pages were ripped out and just reinserted back where they should normally be in one big chunk.
 
[quote name='darkslime']I'll have to check about that.
Its kind of weird that they released h3 but no other games in spanish...[/quote]


There's a madden spanish game also, I think a spanish guide for it too.
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']where would this store you speak of be if i may ask :whistle2:D[/quote]

Unless you're in Pennsylvania in the northeast corner, I doubt you'd be able to take advantage of their deals.
 
Gamestop $9.99 Guides: Super Mario Galaxy, Uncharted Drakes Fortune, Halo 3, God Of War Chains of Olympus, Bioshock, maybe more? All were softcover/non-special edition guides. Hopefully they drop to $5 before getting pennied. :bouncy:
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']Gamestop $9.99 Guides: Super Mario Galaxy, Uncharted Drakes Fortune, Halo 3, God Of War Chains of Olympus, Bioshock, maybe more? All were softcover/non-special edition guides. Hopefully they drop to $5 before getting pennied. :bouncy:[/quote]It would be nice, as I'm OK with a $5 game guide purchase.
 
Scored Rogue Galaxy & yoshi's island DS for 0.01 each today at CC. The guys there REALLY didn't wanna sell them to me (one of them whined the whole time about he was gonna buy it & hid it but I found it). They kept saying it comes with the game but I told them no it didn't. after 30 mins and asking EVERY employee they could find, they asked me for the 2 pennies.
 
[quote name='Segasonic01']Scored Rogue Galaxy & yoshi's island DS for 0.01 each today at CC. The guys there REALLY didn't wanna sell them to me (one of them whined the whole time about he was gonna buy it & hid it but I found it). They kept saying it comes with the game but I told them no it didn't. after 30 mins and asking EVERY employee they could find, they asked me for the 2 pennies.[/quote]

LOL That's funny that the employee complained because they hid it and you found it. Usually it's the other way around and some customer hid it and the employees found it.

I had ZERO problems with buying up the remaining Army Of Two guides yesterday from the other local CC. The clerk who helped me the last time was working, so we talked for length about a bunch of stuff(since there was no one else coming up to the register). They called me a 'penny guide scavenger'. :lol: All in all, it was a good day though.
 
[quote name='eau']The Army of Two guide is a penny? It rang up $4.99 for me the other day.[/quote]

Did you have it PC'd at one of those kiosks throughout the store? Or at the front registers?

I ask because even Rogue Galaxy showed up as normal price @ CC when I had it checked at a kiosk. However, when I went to the normal register with it, it came up as not in system.

They will end up having to enter it manually to get it to come up .01 though. It involves them typing up PRI then one of the numbers from the back of the book(don't remember if it's one of the UPC's or the ISBN).
 
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