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='Ice2Dragon']thats why you try to befriend or not have the manager ring it up lol.. arent the managers in black shirts? Avoid them.

I always go after the college or high school girls, they never care.[/quote]
This.

During the first round of CC drops (thanks again Darkslime!) the first store I hit up had some cute little thing :bouncy: who helped me buy about 15 penny guides. She was totally surprised that they came up a penny, but was completely cool with me buying as many as I did.

The trip to the second store had a similar story (the girl's name was Melissa, she was AWESOME) and went off without a hitch until I hit the Rogue Galaxy guide which came up "not in the system." She had to call her manager for that one which put the kaibosh (spelling?) on the whole thing.

The biggest thing is you have to act like you're pleasantly surprised, and don't bring up a stack of 10 that you know have pennied out. That's way too suspicious. If the planets are aligning and you've tested the waters, by all means bring up the lot. Case-in-point: my first trip to BB for penny guides. I grabbed one each of FFXII:RW, DQM:J, and AW:DoR. After I had purchased those for a penny I asked the clerk if I could go grab the rest. He replied "Sure" and so I knew it was okay and he wasn't going to get his manager.

Happy hunting everyone. This is one of my favourite threads and it's nice to see everyone continually support each other. Best of luck everyone.
 
[quote name='punkmaggit']The biggest thing is you have to act like you're pleasantly surprised, and don't bring up a stack of 10 that you know have pennied out. That's way too suspicious. If the planets are aligning and you've tested the waters, by all means bring up the lot. Case-in-point: my first trip to BB for penny guides. I grabbed one each of FFXII:RW, DQM:J, and AW:DoR. After I had purchased those for a penny I asked the clerk if I could go grab the rest. He replied "Sure" and so I knew it was okay and he wasn't going to get his manager.[/quote]

This as well. This has worked for me multiple times. Also, if the cashier shows any interest in any of the guides let them have their pick, they'll remember it. A little goodwill goes a long way, believe me.
 
[quote name='darkslime']

Anyone know about the Okami, Xenosaga Ep. 1, or Capcom Vs. SNK EO guides? They have them there too for $10 each?
[/quote]

Okami i got on ebay for 1.26
xenosage ep.1 i got game and guide on ebay for 5.50

im not sure if that was just luck though
 
[quote name='neocisco']This as well. This has worked for me multiple times. Also, if the cashier shows any interest in any of the guides let them have their pick, they'll remember it. A little goodwill goes a long way, believe me.[/quote]

And if they ask questions, the term "clearance" is a lot less suspicious than "pennied" or "I saw it on the internet". :D
 
i got lucky at circuit city, acctually went through a register and the girl rang up ssx3 for .01 then halo3 dmc4, rougue galaxy, and a couple others and said these are free so i walked out with like 20 guides for .02 i was happy after being turned down earlier in the month at another cc, acctually raised hell at the guy for trying to screw me. then i went home and read the rest of the post and saw what was happening. i did go back and apologize the guy had helped me out so much in the past.

also i can confirm these guides are .01 at bb
dark sector
burnout paradise
the soccer one
condemed 2

i notice alot of all .01 guides still on the shelf at the stores i go too, must be cuz i live in the south and we are laidback
 
I'll be at my local (soon to be no longer local) BB in 15 minutes or so - they actually will give me everything that may have been put in the back by now, so if we missed any, provided the have them, I'll have a full list with any luck.
 
This is not a penny guide, but I thought it may be of interest.

Best buy has a 'free' movie ticket to X-files that expires 8/31 in those DVD cases. Usually the ticket is packaged with the DVD(s) you are supposed to buy to get a free ticket, but this one is in the xfiles slimline cases they have in the store. They were marked 'free' at my BB and scanned at .00 YMMV of course. They are supposed to be part of a package, but they may be giving them out since they will expire in a few days.
 
I hit up the circuit city here in Fort Wayne. They had several of most of the guides that have been listed. I only picked up one each of Crysis, DMC 4, Halo 3, Super Paper Mario, and Stalker. I did have a problem with Rogue Galaxy not being in the system.
 
[quote name='spamfree2']Went to CC and found a Phantom Hourglass but it did not have a UPC. Is this the one that is pennied at CC?[/quote]

Someone probably opened it. There is supposed to be a piece of paper with the UPC on it and it usually gets lost when the shrink wrap is removed. I posted the PRI # somewhere in this thread. Maybe you can get talk someone into punching it in for you, that guide has to be bought manually anyway. If it is the blue cover one you are talking about that is.
 
