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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This was actually my fist time getting penny guides.. and it was pretty good.. I ended up meeting another CAG'er at one of the best buy's. Although I really wanted to find Tales of Vesperia, I had no such luck. But I managed to get

Battlefield: Bad Company
Civilization Revolution
Dragon Quest IV
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles:Rings of Fates
Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Final Fantasy XII
Fire Emblem
Fracture
Mass Effect
Mass Effect Limited Edition
Ninja Gaiden 2
Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood
Soul Calibur IV LE
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning(BUNDLE)
XBOX 360 Achievement Guide

And this morning I went to the last store in the area (Fort Worth) and managed to snag 3 Fable 2 LE and 3 Spore LE from the store employee who was taking them off the self.. Just because I'm not sure what they do with the guides.. I will be definitely doing this again..
 
[quote name='Nelstone']Any CAGers in the Orlando/Apopka/Altamonte Springs FL area land any of the 2/2 drops, or are the BBs around here managed far too well, pulling them before the public can grab them? I never seem to have any luck landing .01 guides in this area.[/quote]

When i arrived around 11:20 am 2/2 at Sanford FL BB they had these available.

Assassin's Creed
Codes & Cheats Fall 2008
Codes & Cheats Winter 2009
Final Fantasy IV
Madden NFL 09 Limited Edition
Mass Effect
Mass Effect Limited Edition
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames
NCAA Football 09
Ninja Gaiden 2
Soul Calibur IV LE
Spiderman: Web Of Shadows
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duel

I ended up getting
Final Fantasy IV
Mass Effect Limited Edition
Ninja Gaiden 2
Soul Calibur IV LE
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duel
 
I was able to score a Fable LE and Mass Effect LE at the West Paterson, NJ (Err uhh..now Woodland Park, NJ....racists..) BB. They actually had a few left of those, and it looked like they had a lot on the list left there.

The GS near there denied me a Disgaea guide, the guy said he had to ship it back to corporate....
 
I went to BB last night and got some penny guides for the first time.

God Of War
Cheats and Codes Winter 2009
Mass Effect LE
Assassins Creed
Sims
Warhammer
Bourne

Went the the bestbuy in Huntington, NY

 
[quote name='sallyballs']I was able to score a Fable LE and Mass Effect LE at the West Paterson, NJ (Err uhh..now Woodland Park, NJ....racists..) BB. They actually had a few left of those, and it looked like they had a lot on the list left there.

The GS near there denied me a Disgaea guide, the guy said he had to ship it back to corporate....[/QUOTE]

Ah ha! I knew there was someone else getting guides from that store... went there yesterday at ~10 am and again ~7:30 pm, and thought the selection looked a little lighter the second time around. :)
 
I have never seen anything like this..the memo must have finally got to my Best Buy:

Stopped by one on the way home from work last night...nothin.

Stopped by MY best buy tonight after work...the best buy that has never pulled a guide..the best buy that has never denied me..ALL WERE PULLED!:cold:

All of the old drops were still there...untouched.

I know they had at the minimum a few of each of the hardcovers..that would have been some great trade fodder.
 
I just went to my gamestop to pick something up. Too bad the ass manager was there because they still had 70+ guides from the last 2 drops but i know he wont sell them to me. He also gave me a really dirty look when i walked in. man he must have not been hugged enough as a child
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']anyone go to gurnee millls bb?[/quote]

it says they have some stock online but that's widely unpredictable.
 
does best buy really send them back to the publisher or do they also throw them away in the dumpsters like some gamestops do?
 
I arrived at the Mayfield Heights, Ohio Best Buy right a opening on Feb 2. They had either pulled all the Final Fantasy guides, or someone hid them. Most of all the other guide were there.

My Haul:

Mercs 2
Civ Revolution
Fire emblem
Spore LE
Fable LE
Mass Effect LE
Tales of Vesperia x2
Oblivion GOTY
Ninja Gaiden 2
Condemned 2
Lost Odyssey
Assassins Creed
Brothers in Arms Hells Highway
Wario Land Shake It

There were multiple copies of most things. I stopped by this morning and all but condemned were gone. I don't know if they pulled after I left, or if a hoarder came through. A blue shirt did ask me if I was a best buy employee. I replied no, but I had an internet source.
 
Whats odd is i went to different store tonight and some of the guides rang up full price including Spore CE and Wario Land. Really odd as the Fable 2 I snagged rang up at $.01 and they had no issues selling them.

So for the guy crying wolf over the memo, guess you might want to rethink that.
 
