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='fuss']The Madden mini-guide pennied out today (Friday) at Best Buy. I have never seen the mini-guide, but it pennied out anyway.[/quote] Is it for 09 or 08?
 
[quote name='darkslime']Is it for 09 or 08?[/quote]

LOL you know what - I have no idea. I looked at the tag when it was handed to me and I just assumed it was 09 and threw it in the trash. If I am not mistaken it was the ones they were supposed to give out free when you got the game. I work in the morning, I will take a look in the system then and report back. But I would assume its the 09.
 
[quote name='fuss']LOL you know what - I have no idea. I looked at the tag when it was handed to me and I just assumed it was 09 and threw it in the trash. If I am not mistaken it was the ones they were supposed to give out free when you got the game. I work in the morning, I will take a look in the system then and report back. But I would assume its the 09.[/quote] Thanks. If its for 08 I'm not gonna bother picking them up.
 
Any other guides confirmed other than madden mini guide? (I was just there yesterday and had the cashier scan 11 guides, so I do not want to get hassled again today if at all possible.)
 
Second post is updated with the Madden 09 mini guide. I saw those things before Madden released and they were marked the full price of the normal guide, even though they were like 11-12 pages long only. I just snickered and hoped no one would be stupid enough to pay $15-20 for 11-12 pages.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Second post is updated with the Madden 09 mini guide. I saw those things before Madden released and they were marked the full price of the normal guide, even though they were like 11-12 pages long only. I just snickered and hoped no one would be stupid enough to pay $15-20 for 11-12 pages.[/QUOTE]

are they seriously 12 pages

jesus christ
 
They are about 10 pages of game content...not even worth the penny! I picked up a couple of them since they have Favre on them, plus I was able to get a couple of free tickets to Righteous Kill /Traitor by the register (They ring up $0.00). When you come up with penny items, something ringing up as 0.00 does not seem odd to the cashiers! :D
 
Went to my BB yesterday, had the Radiant Dawns ringing at 9.99, but they did have the hardcover Phantom Hourglasses and hardcover Super Mario Galaxy guides marked at $15, even though they were ringing up 30. I'm kind of tempted to pick up the Phantom Hourglass one though, but I have a feeling they'll dip even further, and they had 5 or so of them on display.

Also saw a Hardcover Twilight Princess at two different GameStops, but of course it still rang up $30...I hate GameStop's system for guides.
 
[quote name='slowdive21']They are about 10 pages of game content...not even worth the penny! I picked up a couple of them since they have Favre on them, plus I was able to get a couple of free tickets to Righteous Kill /Traitor by the register (They ring up $0.00). When you come up with penny items, something ringing up as 0.00 does not seem odd to the cashiers! :D[/quote]

where are the free righteous kill tickets? Id love to see that in theaters.
 
^^^ Usually they are on the counter by the register. It is a cardboard DVD sleeve (that looks like the DVD packaging at the dollar stores) with a piece of paper in it. The code can be used for Righteous Kill or Traitor.
 
[quote name='slowdive21']^^^ Usually they are on the counter by the register. It is a cardboard DVD sleeve (that looks like the DVD packaging at the dollar stores) with a piece of paper in it. The code can be used for Righteous Kill or Traitor.[/quote]

thanks man. will definitely check for those next time im there.
 
Dunno if anybody already posted this, but I picked up the Brady Games guide for Dark Sector (which is a very good game for the $20 price tag) at Best Buy today for a penny.

They only had four guides so I went ahead and purchased all of them so I can hopefully make some dough on Ebay. :D

Best nickel I ever spent.
 
[quote name='MoltenMan']Dunno if anybody already posted this, but I picked up the Brady Games guide for Dark Sector (which is a very good game for the $20 price tag) at Best Buy today for a penny.

They only had four guides so I went ahead and purchased all of them so I can hopefully make some dough on Ebay. :D

Best nickel I ever spent.[/quote]

Wow! what are you going to do with the $3.74 you have after you sell them all?
 
I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in this except for me, but...

