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='Josef']The Persona 4 guide for $9.99 is mighty tasty indeed. Can anyone else confirm this price at Gamestop?[/quote]

i havent even seen this guide at any of my GS
 
PISS. I was just at a GameStop that had two stickered at $19.99, and I looked at them, thinking, "Boy, I am definitely jumping at these when they hit $9.99 since P3 is now getting sixty fucking dollars." But I was in a rush, and hadn't seen anything in the thread, so I just finished my transaction and left. This was at, like 7:00.

Looks like I'm driving back out tomorrow.

[quote name='malfuncti0n']the benefit of the bluray release is that the image will fit the widescreen resolutions of widescreen hdtvs that most of us have today instead of A., having a box with a black bar on the left and right side or B., having a horizontally stretched image to watch. so yes, i would buy the bluray release if its only $10 more. also has probably only 1 disc versus the standard 3 or 4 of dvds.[/quote]

[quote name='thehoweller']Thanks for putting things into perspective. [/quote]

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!
 
[quote name='Fayt13']One Persona 3 guide recently did manage to sell for $60 on eBay but they generally sell for around $35-$40 I believe.[/quote]

They've been going down in price a lot in the last two months. They were regularly selling for $60-$70 towards the end of last year and beginning of this year.

I'll have to pick up a Persona 4 guide if it's truly down to $9.99. There's no way I'm waiting for that one to hit a penny.
 
[quote name='Josef']The Persona 4 guide for $9.99 is mighty tasty indeed. Can anyone else confirm this price at Gamestop?[/quote]

Will head out tomorrow. Missing out on the P3 guides, I'm not passing up this opportunity. DoubleJump guides are notoriously difficult to find when they penny out.
 
[quote name='punkmaggit']Will head out tomorrow. Missing out on the P3 guides, I'm not passing up this opportunity. DoubleJump guides are notoriously difficult to find when they penny out.[/quote]Agreed. My "normal" GS says it's in stock, according to the GS website, so if it's $9.99, I'll swing by and grab it.
 
[quote name='punkmaggit']Will head out tomorrow. Missing out on the P3 guides, I'm not passing up this opportunity. DoubleJump guides are notoriously difficult to find when they penny out.[/quote]

They have reprinted guides though. So don't get too jacked up about secondary market prices.
 
[quote name='Josef']The Persona 4 guide for $9.99 is mighty tasty indeed. Can anyone else confirm this price at Gamestop?[/QUOTE]

I saw this price at my local gamestop in florida, so yea. confirmed
 
[quote name='Richard Longfellow']They have reprinted guides though. So don't get too jacked up about secondary market prices.[/QUOTE]

they havent reprint the nocturne or persona guide
 
Yeah confirmed persona 4 at 9.99
Now for todays finds at GS

Gears 2 at 9.99
Blue Dragon+ at .01
Tales of symphonia at .01
Valkyria Chronicles at .01
Midnight Club LA at .01
and BOTH WoW atlases at .01
Regular and Burning Crusade.

So central, mountain and pacific time zones, your welcome. Get to it. Eastern, get on the ball.
 
The Persona 3 digital guide also may have helped to bring the price down. Double Jump sells it for $9.99 here.

The Nocturne guide is also available digitally.

The guide isn't even that useful for Persona 3 FES because they changed a lot of the game with FES. I still used the guide, but found early on that I couldn't rely on it 100%.
 
[quote name='Ziv']Yeah confirmed persona 4 at 9.99
Now for todays finds at GS

Gears 2 at 9.99
Blue Dragon+ at .01
Tales of symphonia at .01
Valkyria Chronicles at .01
Midnight Club LA at .01
and BOTH WoW atlases at .01
Regular and Burning Crusade.

So central, mountain and pacific time zones, your welcome. Get to it. Eastern, get on the ball.[/QUOTE]

I'm guessing that's Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World? Thanks for the info on this and Valkyria Chronicles! Blue Dragon Plus is a penny already?
 
Thanks for the info, Ziv. Always appreciated.

I doubt my local GS will have the pennied guides, though they still should have the P4 guide.

The website price on the guide dropped to $9.99 this morning, and was still $19.99 last night when I checked.
 
[quote name='Ziv']Yeah confirmed persona 4 at 9.99
Now for todays finds at GS

Gears 2 at 9.99
Blue Dragon+ at .01
Tales of symphonia at .01
Valkyria Chronicles at .01
Midnight Club LA at .01
and BOTH WoW atlases at .01
Regular and Burning Crusade.

