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='Penguin1084']yea, I meant to say that.

I checked the list and I didn't see it so I just asked him to scan it.

Also, he said he had a Fallout 3 LE in the back but I forgot to ask him to scan it... he was annoyed enough as it was :p[/QUOTE]

Nice find on the MGS4 LE. That's definitely a new addition to the recent GS drop list. I don't remember any of the stores in my area having it though.

I'm pretty sure the Fallout 3 LE guide is still full price. Why? Well because all 5 GS's in my area that pulled all the penny guides still left that one on the guide rack.
 
[quote name='Link927']It should be noted that this is not the penny guide thread, but the Reduced Price Guide thread.[/quote]

Damn you Link for your highfalutin-syntactically-correct-grammar observations!
 
[quote name='DarkRider23']You are all lucky as hell. I have school starting at 8 AM and ending at 1 PM. Why can't anything good happen on Wednesdays (the day I'm actually off)? I'll even settle for Tuesdays/Fridays... I get out of school at 9:30 AM on those days, but everything good happens on days I have school.

Either way, good luck to everyone tomorrow.[/quote]

I know I'll probably regret it, but I'm skipping my statistics class (and maybe my software engineering class) tomorrow. Got to do what's necessary to get these guides.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']I know I'll probably regret it, but I'm skipping my statistics class (and maybe my software engineering class) tomorrow. Got to do what's necessary to get these guides.[/quote]
lol Yup. Mans gotta do what a mans gotta do
 
[quote name='Josef']Nice find on the MGS4 LE. That's definitely a new addition to the recent GS drop list. I don't remember any of the stores in my area having it though.

I'm pretty sure the Fallout 3 LE guide is still full price. Why? Well because all 5 GS's in my area that pulled all the penny guides still left that one on the guide rack.[/quote]

Fallout 3 is still full price at Gamestop. I had it scanned on Thursday. I can't remember the last time I've seen an MGS LE guide around at GS. Maybe I'll be able to score one at BB some day, though. Anyway, I'd better get to sleep soon so I can wake up early to sneak into BB before work (I just found out one of them opens at 9!). I hope I find Elder Scrolls GOTY and a mintier version of TOV than what I've currently got.
 
[quote name='sacreddoctor']saw some mk vs dc guides at bb also!!!!!![/QUOTE]

Is there a point to these posts? Please stop unless you start being on topic and relevant. I'm going through and deleting some of your older posts to clean up thread. I don't want to have to do that again.

ON TOPIC - Man this is one of the best drop lists I've seen in a while. I usually ignore this thread when it pops up in my sub list because I am always disappointed it seems (just people talking about GS drops which I can never get). But there are a lot of guides for games I am currently playing or want to play soon on there - hopefully I can find a few of them around lunch time tomorrow.
 
He's lucky he got a nice mod and not one of the harsher ones.

I will post at about 11 EST with confirmations and finds (not disputing credibility, just confirming price)
 
[quote name='mvp828']He's lucky he got a nice mod and not one of the harsher ones.

I will post at about 11 EST with confirmations and finds (not disputing credibility, just confirming price)[/quote]

Thank you in advance!!!
 
[quote name='mvp828']

I will post at about 11 EST with confirmations and finds (not disputing credibility, just confirming price)[/quote]

Same here. I'm going to be at BB at like 10am eastern. I should be home at like 10:40-11:00am eastern to post my confirmations and finds. Hopefully my post will be nice and long.:D
 
Since it seems that I'm wide awake with a case of insomnia, I guess maybe I'll hit BB this morning at 10 am. Although, since my local BB has been a dry spot lately for guides, I doubt I'll get anything. If I do though, I'm sure I'll be shocked and I'll probably write a LOOOONG post about it.

Oh and silly me, I hid two copies of the Rise Of The Argonauts guide at a local BB yesterday, since I completely forgot that ROTA is NOT included in this drop.

