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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There is also a 10% off strategy guides coupon at Gamestop floating around. IIRC, it expires on the 31st. I was thinking about getting the Disgaea 3 guide, too, even though I don't have the game, or a PS3. But I know one day I will... Also, I think I'm going to pick up the one Mana Khemia guide I know is left at a store near me for $9.99. It dropped to that price like 2-3 months ago, though, so I'm thinking it could penny any day now and it might be safe. I'm kind of worried about missing out on that one, though, so maybe I'll pick it up tomorrow.
 
[quote name='Rave Child']There is also a 10% off strategy guides coupon at Gamestop floating around. IIRC, it expires on the 31st. I was thinking about getting the Disgaea 3 guide, too, even though I don't have the game, or a PS3. But I know one day I will... Also, I think I'm going to pick up the one Mana Khemia guide I know is left at a store near me for $9.99. It dropped to that price like 2-3 months ago, though, so I'm thinking it could penny any day now and it might be safe. I'm kind of worried about missing out on that one, though, so maybe I'll pick it up tomorrow.[/quote]
Do you still have the link to the said 10% off coupon?
 
[quote name='Torrwin']Checked the MGS4 LE and SC4 LE guides at BB today, they were still $30.[/QUOTE]

Are there really people out there in the world who will pay $30 for a game guide?
 
Checked a bunch of guides at BB today, including:

Lost Odyssey
Civilization Revolution
Hellboy
Too Human
Mass Effect
Super Smash Bros Brawl
Mario Kart Wii

All were regular price
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']So, CC is liquidating all its stores. Anyone know if this will be the end of CC penny guides?[/quote]

Unless you find some right now that were already pennied, then yes. The liquidation company is taking over all of CC's prices, and usually they raise them. :cry:
 
I checked various older guides at BB too. No drops. :(

I stopped into a TRU to use a giftcard, and I found the 1cent Achievement guide. The guy was all ready to sell it to me when his fat fuck manager, who was like 50 years old but had his hair spiked with way too much gel, came over and was like "it's a promo so it will be $8.99- but I'll give you 30% off for your trouble. I actually said "bullshit", which I don't think he liked, and when he walked away the guy who was ringing me up looked at me with a "sorry about that" face.

Gah.
 
[quote name='Torrwin']Unless you find some right now that were already pennied, then yes. The liquidation company is taking over all of CC's prices, and usually they raise them. :cry:[/quote] That sucks.
It was so awesome getting 100 guides a store in the summer. >_>
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']So, CC is liquidating all its stores. Anyone know if this will be the end of CC penny guides?[/quote]

I found a couple $4 guides at a store that was closing last month. You'd be lucky to find them for cheaper this time around.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']Hmmm, BestBuy's been very stubborn lately.[/QUOTE]

Best Buy is usually the Monday of the month , except when there is a holiday .
 
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I'm betting we'll get a drop on 02.16.09, just a wild guess based on how the last drop (10.27.08) was two days before the drop from the same time last year (10.29.07). I'd like a drop earlier than that, but it's no big deal.

I just found a couple penny guides at my local BB (all old drops), so I'll be content for a while.

EDIT: Can anyone confirm that this is the pennied out Pokemon Mystery Dungeon guide? http://www.primagames.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780761559306

I found one but I don't want to bother price checking it and I seem to remember hearing people saying that they were having trouble getting them for a penny (I think people were saying they rang up as $9.99).
 
Yes, it's pennied. I bought one last Friday. 2/16/09 wouldn't be a very good day for me if the massive pennying happens then. I'll be spending most of that day traveling....

Edit - I meant it was pennied at Best Buy, in case that wasn't clear.
 
I suspect massive drops coming soon. Went to a BestBuy over the weekend and they were getting rid of ALL their guides for $9.99. Probably wanted to get rid of some before they were eventually pennied out.
 
I got denied at a Best Buy as I was traveling through a town. He was like we gotta rip these up and rolled out. They were pennied for two months, whats the rush now?
 
At my local Frys, I looked into the video game guides and found nothing of interest except for an old Sybex guide for Baldur's Gate published back in 2001. It wasn't a penny but $2.99. I picked it up since I've got BG1 and BG2 for my :ps2: recently. Not a bad find. Can't wait for the massive guide drop.