My Haul

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
FFVII Crisis Core
SIms 2 FreeTime
Bully Scholarship Edition
Warioland Shake it 2x
HellBoy The Science of Evil
FFXII x4
FF Crystal Chronicles x2
Too Human x3
Assassin's Creed
Soul Calibur 4 LE
BattleField Bad Company x2
PES 2008
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (was 9.99, not pennied)
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
Spore LE
Condemned 2 Bloodshot
Mercenaries 2
Oblivion IV GOTY x2
Final Fantasy IV x3
Lost Odyssey x3
Ninja Gaiden 2
Zelda TP (Wii, NOT pennied, paid 14.99)
Fable 2 LE (missing artbook)
Final Fantasy A2 x3
Fire Emblem Radian Dawn x4
Dragon Quest IV
Tales of Vesperia x4

Anyone wanna trade me a Fable 2 LE guide or just the artbook? lol
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Unless you REALLY know that you can sell or trade all of those multiples, grabbing them is NOT really a good thing to do.

Why? Unless you live in a giant warehouse, you're going to run out of space very quickly, especially if you do this for EVERY drop.

Take it from a former hoarder, grabbing everything is NOT a good idea. Although, there are SOME exceptions to this, like when the ones you're grabbing are hardcovers or for RPG's and/or in demand games.[/quote]

Any guides I have left that don't trade get donated to my anime club for our yearly convention as free prizes. Got 30 i'm bringing next meeting since i needed shelf room for new arrivals.
 
Found a army of two and doom 3 guide but was denied the sale because AO2 didnt come up in the register and doom 3 had to be sold as a package deal or something. Weird.
 
Stopped by the Best Buy near my work today around 3pm, and they actually had a table out front full of guides with a sign that said "All Guides 1 Cent". ^_^; lol...

Nothing really good left, though. Did manage to pick a few things.. I really wanted Crisis Core or Fable II. :/ If anyone wants one of mine to trade, feel free to pm me.

- Madden 09 Limited Edition Bundle
- Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals
- Final Fantasy: Ring of Fates x 2
- World of Warcraft: Dungeon Companion II
- World of Warcraft Bestiary
- Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
- Soul Calibur IV
- Warioland: Shake It
 
[quote name='Brian9824']Whats odd is i went to different store tonight and some of the guides rang up full price including Spore CE and Wario Land. Really odd as the Fable 2 I snagged rang up at $.01 and they had no issues selling them.

So for the guy crying wolf over the memo, guess you might want to rethink that.[/QUOTE]

Same thing happened to me today. Spore LE bundle and Warhammer Online (bundle) both came up as full price for me. I checked the ISBNs and they were the exactly the same ones as posted. Maybe they went back to full price? I didn't check Wario Land Shake It as I got it for 1 cent yesterday.
 
I got mercs2, fracture, wario shake and hells highway this morning for 1cent each. My wife stoped this evening and found 1 copy of all the same guides but they rang up $14.99 each except mercs2 (still a penny). Is it normal for them to change the price?
 
Yeah Spore LE rang up full price at one of the bestbuy's I went to while the other was pennied. That same store that had the full priced Spore LE had full priced Madden 09 LE as well.
 
The guy at the Best Buy in Southfield, MI told me that they only gave the penny guides to the employees and refused to offer/show me what he had, needless to say I was rather agitated at the way he handled the question.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']Whats odd is i went to different store tonight and some of the guides rang up full price including Spore CE and Wario Land. Really odd as the Fable 2 I snagged rang up at $.01 and they had no issues selling them.

So for the guy crying wolf over the memo, guess you might want to rethink that.[/QUOTE]

I tried getting a Wario Shake It and Clone wars guide tonight for a friend as yesterday they were a penny, but today they both rang up $14.99 at the store. I wonder if they jacked the price up since so many were being sold. These did not have a sticker over the UPC and it was the same UPC code that was a penny yesterday. The other guides were still ringing up a penny.

Anyway, I was able to get everything I wanted on the list by stopping at a few BB stores. The only guides I was not able to get were FF 12 and Assassins Creed(the one store that had 1 copy refused to sell to me). I really want the Gears of War 2 guide from Gamestop but I found so many Fable 2s I may be able to trade for it(I picked up 5 Fable 2s, one to keep, one to trade, and the rest for friends/CAGS).
 