So central, mountain and pacific time zones, your welcome. Get to it. Eastern, get on the ball.[/quote]

Too bad that my gamestop doesn't give out penny guides. The have Tales,Valkyria,L.A, and Blue dragon
 
I haven't seen any of the .01 guides except for Tales of Symphonia at any local GS... and they've really limited their selection with the installation of that three-sided mobile guide rack.

Eh, consequently Tales is the only guide I'm interested in so I'm taking a run to a local GS tonight for that and Persona 4 (which is OOS at most locations...)
 
I'll try one Gamestop in my college town here... After that, I gotta wait until Friday until I get home to hit up the Gamestops there. If I'm out of luck, let's hope that I can find them at Half-Price Books, where they usually end up.

I really want a Valkyria Chronicles, Tales of Symphonia, and possibly a Persona 4 guide...
 
Bleck. Three Gamestops and all of them were OOS on the P4 guide despite what the availability check indicated. Guess I'll keep looking, but I think I'm out of luck on this one. :cry:
 
[quote name='fairtrade']Bleck. Three Gamestops and all of them were OOS on the P4 guide despite what the availability check indicated. Guess I'll keep looking, but I think I'm out of luck on this one. :cry:[/quote]Oh, that's not encouraging. :cry:
 
[quote name='Ziv']Yeah confirmed persona 4 at 9.99
Now for todays finds at GS

Gears 2 at 9.99
Blue Dragon+ at .01
Tales of symphonia at .01
Valkyria Chronicles at .01
Midnight Club LA at .01
and BOTH WoW atlases at .01
Regular and Burning Crusade.

So central, mountain and pacific time zones, your welcome. Get to it. Eastern, get on the ball.[/quote]

Mine's getting cleared today...Thanks :p
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Oh, that's not encouraging. :cry:[/quote]

No, but on the other hand it isn't like it's a penny guide yet so calling ahead shouldn't be a problem for most of us. I just figured one of the three would have it and ran out, to be honest I think this is the first time (in a long time) that the online check has failed me.
 
[quote name='Ziv']Yeah confirmed persona 4 at 9.99
Now for todays finds at GS

Gears 2 at 9.99
Blue Dragon+ at .01
Tales of symphonia at .01
Valkyria Chronicles at .01
Midnight Club LA at .01
and BOTH WoW atlases at .01
Regular and Burning Crusade.

So central, mountain and pacific time zones, your welcome. Get to it. Eastern, get on the ball.[/quote]

Thanks. Just sucks that they didn't penny out anything I wanted!
 
[quote name='Ziv']Yeah confirmed persona 4 at 9.99
Now for todays finds at GS

Gears 2 at 9.99
Blue Dragon+ at .01
Tales of symphonia at .01
Valkyria Chronicles at .01
Midnight Club LA at .01
and BOTH WoW atlases at .01
Regular and Burning Crusade.

So central, mountain and pacific time zones, your welcome. Get to it. Eastern, get on the ball.[/QUOTE]

I was at my GameStop earlier today (10:30 AM central) after an ridiculously early doctor's appointment and noticed one of the employee's just slashing the covers of some guides diagonally. I asked what he was doing and he said that publishers have retailers pull guides after a while (I figured out they were penny guides) and they have to send back evidence that they destroyed the guides. I saw him slash through 3 copies of the Tales of Symphonia 2 guides and then start slashing the Valkryia Chronicles guides. And under that was another 10-15 more guides...

Is this normal policy? It's such a waste... and probably explains why I never see any.

BTW, I also saw the Persona 4 guide and as noted by Ziv it was marked $9.99 but when the clerk rang me up, it showed up as $8.99.

Just figured I'd give you penny hunters a heads up on the slashing... or at least the Persona 4 guide ringing up as $8.99 for some reason.
 
I saw Resistance 2 guide in a pile with the other penny guides at a GS I stopped at today . . .

Of course the employee wouldn't sell or give them to me, but its worth mentioning if anyone else has luck getting penny guides today.
 
I'm sitting in a Starbucks literally about 3 steps away from a Gamestop. As soon as I saw these posts I put down my laptop and walked inside. Guides already pulled and when I inquired about them, the guys said no dice.
 
[quote name='Vinny']I was at my GameStop earlier today (10:30 AM central) after an ridiculously early doctor's appointment and noticed one of the employee's just slashing the covers of some guides diagonally. I asked what he was doing and he said that publishers have retailers pull guides after a while (I figured out they were penny guides) and they have to send back evidence that they destroyed the guides. I saw him slash through 3 copies of the Tales of Symphonia 2 guides and then start slashing the Valkryia Chronicles guides. And under that was another 10-15 more guides...