I made an eBook listing the dropped guides for each store, for use with Books.app, on jailbroken iphones and ipod touches. I find it to be alot easier than carring around paper, and I usually have my iPod with me anyways, so I don't have to worry too much about getting to a store and then realizing that I've forgotten my list, or anything like that.
It has a chapter for each store (BB, CC, GS, GC, and TRU), as well as a chapter just containing the recent drops, from the 2nd post in this thread. It's up to date, up to this post with everyone except the Madden mini-guide.
If anyone wants it, I've uploaded it here: http://www.filesavr.com/gameguidesebook
Just drag the folder into the eBooks folder (using iPhonebrowser or something), and it'll appear in Books.app (you may need to restart your iPod first, though).
 
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[quote name='KABUKISTAR']I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in this except for me, but...

I made an eBook listing the dropped guides for each store, for use with Books.app, on jailbroken iphones and ipod touches. I find it to be alot easier than carring around paper, and I usually have my iPod with me anyways, so I don't have to worry too much about getting to a store and then realizing that I've forgotten my list, or anything like that.
It has a chapter for each store (BB, CC, GS, GC, and TRU), as well as a chapter just containing the recent drops, from the 2nd post in this thread. It's up to date, up to this post with everyone except the Madden mini-guide.
If anyone wants it, I've uploaded it here: http://www.filesavr.com/gameguidesebook
Just drag the folder into the eBooks folder (using iPhonebrowser or something), and it'll appear in Books.app (you may need to restart your iPod first, though).[/quote]

That would be great to have for guides and games. I get confused sometimes when I see a game I know that is supposed to be on clearance and I don't remember which store it is at.
 
That is great for clearance games, since their drops are so huge, but guide drops are usually easy to remember. If someone could make it formatted so that I could put it in my samsung blast phone or ds flash cart or psp that would be the shit.

Wall scrolls finally pennied. I grabbed 4, and my friend got 4.
 
[quote name='darkslime']That is great for clearance games, since their drops are so huge, but guide drops are usually easy to remember. If someone could make it formatted so that I could put it in my samsung blast phone or ds flash cart or psp that would be the shit.

Wall scrolls finally pennied. I grabbed 4, and my friend got 4.[/quote]
Which wall scrolls? Which store?
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']Didn't someone report that one as ringing up $7.99?[/quote]

I forget. I do know that 2 weeks ago I had it scanned and it was actually coming up 29.99 but was marked 14.99 (and is still that way)
 
[quote name='MoltenMan']Dunno if anybody already posted this, but I picked up the Brady Games guide for Dark Sector (which is a very good game for the $20 price tag) at Best Buy today for a penny.

They only had four guides so I went ahead and purchased all of them so I can hopefully make some dough on Ebay. :D

Best nickel I ever spent.[/QUOTE]

Yes.. its on the second post.. ...wow
 
Since last week, the following guides have gone from "Backordered" to "Sold Out Online" on BB's website:

The Bourne conspiracy
Zelda Phantom Hourglass (Hard and Soft)
The Incredible Hulk
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
 
my bb has had a stack of bourne and hulk since they released. I really wonder who buys these guides when they release for 20 bucks or who they expect to buy guides at that price.
 
so radiant dawn ISN'T one of the guide clearanced this week? I remember somebody telling me to look at the posts a while back-but the only TRU I found that has the guide still has them ringing up @ the list price. Does anybody know what the cheapest price for radiant dawn guide is?
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']Since last week, the following guides have gone from "Backordered" to "Sold Out Online" on BB's website:

The Bourne conspiracy
Zelda Phantom Hourglass (Hard and Soft)
The Incredible Hulk
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars[/quote]Guess I know what I'm going to check prices on when I get to BB this evening.
 
Bourne Conspiracey NOT pennied at my BB. But I gave it to a guy and he went up to the register and came back and said reg price so he could have been lying.
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in this except for me, but...

I made an eBook listing the dropped guides for each store, for use with Books.app, on jailbroken iphones and ipod touches. I find it to be alot easier than carring around paper, and I usually have my iPod with me anyways, so I don't have to worry too much about getting to a store and then realizing that I've forgotten my list, or anything like that.
It has a chapter for each store (BB, CC, GS, GC, and TRU), as well as a chapter just containing the recent drops, from the 2nd post in this thread. It's up to date, up to this post with everyone except the Madden mini-guide.
If anyone wants it, I've uploaded it here: http://www.filesavr.com/gameguidesebook
Just drag the folder into the eBooks folder (using iPhonebrowser or something), and it'll appear in Books.app (you may need to restart your iPod first, though).[/quote]

what are the prices for these guides? are they all $0.01 or are some of them more?
 