But I DID pick up one of the ROTA pre-order bonus books yesterday from a local GS while picking up a used SOCOM headset with some credit. For finding me a copy of the(albeit very slim) ROTA pre-order book I threw the cashier who found it for me a pre-order for Godfather II for PS3.

Of course, if the system still goes the same way it used to, I plan on cancelling said same pre-order today to hurt the numbers of one of the dickwads who follow the DM's 'don't sell' guide mandate to a fault.
 
[quote name='BarbblerElf']How many guides are you guys going to bring up at first, and are they going to be the ones you want. or do you people play it safe and bring up bad guides first. then if you get them you go back get more and bring them back to the same person. this is my first BB drop and i want it to go better than gamestop. also should i buy them when the store is busy or empty. sorry 4 all the questions ^_^[/quote]
From the closest store, I used to be able to go up to the register with about 20-50 guides with NO problem. But I guess one too many media clerks got yelled at one too many times about them not pulling stuff that should've been and so lately the one media manager type has been called EVERY time I've tried for guides.

Usually it's best to go to a young cashier(preferably a girl), since most of them will just think 'that's a damn good deal', especially if you start off with the 'they're on clearance' line before they ring you up.

Unfortunately, there's also a 50/50 chance that that same young clerk might call over a manager type and get you DENIED in short order, so be prepared for a possible rejection on buying them.


EDIT: Second post edited to reflect the addition of the MGS 4 LE guide to the GS drop list.

Thing is, I had a sneaking suspicion about that last night, since I only saw non LE copies at two local GS stores.

One thing I still find funny though, is how the current list of dropped guides from Best Buy is removed from their website, yet older stuff that dropped like Metroid Prime 3 and Heavenly Sword are STILL on the damn site.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Usually it's best to go to a young cashier(preferably a girl), since most of them will just think 'that's a damn good deal', especially if you start off with the 'they're on clearance' line before they ring you up.[/quote]

Where I live, there's a single line for checkout and you go up to whichever cashier is available next. You could pass, I suppose, but this makes you look suspicious, especially if there's nobody behind you in line ;). Is it different elsewhere (i.e., you line up at whichever cashier you want, like Target)?

One time I approached said "young (girl) cashier" but before I got there I could tell I'd made a mistake: she had an air of efficiency and process-adherence about her. Sure enough, she scanned the guide (it rang up at $0.01) and without missing a beat price-adjusted it to $19.99.
 
[quote name='gantt']Where I live, there's a single line for checkout and you go up to whichever cashier is available next. You could pass, I suppose, but this makes you look suspicious, especially if there's nobody behind you in line ;). Is it different elsewhere (i.e., you line up at whichever cashier you want, like Target)?

One time I approached said "young (girl) cashier" but before I got there I could tell I'd made a mistake: she had an air of efficiency and process-adherence about her. Sure enough, she scanned the guide (it rang up at $0.01) and without missing a beat price-adjusted it to $19.99.[/quote]

I've had that happen to me as well. Either that or the aforementioned manager call, where the manager is either going to A) let me have the guides or B) say they're 'cover price' and block the sale.

What state are you in? I ask because I've seen that single line thing at a couple of stores here in PA, but not in my own area.
 
I haven't read this entire thread (or searched, sorry), but I'm wondering, are anyone's guides marked 1 cent at the store? A few guides I bought were marked 1 cent (i'll have to look through to see what it was), and the shelves are marked 1 cent.
I took pics of all the strategy guides at a store here, and you can see a 1 cent price tag on the shelf: http://beatthegame.net/mario/DSC00288.JPG
 
With any luck I'll be there right when they unlock the doors - I may even confirm it while in the store itself if they still have a laptop with wireless internet in there.
 