Is this normal policy? It's such a waste... and probably explains why I never see any.

BTW, I also saw the Persona 4 guide and as noted by Ziv it was marked $9.99 but when the clerk rang me up, it showed up as $8.99.

Just figured I'd give you penny hunters a heads up on the slashing... or at least the Persona 4 guide ringing up as $8.99 for some reason.[/QUOTE]

Vinny, did you happen to buy the guide with any other game, or your Edge card? I believe someone posted a while ago that the system takes 10% off the price of a guide when you buy it with any other game (it doesn't even have to be the same game the guide is for).
 
The only place that used to sell me them got ripped on my their district manager. I can confirm those from the first list, but I couldn't get them for the first time. I guess if they sell them now that they've been warned, they lose their job instantly.

I didn't think they had Valkyria, but he confirmed it to my disappointment. >_
 
[quote name='lawdood']I'm sitting in a Starbucks literally about 3 steps away from a Gamestop. As soon as I saw these posts I put down my laptop and walked inside. Guides already pulled and when I inquired about them, the guys said no dice.[/quote]

Was your laptop still there when you got back? ;)

(and, yes, I realize the most logical assumption is that he typed the above message on his laptop after he got back)
 
I picked up 2 Persona 4 guides for $9.99. Not sure if it was worth it since I already have one, but I figured, what the heck. If it doesn't gain any value, I can amazon/ebay it for about the same price I paid.

As for the penny guides, I found Valkyria and Tales, but the manager wouldn't let me buy them. He told me they had to be shipped off to the company. Now, I don't know if that's what their store does, but every other store I go to either throws them away, gives them away, or they keep them to themselves (which is why I normally see Game Stop penny guides at Half-Price Books). I'm thinking this store's excuse is for the latter.
 
Here's the list of guides that vanished from the GS website:

Blue Dragon Plus
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness Official
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Resistance 2
Star Ocean: Second Evolution
Valkyria Chronicles
 
[quote name='Josef']Vinny, did you happen to buy the guide with any other game, or your Edge card? I believe someone posted a while ago that the system takes 10% off the price of a guide when you buy it with any other game (it doesn't even have to be the same game the guide is for).[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I bought a copy of Devil Summoner (used, disc only- already have a copy but this disc is in much nicer shape) and I did use my EDGE card. I never knew that it worked that way...

I guess that explains why it was a $1 less.
 
Yeah I cleaned out a bunch of guides today at lunch from my closest store, cashier pretty much just gave most of them to me in a big lump from the pile so I was pretty surprised, they've always said no up until this point. Got lucky I guess.
 
Also saw that Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was removed.

Wish I wasn't out for so long today, as if I find out by noon (I'm East Coast =( ) I can usually grab guides, but I actually wanted VC and ToS2. If only the GS employees in my area didn't have bombs implanted in their anuses that were triggered by selling penny guides. Guess I'll monitor Amazon/Half.com for some cheap guides. Oh well, at least now I know to look for them.
 
Yeah I can confirm harvest moon as well as everything else except star ocean. Saw star ocean but didnt try because it wasnt on the list at that point.
 
Found a Persona 4 guide, as the site told me. Darn, that ID policy applies to strategy guides as well? Pssh... I saw Star Ocean, I doubt that was pennied out, since that store near me follows regular policy.
 
[quote name='hellmutt']Here's the list of guides that vanished from the GS website:

Blue Dragon Plus
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness Official
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Resistance 2
Star Ocean: Second Evolution
Valkyria Chronicles[/QUOTE]

Got lucky and got Resistance 2, that was the only one I really wanted.
Also confirmed Midnight Club: LA is $0.01.
Star Ocean: Second Evolution rang up full price.
 
Picked up Resistance 2
Harvest Moon Island of Hapiness
Tales of Symphonia
Valkyria Chronicles
Blue Dragon Plus
WoW Atlas 2nd
WoW Atlas Burning Crusade
Midnight Club: LA

All pennied.

Star Ocean was full price.

Also had Mana Khemia on a pile that was denied . CR said it pennied today.
 
[quote name='PapaSmerf']Picked up Resistance 2

Also had Mana Khemia on a pile that was denied . CR said it pennied today.[/quote]

He lied. It was quite a few weeks ago. First post tells me that it was Jan 29th, so I'm surprised a GS still had a pennied guide lying around 2 months after pennying. Of course, all six GameStops close by pull theirs nearly instantly, so I guess others might be quite different.
 
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