I went to BB this afternoon.

Phantom Hourglass HC was 15.00
Orange Box was still 4.99
Pokemon diamond/pearl strat. (prima) was dropped to 8.50

Also a BB employee said they usually do drops on Sunday
 
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[quote name='Lethal04']what are the prices for these guides? are they all $0.01 or are some of them more?[/quote]
I believe they're all $.01 or OOS. I copy and pasted from the wiki and the 2nd post in this thread, and the second post lists the price for all of them, I think.


I went to BB, today, and checked Orange Box, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Mass Effect (w/ art book), Zelda: PH (hard and softcovers), Fire Emblem: RD, and Army of Two (w/ comic), but none of them have pennied, yet. Maybe next week.
 
[quote name='asdxfm']I went to BB this afternoon.

Phantom Hourglass HC was 15.00
Orange Box was still 4.99
Pokemon diamond/pearl strat. (prima) was dropped to 8.50

Also a BB employee said they usually do drops on Sunday[/quote]

Were you specifically discussing penny guides with them, or do you think they might have been talking about the weekly sales ad? Don't BB penny guide drops usually happen the first Monday of the month? Although that is not always the case, I think it usually is a Monday.
 
Checked a Rogue Galaxy at CC last night. Nobody could get a price on it in the computer (I assume it's out of the system), so after 10 minutes, they looked at the manufacturer's price on the back of the guide and said "Sir, it's $19.99".

Someone may get lucky, though, and pick it up for a penny.
 
I find that if you bring up an OOS guide with several other penny guides, the employee takes the hint and puts it in as parts and labor for a penny to go with all the others. This has happened to me twice at CC, although there was another time when they got a manager, who voided out all the ones that rang up as a penny and began to manually input the MSRP. Obviously, it all depends on the person ringing you up.
 
^^^^^ I'll go hit my CC today and check Rouge Galaxy.

[quote name='guessed']Were you specifically discussing penny guides with them, or do you think they might have been talking about the weekly sales ad? Don't BB penny guide drops usually happen the first Monday of the month? Although that is not always the case, I think it usually is a Monday.[/quote]

I'm just strait up with the people and I just said I thought these might have been pennied(sp?) out. He checked them and just said they usually do price drops on sunday. I'm pretty sure he is wrong though, because everyone else is saying mondays are drop days, but I was thinking the same thing you were.
 
[quote name='shieryda']Checked a Rogue Galaxy at CC last night. Nobody could get a price on it in the computer (I assume it's out of the system), so after 10 minutes, they looked at the manufacturer's price on the back of the guide and said "Sir, it's $19.99".

Someone may get lucky, though, and pick it up for a penny.[/quote]Been there, done that, picked two of them up for a penny each.

I think they had to scan the ISBN number for it to work, though I remember them scanning it and not needing to do the "labor for a penny" trick.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Been there, done that, picked two of them up for a penny each.

I think they had to scan the ISBN number for it to work, though I remember them scanning it and not needing to do the "labor for a penny" trick.[/quote]

It might be a PRI+ but I'm not sure about now. It has been over a month since I've gotten a Rogue Galaxy guide.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Been there, done that, picked two of them up for a penny each.

I think they had to scan the ISBN number for it to work, though I remember them scanning it and not needing to do the "labor for a penny" trick.[/quote]

What sucks about CC is that you can't see the computer screen at the CS counter when they scan the items. The girl tried the Oblivion GotY guide, and exclaimed "You've got to be kidding me." She had to scan the guide several times, so I'm wondering if that one is OOS, and hence a penny, also?

I also tried the Mass Effect, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Lego Indy guides.
 
[quote name='shieryda']What sucks about CC is that you can't see the computer screen at the CS counter when they scan the items. The girl tried the Oblivion GotY guide, and exclaimed "You've got to be kidding me." She had to scan the guide several times, so I'm wondering if that one is OOS, and hence a penny, also?

I also tried the Mass Effect, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Lego Indy guides.[/quote]

I wish you wouldn't have said that, now I have to leave the house today.
 