I can confirm no new drops today at BB. And I picked up a Burnout guide - thanks for the heads up on that one to whoever first posted it.
 
[quote name='yamas']Check the Wiki son[/quote]

i didn't even know there was one (until now..thanks!) i did see gta san andreas on there and in stores. i will pick one up tomorrow!

(p.s- son dosen't apply to girls.. . .does it? haha) :D
 
[quote name='slowdive21']This is not a penny guide, but I thought it may be of interest.

Best buy has a 'free' movie ticket to X-files that expires 8/31 in those DVD cases. Usually the ticket is packaged with the DVD(s) you are supposed to buy to get a free ticket, but this one is in the xfiles slimline cases they have in the store. They were marked 'free' at my BB and scanned at .00 YMMV of course. They are supposed to be part of a package, but they may be giving them out since they will expire in a few days.[/quote] Sweet. I'll get one and just go to Hamlet 2 instead.

To get guides, I usually just bring up one copy of each one that's pennied if there's a lot, or all if there's only a couple.

If there's a lot, as the clerk is scanning them I'll run to the guide section and get more. That looks less suspiscious.
 
[quote name='shelisheli']i didn't even know there was one (until now..thanks!) i did see gta san andreas on there and in stores. i will pick one up tomorrow!

(p.s- son dosen't apply to girls.. . .does it? haha) :D[/quote]
Sorry Girl
 
Thanks for the CC info folks; yesterday I stopped in at CC and was browsing their guides. I had a few in hand when a manager approached me and told me that they were as marked, except for older guides which were $9.99. I thought something may be up, but thanked her and went on my way. Found the DQ:Joker game for DS as filler that I wanted anyway (sorry whoever hid it in the GBA games!) and headed to a register. The cashier was surprised but had no problem ringing the guides up as a penny. In all, I got:
2x Halo 3 (sealed)
1x DMC 4 (sealed)
1x Viva Pinata (mint)

Wanted to grab Rogue Galaxy, but didn't want to push my luck based on what the manager had said. Sure, there were other guides as well, but I only grabbed what I needed.
 
I snagged two copies of Devil May Cry 4 guide for a penny each at Circuit City (one for me, one for trade). There were about 4 copies left at the Layton Utah store if anyone is interested. They are right behind the RockBand guides (which I think are also pennied). The cashier was very surprised but had no problems with ringing them up.
 
Last Thursday I hit up a bunch of CC's in Mass. Most of them had DMC4 but at the time I did not know about them. I was travelling to pick up something so the stores I hit are widespread...North Dartmouth, MA-Cranston, RI-Taunton,MA-Millbury, MA-North Attleboro, MA. May be worth checking these stores if there are any CAGs around those areas.
 
I was shot down at Circuit City, even after explaining my case, being very courteous, and eventually being a little more aggressive. It just wasn't happening. Anything in the system that said "Package Required," I wasn't getting. They did let me have Mario Party 8, as it didn't have the package stipulation.

Also, strangely enough, Devil May Cry 4 was NOT pennied out at my Circuit City. We scanned it at the register.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']Also, strangely enough, Devil May Cry 4 was NOT pennied out at my Circuit City. We scanned it at the register.[/quote]Same happened to me over the weekend. Came up $19.99. :shock: Of course Richmond is where the HQ of CC is located...maybe that has something to do with it.:cry:
 
[quote name='Vader582']Same happened to me over the weekend. Came up $19.99. :shock: Of course Richmond is where the HQ of CC is located...maybe that has something to do with it.:cry:[/quote]

DMC4 guide may not be pennied...

I picked a few up yesterday, and price checked them at the computer services desk. .01 each, cool! But they couldn't ring me up there, and customer service was packed. So I put them back. Came in this morning, and the guides rang up $19.99 at the customer service desk. ???Ugghh...penny guide hunting isn't worth it sometimes.
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']DMC4 guide may not be pennied...

I picked a few up yesterday, and price checked them at the computer services desk. .01 each, cool! But they couldn't ring me up there, and customer service was packed. So I put them back. Came in this morning, and the guides rang up $19.99 at the customer service desk. ???Ugghh...penny guide hunting isn't worth it sometimes.[/quote]The two I picked up last Thursday may have something different to say about that.