[quote name='mariol90']I haven't read this entire thread (or searched, sorry), but I'm wondering, are anyone's guides marked 1 cent at the store? A few guides I bought were marked 1 cent (i'll have to look through to see what it was), and the shelves are marked 1 cent.
I took pics of all the strategy guides at a store here, and you can see a 1 cent price tag on the shelf: http://beatthegame.net/mario/DSC00288.JPG[/quote]

Sometimes. Generally, the employees don't seem to care enough to actually mark them as such. The only two that I've seen marked as a penny are Golden Compass and Army of Two. Army of Two was sitting in a stack right in front of the 360 gaming section, begging to be picked up. To my knowledge, they're still there.

Oh, and not entirely relevant, but still potentially useful for people visiting BB today, the Gears 2 RC Tanks have been marked down to $10 in my area. They ring up this way.
 
[quote name='Wolve11']2 hours before I can head over there. Can't wait! Hopefully we'll get some confirmation stories soon[/QUOTE]

Same here. Im leaving in like 10 min. Hopefully my next post will be a success story
 
Hm. I just traded a bunch of guides for all the stuff they are fixing to drop. Rats. :/

Oh well, I guess I was just thinking to myself the other day how the stack of Soul Calibur III, Zelda PH, and SMG LE guides in my closet would look 10x better with a stack of Soul Calibur IV LEs next to them. :roll:
 
I can confirm there was a drop today. As I mentioned earlier, one of my stores is open at 9 (I have no idea why, it was totally dead), so I was able to hit them up before work. Unfortunately, they didn't have any of the better guides (LO, TOV, ES: GOTY, etc). I walked away with a couple Mercenaries 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, and Battlefield: Bad Company, and a Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. I left like 10 more each of all those, and several of the other drops, because I had already gotten them from Gamestop last week. I'm hoping another store will have those good guides, but I'm worried about waiting until 6:00pm....
 
Guides pulled. It makes me cry because I know they're fine with me buying penny guides as long as it's under 3 per visit. I really really wanted that Fire Emblem and Vesperia guide too :whistle2:(
 
My local store pulled several guides, inc. all the FF ones. They also randomly pulled others. At the same time, they left a shitload of goodies.

I hid the Mass Effect LE yesterday, so I walked away with that one as well as 4 soul calibur LE (3 will be traded with CAGs), 2 ninja gaiden II's, lost odyssey, civ rev, and WoW dungeon companion 2.

yeah! Got some more BB to hit up today. Thrilled wtih this haul.
 
The BB in Gaithersburg pulled almost all of the guides. I still managed to pick up Madden LE, Elder Scrolls GOTY, and Star Wars Clone Wars.

BTW, Warhammer Online showed up as full price.
 
So the guides listed, is that known to be the full list? I've been waiting for the MGS4 LE guide to penny at BB, and I guess I'm kind of surprised it's not on there. Is it worth it to go and check it in store (it's not an easy trip), or is that list the definitive source?
 
[quote name='mf44']So the guides listed, is that known to be the full list? I've been waiting for the MGS4 LE guide to penny at BB, and I guess I'm kind of surprised it's not on there. Is it worth it to go and check it in store (it's not an easy trip), or is that list the definitive source?[/QUOTE]

My store pulled it's guides, but they still had the MGS4 LE. So not likely.
 
[quote name='loxthefox']My store pulled it's guides, but they still had the MGS4 LE. So not likely.[/quote]

Alright, thanks for the quick reply. I appreciate the help!
 
Just to elaborate on my earlier post which was sent from my blackberry on my way out of the local BB. This is the BB that I usually score all my guides from. They are usually very slow to pull guides and often I see pennied guides there many weeks after they drop. I was there yesterday and while I didn't have a list I know for a fact that I saw many of the guides that were on the list including Fable, SCIV, and Too Human. I got there right as the store opened today and went down the list. Every guide had been pulled. :cry:

I'm going to hit another store at lunch time, but from other posts it looks like BB had the heads up to pull these ahead of time. Good luck to everyone out there. Hopefully I can snag a few later today or in trades with everyone.
 