Seems like my post was deleted?
Anyway, my haul again:


Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
FFVII Crisis Core
SIms 2 FreeTime
Bully Scholarship Edition
Warioland Shake it 2x
HellBoy The Science of Evil
FFXII x4
FF Crystal Chronicles x2
Too Human x3
Assassin's Creed
Soul Calibur 4 LE
BattleField Bad Company x2
PES 2008
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (was 9.99, not pennied)
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
Spore LE
Condemned 2 Bloodshot
Mercenaries 2
Oblivion IV GOTY x2
Final Fantasy IV x3
Lost Odyssey x3
Ninja Gaiden 2
Zelda TP (Wii, NOT pennied, paid 14.99)
Fable 2 LE (missing artbook)
Final Fantasy A2 x3
Fire Emblem Radian Dawn x4
Dragon Quest IV
Tales of Vesperia x4

Anyone wanna trade me a Fable 2 LE guide or just the artbook?
 
[quote name='muhsheesuh']Seems like my post was deleted?
Anyway, my haul again:


Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
FFVII Crisis Core
SIms 2 FreeTime
Bully Scholarship Edition
Warioland Shake it 2x
HellBoy The Science of Evil
FFXII x4
FF Crystal Chronicles x2
Too Human x3
Assassin's Creed
Soul Calibur 4 LE
BattleField Bad Company x2
PES 2008
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (was 9.99, not pennied)
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
Spore LE
Condemned 2 Bloodshot
Mercenaries 2
Oblivion IV GOTY x2
Final Fantasy IV x3
Lost Odyssey x3
Ninja Gaiden 2
Zelda TP (Wii, NOT pennied, paid 14.99)
Fable 2 LE (missing artbook)
Final Fantasy A2 x3
Fire Emblem Radian Dawn x4
Dragon Quest IV
Tales of Vesperia x4

Anyone wanna trade me a Fable 2 LE guide or just the artbook?[/quote]

This one might too. They say you should post this in the trade thread
 
Yeah, when I purchased my copies of Madden and Warioware today, they both rang up full price. But since the Best Buy I was at actually had all the penny copies on display with a giant sign that said "1 cent each", they still sold them to me for a penny anyways.

I wish I could've gone out on Monday... my car battery conveniently died on me so I had to wait until today instead, and mostly everyone was already cleaned out.
 
Also a tip for people looking for guides although I'm sure most of you are aware: CHECK THE PC SECTION. I found a few guides scattered in the video game section but the motherload/gold mine of guides was found in the PC section.
 
Another report of guides going up in price. I picked up Fracture and Spore LE at a location Monday and when I went in again today to pick more up for possible trade fodder, they rang up full price. Not everything went up, though. The WoW Bestiary still rang up $0.01.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']So, I think that just like the Gamestop locator, the Best Buy one may be a wee tad off.[/QUOTE]

When I used to work in retail I was surprised when inventory was right :) Most inventory errors are mistakes on employees' part I would think. I still remember seeing all the PS1 games in stock on the GameStop site's store locator even though they shipped all of the PS1 games off as they probably just loaded them up and sent them out without actually taking them out of inventory lol It's stuff like this that is why GameStop will tell you that the store locator online isn't 100% accurate but it's really their fault not the computer's :D

[quote name='shrike4242']The "greyed" out state is when they have 0-2 copies of the guide on-hand in RSS. 3+ copies of the guide, it shows up as being available for in-store pickup.[/QUOTE]

Thanks I edited the post fixing the grayed out status (changed from 1-3 to 0-2) I also added in a disclaimer of sorts trying to explain that the links may not be perfect for so many reasons but hey it's still better then nothing for those that have multiple Best Buy they could go try :)
 
[quote name='phogoodness']Same thing happened to me today. Spore LE bundle and Warhammer Online (bundle) both came up as full price for me. I checked the ISBNs and they were the exactly the same ones as posted. Maybe they went back to full price? I didn't check Wario Land Shake It as I got it for 1 cent yesterday.[/quote]
i missed some of the thread, but i went today.i even went to work late for it. there as only 3 guides Spore LE bundle Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duel
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning(BUNDLE) all rang up full price
 
Went to bestbuy tonight. Warhammer bundle also rang up full price for me.

My Haul:
Crisis Core
Assassin's Creed
2x Lost Odyssey
Sims 2: Apartment

I think I missed out on Twilight Princess (I read the list quickly and thought it said the one with a white sticker, they might have had the right one)

Hoping to go to another BB tomorrow (I really want the Oblivion: GOTY guide).
 
Hmm, maybe some of those guides weren't supposed to be pennied out just yet and Best Buy is correcting their mistake? That was a massive list.