If I remember right, they didn't scan correctly in the computer, though when they did the PRI + ISBN trick, it worked and scanned out at a penny.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']The two I picked up last Thursday may have something different to say about that.

If I remember right, they didn't scan correctly in the computer, though when they did the PRI + ISBN trick, it worked and scanned out at a penny.[/quote]

Yeah, maybe I'm again the victim of Circuit City's horrible inventory management. If any of the codes are coming up full price, though, I think I can forget getting them for a penny.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']The two I picked up last Thursday may have something different to say about that.

If I remember right, they didn't scan correctly in the computer, though when they did the PRI + ISBN trick, it worked and scanned out at a penny.[/quote]

yea, I also picked up two DMC 4 on Friday (I believe...) and I didn't even have difficulty with them scanning. They just popped up on the screen as $0.01 apparently. A couple other guides I had brought up were bundled so I know it wasn't just the clerk not wanting to deal with it.
 
I think it might depend which POS system each store uses. If you have the old (but better) B&W screen it probably scans .01. If you have the color screen it scans $19.99 but if it's manually entered it's .01.
 
I actually picked up 2 copies of DMC4 at the CC where the cash registers were color. They rang up $0.01...I only had 1 penny on me, and the cashier was nice enough to put in the other for me. They were "buy 1 get 1 free" for me! haha
 
Shot down trying to get PES 2008, Condemned 2, & Burnout Paradise at BB. Strange, this was my first time having any problems with this particular store.

I brought up one of each (not being greedy this time) and they all scanned up as $0.01 and the clerk called his supervisor. (D'oh!) The supervisor then called someone else who could have not been more than 23 years old (I'm 25) who then proceded to manually input the prices to their sticker value. When I asked him why he said that something's wrong with their system :whee:. I tried to argue with him (after being completely polite) that I could go to any Best Buy and they would scan in at that price, so I didn't understand what the problem was. "Well, we can't sell them to you at that price. What I can do is take 10% off." :roll:

It's alright, these three guides were low, low, low on my want list. I did, however, take a mental inventory for future drops. Also, I stopped into a used book store and found the Versus guide to Resident Evil 2 sealed for 5 bucks. Prices aren't looking so good on ebay so it's up the TL.
 
I went to CC today and all the penny guide were labeled 0.01. It was really weird. I got Army of 2, Zelda PH, Rainbow Six Vegas, Pokemon Ranger, and Lego Star Wars 2
 
Picked up a few guides last night at cc.

DMC4
Viva Pinata
Super Paper Mario
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Jade Empire
Zelda Phantom Hourglass
Rock Band Guide
and...
Rogue Galaxy

I was surprised the manager sold it to me. It was not ringing up but he told the cashier to mark it Service/Labor .01 and sell it to me. Al of that was at one store.
I went in to check if they had Eternal Sonata but came out with a bunch of guides.
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']DMC4 guide may not be pennied...

I picked a few up yesterday, and price checked them at the computer services desk. .01 each, cool! But they couldn't ring me up there, and customer service was packed. So I put them back. Came in this morning, and the guides rang up $19.99 at the customer service desk. ???Ugghh...penny guide hunting isn't worth it sometimes.[/quote]

I don't know if they can do this or not, as the manager at the one store I picked up Rogue Galaxy at went in the back and said he had to 'research' the guides. I figured that meant he was going to go into the computer in the back and change the price to cover price, so it'd ring up as such at store level.

Weird thing is, I checked the guide a week or two before grabbing it and it came up as full price at one of those registers they have in the media department. Yet, it came up as 'bundle' a week or two later and came up as .01 as part of the bundle.

Maybe we can get an answer on this from our resident CC person, Neo? Can they change the prices at store level via something other than an override at the registers?
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Maybe we can get an answer on this from our resident CC person, Neo? Can they change the prices at store level via something other than an override at the registers?[/quote]

Not that I'm aware of but CC is using 3 different POS systems in stores right now. One is with the old B&W screen while the other 2 use color screens. I'm almost certain the B&W one can't but I'm not certain about the other 2. My store is using the newest POS and DMC4 scans at $19.99 but is .01 if entered with the PRI designation. Leave it to CC to make things as complicated as possible.
 
Does Radio Shack sell guides?
Maybe they have pennied ones...
This is pissing me off. Where the fuck are those people getting the mass effects. >_>
 
[quote name='darkslime']Does Radio Shack sell guides?
Maybe they have pennied ones...
This is pissing me off. Where the fuck are those people getting the mass effects. >_>[/quote]

To my knowledge, the RS around here doesnt sell guides. Correct me if Im wrong, but they dont really concentrate on the games division, they stock a few titles here and there, but they dont have guides.
 