--Michael
 
Uh two quick questions...to the last poster, tomorrow as in the 23rd, or after the stores open today?(22nd) Second general question, are the prices(.01) usually marked or in specific sections? Or do you kind of need to know beforehand what guides are the .01 guides?
 
[quote name='Sa2vador']Check your Gamestops tomorrow. Apparently they are doing a ton of guide drops tomorrow to clear up space.[/quote]

Will check at lunch!!
 
I guess I'm waiting for some sort of confirmation of at least one to work on to go there. I'm assuming Sa2vador meant today..?
 
[quote name='Sa2vador']Check your Gamestops tomorrow. Apparently they are doing a ton of guide drops tomorrow to clear up space.[/quote]

I was in the middle of printing out location lists of guides that would potentially drop, and I noticed some got pulled from the website, even though I had just checked them a second before. The ones I noticed being removed were:

Fable II Limited Edition
Gears of War II Last Stand Edition
SOCOM: Confrontation
Tales of Vesperia

As of 10 seconds ago, they were on the website still, but if you tried to click for the product, the page has been deleted. I'd say those are good bets for drops, but hopefully there will be others, too. I just wish I got to print a list of locations for Tales of Vesperia before that got pulled from the site......
 
Ok, I just checked again, and I saw they were all removed from the website if you search for them. Also I noticed Dragon Quest IV is now removed from the website, even though it was just in stock online a few minutes ago when I initially checked. I'm glad I printed out a location list for that one and Fable II LE before it was too late.

Edit - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was also removed from the site. I can't remember any others, but out of the first 50 alphabetically, 7 were removed and I can only account for 4 of them. Looks like this could be a very good day!
 
I can confirm the big drop at GS. Rave's list is almost spot on there are more. Can't be more specific because I am on my phone and driving.
 
Picked up a couple of Orange Box guides at BB for some CAGs. The had the hardcover LoZ guide, but the shrink wrap was off and I couldn't find a UPC. I figured it would be a giant hassle if I tried to purchase it so I left it there.
 
[quote name='Antic']I can confirm the big drop at GS. Rave's list is almost spot on there are more. Can't be more specific because I am on my phone and driving.[/quote]
NEED POST NAO.
 
[quote name='shieryda']GS computer says $19.99 for Fable II. Do they have to scan it in order for it to ring up for a penny?[/quote]

im pretty sure they do...and isn't the Fable II LE the one that supposedly got pennied?
 
[quote name='animemaniac14']im pretty sure they do...and isn't the Fable II LE the one that supposedly got pennied?[/quote]

Damn. I guess I didn't realize there were 2 versions.
 
Just got denied on GoW and Vesperia, wouldn't sell them. Fable II regular edition rang up full price for me as well. It's been a while since a place has denied a sale, forgot how bad it sucks.
 
Got fable 2 LE and gears of war 2 LE at GS just now. Edit to add 007 quantum of solace, soul caliber iv, and socom confrontation.
 
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Still in the car. Spiderman Web of Shadows, Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, Destroy all Humans, CoD4, 007, Soulcalibur 4 (soft cover), Gears of War II LE, Tales of Vesperia, Dragon Quest, and Spectrobes. I was stiffed on DQ and Tales of Vesperia. One of the GSs I went to that is normally good about guides were complete asses to me.
 
[quote name='Antic']Still in the car. Spiderman Web of Shadows, Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, Destroy all Humans, CoD4, 007, Soulcalibur 4 (soft cover), Gears of War II LE, Tales of Vesperia, Dragon Quest, and Spectrobes. I was stiffed on DQ and Tales of Vesperia. One of the GSs I went to that is normally good about guides were complete asses to me.[/quote]
Yeah. Thanks Antic! Quite a nice drop.:applause:
 
Thanks for confirming Antic. I'm glad all the ones I guessed about were in fact pennied. I wish I could leave work early to go guide hunting, but I can't really leave for another 4 hours :(
 
GS a few minutes ago

All Brady
Castlevania Order of Ecclesia
Spiderman Web of Shadows
007 Quantum of Solace
Socom Confrontation
Gears 2 Limited
Spectrobes Beyond the Portraits
 
[quote name='Sa2vador']Check your Gamestops tomorrow. Apparently they are doing a ton of guide drops tomorrow to clear up space.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm just curious how you knew this information? I think a lot of the GS store employees didn't find out about this until the price changes came in today.
 
Ugh, hopefully I can get to GS later today. I'd love to score an Ecclessia guide, but I've never had any luck there before.
 
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