[quote name='shoe478']It might be a PRI+ but I'm not sure about now. It has been over a month since I've gotten a Rogue Galaxy guide.[/quote]I think they just scanned the ISBN #, which does the same thing as the PRI + 13-digit ISBN # trick.

[quote name='shieryda']What sucks about CC is that you can't see the computer screen at the CS counter when they scan the items. The girl tried the Oblivion GotY guide, and exclaimed "You've got to be kidding me." She had to scan the guide several times, so I'm wondering if that one is OOS, and hence a penny, also?

I also tried the Mass Effect, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Lego Indy guides.[/quote]Depends on the register system. The newer CC register system that has a signature pad does let you see what they're doing after they've scanned items in. The only time I don't see what's going on with the transaction is when I go to CS to check out, and they don't have the newer register system. Any other register, I can see what's going on.

That "you've got to be kidding me" or "there's no way it's that price" is usually the indication that's it's OOS / pennied-out.
 
[quote name='Lethal04']what are the prices for these guides? are they all $0.01 or are some of them more?[/quote]

:roll::whistle2:#:ziplip::whistle2:s#-oREAD THE SECOND POST, AS IT HAS PRICES LISTED FOR EACH SET OF GUIDES THAT DROPPED!! Most will come up as .01 in the system at various stores, but some will require the clerks to put in the publisher name(abbreviated form) and the ISBN# to get them to come up.

I understand you're a newbie and all, but reading the first and second posts FULLY explains away ALOT of it.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']I think they just scanned the ISBN #, which does the same thing as the PRI + 13-digit ISBN # trick.
[/quote]

That's not true because I've had cashiers scan both UPC's and the only way to ring it would be PRI+.
 
The funny thing about that Rogue Galaxy guide is that I told the second person who scanned the guide that I had heard reports of it coming up at a penny, and the dude said "Well, we'll see if we can't sell it to you for a penny!" Then he takes it to another dude in a black CC shirt who proceeds to check the website for 5 minutes, and turns to me and tells me that it's $20.:roll:
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']:roll::whistle2:#:ziplip::whistle2:s#-oREAD THE SECOND POST, AS IT HAS PRICES LISTED FOR EACH SET OF GUIDES THAT DROPPED!! Most will come up as .01 in the system at various stores, but some will require the clerks to put in the publisher name(abbreviated form) and the ISBN# to get them to come up.

I understand you're a newbie and all, but reading the first and second posts FULLY explains away ALOT of it.[/quote]

Needs to be bigger size :)
 
[quote name='shieryda']Checked a Rogue Galaxy at CC last night. Nobody could get a price on it in the computer (I assume it's out of the system), so after 10 minutes, they looked at the manufacturer's price on the back of the guide and said "Sir, it's $19.99".

Someone may get lucky, though, and pick it up for a penny.[/QUOTE]

What you need is some filler guides that actually ring up as a penny. If you're already buying 3 penny guides, they'll most likely sell you the Rogue Galaxy guide for a penny as well.
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']Needs to be bigger size :)[/quote]

I thought about making it humungous, but then I figured that would irk most other posters.

Mind you, the more posts I'm starting to see that ask 'durrrrr is all da guides in da second post a penny or wut', the more I'm thinking I need to put a disclaimer at the top of each new page.

I mean, how hard is it to fuckin' read the first two posts? Seriously? Don't get me wrong, I know the newbies need an explanation of YMMV(your mileage may vary, which means you may or may not get them for the price listed in the thread), but if the amount they should ring up is CLEARLY marked or how they should be rung out to come up as that amount, then there's no reason for the wasteful posts asking silly/stupid questions.
 
[quote name='freshzen']What you need is some filler guides that actually ring up as a penny. If you're already buying 3 penny guides, they'll most likely sell you the Rogue Galaxy guide for a penny as well.[/quote]

My experience as far as trying to do it that way is the cashier being almost vindictive because I'm getting them for a penny and then relishing in telling me that the Rogue Galaxy guide comes up out of system.

I should clarify that I dont mean its a bad idea. Its a great idea. My cc is just filled with angry angry people.
 
It is like that in a lot of stores, some cashiers take offense to the fact you are getting a good deal and act like the discount is coming out of their own pocket.
 
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