[quote name='neocisco']Not that I'm aware of but CC is using 3 different POS systems in stores right now. One is with the old B&W screen while the other 2 use color screens. I'm almost certain the B&W one can't but I'm not certain about the other 2. My store is using the newest POS and DMC4 scans at $19.99 but is .01 if entered with the PRI designation. Leave it to CC to make things as complicated as possible.[/quote]

Geez Louise...that explains why I got different prices at different registers. Seems like things get continuously worse at Circuit City, never better. :roll:
 
I found out something interesting at CC today when I was picking up penny guides. DMC4 has to have the larger (not the 12 digit) UPC scanned in order for it to show up at .01. I bought 14 different guides today and half of them rang up not in system with the traditional 12 digit UPC, but when they tried scanning the long upc they all came up a penny.
 
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[quote name='slowdive21']I found out something interesting at CC today when I was picking up penny guides. DMC4 has to have the larger (not the 12 digit) UPC scanned in order for it to show up at .01. I bought 14 different guides today and half of them rang up not in system with the traditional 12 digit UPC, but when they tried scanning the long upc they all came up a penny.[/quote] Maybe that'll work for all of the package ones like rogue galaxy that are sitting on the shelf at my cc...
 
hi cag! which phantom hourglass and twilight princess guides have been pennied. we tried the paperback one but came out full price. thanks for any help :)

btw, army of two has been $0.00 so they're not selling it anymore at the 2 cc in our area.
 
[quote name='Pr0JectNymPh0!']hi cag! which phantom hourglass and twilight princess guides have been pennied. we tried the paperback one but came out full price. thanks for any help :)

btw, army of two has been $0.00 so they're not selling it anymore at the 2 cc in our area.[/quote]

I'm guessing you scanned the one with the white cover. The Prima phantom hourglass one has a light blue cover. The twilight princess one is from Nintendo Power (NP) and it has the game artwork on the cover.

Did you know about the PRI + 13 number trick? That usually works on the Army of Two guide.
 
[quote name='punkmaggit']Shot down trying to get PES 2008, Condemned 2, & Burnout Paradise at BB. Strange, this was my first time having any problems with this particular store.[/quote]

Similar experience. Got Burnout Paradise with no issues. Came back later, Crysis, different cashier. Scanned as $0.01, but cashier then manually entered the sticker price. First issue I've had with these at BB.
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']Geez Louise...that explains why I got different prices at different registers. Seems like things get continuously worse at Circuit City, never better. :roll:[/quote]

I couldn't have put it better myself. They don't even USE the registers in the front of the store anymore at my one local CC. They just have people go to customer service to be checked out. I've also noticed that CC is taking on Kmart's approach to staffing their stores too, since I've seen less and less employees each time I go into the store. It takes easily 15 minutes to find one person to ask a question to.
 
[quote name='slowdive21']I found out something interesting at CC today when I was picking up penny guides. DMC4 has to have the larger (not the 12 digit) UPC scanned in order for it to show up at .01. I bought 14 different guides today and half of them rang up not in system with the traditional 12 digit UPC, but when they tried scanning the long upc they all came up a penny.[/quote]


You mean the ISBN?
 
Mass Effect is gone from all of my Best Buys. Is that indicative of something? Pisses me off royally too, because I was waiting for that to drop.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']I couldn't have put it better myself. They don't even USE the registers in the front of the store anymore at my one local CC. They just have people go to customer service to be checked out. I've also noticed that CC is taking on Kmart's approach to staffing their stores too, since I've seen less and less employees each time I go into the store. It takes easily 15 minutes to find one person to ask a question to.[/quote]
Same here. The past 3 out of 4 times I have been in CC, only once have I seen 1 register open. When I was able to actually find a guy to ask about finding a game, he just said I dont Know & walked off.:bomb:
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']You mean the ISBN?[/quote]

Yes and no. I am talking about the EAN double barcode listed under the ISBN. I think they are normally 13-18 digits in length and contain the ISBN. So rather than manually typing "PRI 0761556478", the cashier can scan the EAN instead.


Basically the moral of the story is check both codes at CC, because one may be a penny, the other can be "not on file", "part of package" or full price.
 
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