From other people's posts, guides that may have gone back up in price:

Spore LE bundle
Crash: Mind over Mutant
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning bundle
Fracture
Madden 09 LE bundle
Wario Land: Shake It!
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway
 
The BB store in Auburn Hills, MI still had a ton of old stuff today. I got, Orange Box, Devil May Cry 4, and Burnout Paradise. I know they still had multiple copies of all of those and the cashier was clueless. I had her price check them and she was like "I didn't know these were on sale"
 
[quote name='gi60']Crash also rang full price 3 hours ago.[/quote]

Wow if BB changes the price back to retail that is a EPIC first and this could mean the end of penny guides as we know it for BB and if so i'd have to blame hoarders! Please don't let it be because i HATE gamestop due to the bad customer service you get when trying to buy a frickin penny guide whereas with Bestbuy i actually do most of my electronics and game shopping there due to all the great deals i've gotten over the years plus including the guides!!!!!!!!!
 
[quote name='sacreddoctor']i HATE gamestop due to the bad customer service you get when trying to buy a frickin penny guide[/quote]

I've had nothing but positive experiences getting penny guides at Gamestop. The problem is that most of the stores pull them immediately, and while some put them aside and will give them to you if you ask, others just destroy them (or claim they did).

Most of my experiences at Best Buy have been positive, too.

It's YMMV in either case. All comes down to the people.
 
[quote name='sacreddoctor']Wow if BB changes the price back to retail that is a EPIC first and this could mean the end of penny guides as we know it for BB and if so i'd have to blame hoarders! Please don't let it be because i HATE gamestop due to the bad customer service you get when trying to buy a frickin penny guide whereas with Bestbuy i actually do most of my electronics and game shopping there due to all the great deals i've gotten over the years plus including the guides!!!!!!!!![/quote]

Pump the brakes, Chicken Little.:roll:
 
went to two bb, both got pulled.
but some how I was able to get a ff tactic 1 war of lion, guess they missed a decently rare guide.
 
Went to Secaucus, NJ store & everything was pulled except they missed FF Crisis Core so I grabbed those. I also went to the 2 Paramus stores. The one by the Mall had nothing...all pulled. The other one was very nice. :) I usually hit up West Paterson too but it was too late by the time I drove by there, they were closed.
 
Was able to stop by the best buy near my house and found a good selection
Mass Effect LE
Fable 2 LE
Lost Odyssey
Fire Emblem
Assassins Creed
Final Fantasy tactics DS
Final Fantasy rings of fate
Sonic Chronicles
Dragon Warrior 4
Ninja Gaiden 2

They had more then one of almost each guide and plenty of other guides I wasn't really interested in ...
upper NW Houston 290 / 1960 area for anyone around this neck of the woods.

Between the last gamestop guide drop and this I was literally able to find every guide I wanted short of Final Fantasy 12 and Viva Pinata 2
THANKS CAG!
 
[quote name='gojiboy']I hit up the E. Colonial/Altamonte/Waterford Lakes BBs yesterday and was only able to get a Sonic Chronicles guide from Altamonte, and a 360 achievement guide from Waterford. I was pissed because the day before I was at the store on Colonial and they had 1 DQ IV and about 3 Lost Odyssey, I held them in my hand. Then I came back expecting the lazy employees to have left them out, but alas, they were all gone! I'm tempted to return and ask if they still have them in the back possibly, because I really wanted those. But I dunno if it's even worth it.[/QUOTE]

I went to West Colonial, East Colonial and OBT, no luck. My friend in the Delaware/Pennsylvania area always lands some great penny guides at the Best Buys up there. It might be a good idea to ask if they are in the back, but perhaps management won't let them go.
 
[quote name='MoneyMan']When i arrived around 11:20 am 2/2 at Sanford FL BB they had these available.

I ended up getting
[/COLOR]Final Fantasy IV
Mass Effect Limited Edition
Ninja Gaiden 2
Soul Calibur IV LE
Star Wars Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duel[/QUOTE]

Great finds at the Sanford BB. I didn't get to the stores until after 3:00pm, perhaps I would have landed a few if I went earlier that morning.
 
[quote name='shiningslade']Went to Secaucus, NJ store & everything was pulled except they missed FF Crisis Core so I grabbed those.[/QUOTE]

Cool a near by CAG. Yeah the bestbuy in seacaucus pulled everything but Crisis core (x4) at 11:30 am the day of the drop. They had a lot too. I left everything thinking they will be there later, but the pulled them fast. I only picked up Fable 2 guide. they had all FF guides(x7 each) and most of other drops. did u ask them 2 check back?
 
[quote name='rarebucky']Why are some people saying these guides are up to full price again? That makes no sense.[/quote]

Because they are. Don't ask me to explain why but some of the guides now ring back up at full price like the Spore LE one. Have no idea why but its true.
 
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