[quote name='Wolve11']My BB pulled most of the guides but forgot a few, they even got the stuff I hid away.[/QUOTE]
That sucks. I did manage to get what i wanted. My BB did not pull any. The only one that i wanted and could not get was ToV. I left one LO and one fable 2 LE plus multibles of pretty much every thing else at my BB. Typing on a cell phone isn't easy.
 
I was able to get tales of vesperia, two civ revolution and two LE Spore bundles, and a mercenaries 2 guide. I'm a little dissappointed after seeing what was in stores this weekend. I didn't see a central place for the guides either that were pennied which they sometimes do.
Command and conquer 3 red alert rung up for$19.99 for me so that wasn't pennied for me at least.
 
Just got back from BB #1 and picked up one copy of each for myself and can confirm the 0.01 price:

Mercs 2
Fable II LE
Lost Odyssy
Mass Effect LE
Assassin's Creed
Too Human

I am going to hit up the store again and get 2nd copies for CAGs of LO, AC, TH and also pick up Revolution, NG II, and a couple others. The other three were the last copies. I am also going to go and hit up another store. I am going to try to get at least one copy of every guide on the list to trade for those who can't find them. I will repost later tonight with end results in the Discussion and Trade threads.

P.S. My cashier is awesome as she is in her 20s and is always at parties here at school and is not bad on the eyes either.:lol:
 
I'm really sorry to all who had their guides pulled, but there's a whole bunch I wanted that they just don't have. I did not take more than 2 of any guide.
 
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I'm in the parking lot now... Typing from my phone, I had hid some behind Haze and they found them. I wish they'd at least have left one of each guide but no luck there.
 
Time to give Wheaton a try, managed to get a ton last drop.

P.S. If anyone has any luck at the Germantown and Rockville BB's in MD, let me know.
 
This is not looking good w/ all the reports of guides pulled before the store opened. I can't even get out there for another 1.5 hours. Hope it isn't a wasted trip.
 
I got there as the store opened. There was a girl in front of the shelf with a cart full of guides. She asked me what I was looking for (Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect) and she informed that she had just pulled them, sorry. I talked to her a bit and she said she would see what she could do. She left for about five minutes and came back with the Mass Effect LE and LO. I would have liked to have gotten the FF and Too Human guides as well but I can't complain, she was awesome and really hooked me up.
 
Looks like the 2-day advance list was certainly a bad thing for us, since it's looking like most guides have been pulled when CAGs get there.

Hopefully, some other ones will get lucky with guide finds and share the love.
 
Ugh, I'm so anxious now to try another store. I've still got 6+ hours until I can check anywhere else, though. I guess it's not the end of the world if I don't find anything, though. I only really need the Elder Scrolls for myself, but I'd like to get a couple others for my friends or my trade list.
 
Keep checking other stores, it seems like it's random if they pull the guides or not. I went to 2 stores, one yesterday and today, that one pulled them all (I took pictures of everything too, and they even removed the 1 cent sticker on the shelf for one guide). The lady there told me her supervisor told her to remove all of those guides and to "throw them out" or something. She also said they were boxing them up? And when I got there I named all the guides they had, she checked in the back and told me they already got rid of them. That's doubtful, it seems like they just took them for themselves. This store is in estero, FL for anyone that lives around there.
The other one I went to had some, I grabbed all the newer ones and a few older (army of two). Burnout paradise is 39 cents still.
I'm not sure which twilight princess guide is marked down, but the white one I saw isn't, and MGS4 LE isn't either (didn't try the regular one though).
 
pulled.

They were ALL fucking pulled!

an employee knew what I was there for and tried his best to break the bad news to me, telling me the manager on duty wasn't even giving staff the chance to buy them - and reccommended I come at the shift change - so I will.

At any rate though, if someone would be willing to put aside a Crisis Core guide I would appreciate it.
 
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