Reduced Price Game Guides: Thread Seven and a Half.

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Has anyone ever had the employees of a particular EB/GS offer to let them check their stacks of guides in the stockroom before? I've only ever had this happen once and it was when I was WAYYYYY out of town(up in CT), just over the border from NY state.[/quote]

I had a Gamestop employee do that for me today actually, because half the staff are friends of me. Ended up leaving with 12 guides total as a result. Coincidently, this was in CT as well ;)
 
But, what I laugh about was, they gave me a printed up list of guides they had in stock, which even showed the pennied ones as .01 and said 'go to town'.

Mind you, they had the guides up in a loft above the store, so I just checked the bin they had(they had one of those huge game bins loaded up underneath with guides). I sat down on the floor and dug through that bin thoroughly, then I dug through the overstuffed guide racks by the register.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, they stopped saying I could take all I wanted and limited me to like 10. Mind you, that's more than I get locally anymore, but it was still a fun time, since they had just literal assloads of guides.
 
Most of them will say this is everything we have and not bother looking.

[quote name='Number83']Today is a sad day...I was rejected from this particular EBGames for the first time ever. Wild Arms 5, RE:4, and Heavenly Sword are now probably on thier way to the dumpster because I couldn't get them to sell them to me. Sooo Sad.

Is this the end?!?[/QUOTE]
trying doing penny hunt only when the employee you know will sell you the guide are working, or try to preorder several games and hope they will sell you the guides.
 
I tried that pre order crap before and in some stores, it doesn't matter if you even order an upcoming game console, they will still refuse to sell you the pennied guides.

Mind you, if you find a reasonable store which will give you some freebies/guides for doing at least one preorder, stay on their good side and hope those employees don't get fired and replaced by people who follow the company line to the letter(what happened at my formerly best guide store locally).
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']
Has anyone ever had the employees of a particular EB/GS offer to let them check their stacks of guides in the stockroom before? I've only ever had this happen once and it was when I was WAYYYYY out of town(up in CT), just over the border from NY state.[/QUOTE]

lol, once. My biggest haul ever (150+ guides) was at a local GS. I think the employee was new, as I'd never seen him before. I found a ton of penny guides on the floor still, about 70 in total. He was surprised I was buying so many guides, so I told him I had a list, and he asked if it was like some sort of scavenger hunt. I didn't feel like explaining everything then and there, so I just said yeah, kinda like that. He says they have some of these in the back, and asks if I want to come back with him to look. We find even more guides (granted, multiples of many, of course).

As he's ringing me out, the manager comes over to investigate, and gives me some speech that she is manager, so it's her call. After her power play, she says it's ok (she's a raging bitch well known by customers and other GS employees in the area alike, but seemed to be in a decent mood this night). I even let him keep any of the guides he said he wanted as a thank you.

I'll never have that happen again though.
 
The preorder thing usually works but I often buy a full price guide with the penny guide (no more than 1 or 2) and return it later. Almost never will they sell you just a penny guide.

I have had people look in the back for me but they usually find nothing or the manager notices them looking and says no.
 
Is the WoW one the big black binder one? I think I saw that one today at my local GS, however it was so crowded I decided not to purchase my goodies (game+guide) and just left .. suppose I should have stuck around.
 
[quote name='Visc']Has anyone ever had the employees of a particular EB/GS offer to let them check their stacks of guides in the stockroom before? I've only ever had this happen once and it was when I was WAYYYYY out of town(up in CT), just over the border from NY state.[/quote]

I had a Gamestop employee do that for me today actually, because half the staff are friends of me. Ended up leaving with 12 guides total as a result. Coincidently, this was in CT as well ;)[/QUOTE]

I had a really cool EB in my town (they closed it right after the merger--now I have a super crappy GS). I got to know the employees pretty well. Once after a drop I came in and the manager was bagging up penny guides (in a trash bag) but he let me go through and grab a huge stack of guides (really about all I could carry--70 to 100 with some repeats). Funny thing is that the DM was around (left for awhile) so the manager was doing this on the sly.

Sometime later I came in and asked about penny guides and one of the employees I knew (pretty droll but nice guy) went in back and pulled one guide of each from the stash in back. I was never allowed back there but he produced a stack of some 50 guides for me . . . many of these were really nice ones.
 
Sweet. I picked up 2 copies of the LOTR:O World Guide, 2 copies of Everquest II atlas (been there for a LONG time, even marked as a penny), and a copy of Heroes of Mana.
 
[quote name='Zmonkay']lol, once. My biggest haul ever (150+ guides) was at a local GS. I think the employee was new, as I'd never seen him before. I found a ton of penny guides on the floor still, about 70 in total. He was surprised I was buying so many guides, so I told him I had a list, and he asked if it was like some sort of scavenger hunt. I didn't feel like explaining everything then and there, so I just said yeah, kinda like that. He says they have some of these in the back, and asks if I want to come back with him to look. We find even more guides (granted, multiples of many, of course).

As he's ringing me out, the manager comes over to investigate, and gives me some speech that she is manager, so it's her call. After her power play, she says it's ok (she's a raging bitch well known by customers and other GS employees in the area alike, but seemed to be in a decent mood this night). I even let him keep any of the guides he said he wanted as a thank you.

I'll never have that happen again though.[/QUOTE]

That's kind of like what happened to me. When they had a big drop at the begging of 2005 I went down to EBgames and the guy working (who I have never seen working at my store before this visit) was filling up a big box with penny guides that he was in the middle of pulling. He let me take the whole box except for a few that he wanted. The box was so heavy that it was practically falling apart by the time I got to the car. I can't remember for sure but I think it was about 100-125 guides total.

And like you I think it's safe for me to say that I'll never have a penny guide haul like this again ;)
 
My biggest haul of penny guides weighed a good 50+ lbs (not hard to achieve granting there were more than a couple hard cover guides + thick guides). I didn't even buy anything else and they quadruple-bagged each set and I walked out with four bags of guides. That hasn't been repeated in my experience, and that particular GS had only Clive Barker's Jericho last weekend (PASS.) So sad.

Usually when I can't just flat-out purchase a penny guide, I'll throw in something else like a regular purchase. I've never had to do pre-order crap; just pulling some $2.99 GBC game or $1 PS1 accessory has always worked.
 
[quote name='62t']Most of them will say this is everything we have and not bother looking.


trying doing penny hunt only when the employee you know will sell you the guide are working, or try to preorder several games and hope they will sell you the guides.[/quote]

I actually was going to do a Pre-Order for Lost Odyssey and Pay off the remainder of GTA4 when I tried to get the guides. I always do that when purchasing penny guides.

But I'll save those transactions for another day, and hopefully another crew.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']But, what I laugh about was, they gave me a printed up list of guides they had in stock, which even showed the pennied ones as .01 and said 'go to town'.

Mind you, they had the guides up in a loft above the store, so I just checked the bin they had(they had one of those huge game bins loaded up underneath with guides). I sat down on the floor and dug through that bin thoroughly, then I dug through the overstuffed guide racks by the register.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, they stopped saying I could take all I wanted and limited me to like 10. Mind you, that's more than I get locally anymore, but it was still a fun time, since they had just literal assloads of guides.[/quote]

This story had me chuckling a bit , mainly because i just imagined you as a toddler on the floor, digging through his toys. I was amused. :lol:
 
[quote name='Chronis']This story had me chuckling a bit , mainly because i just imagined you as a toddler on the floor, digging through his toys. I was amused. :lol:[/quote]

LOL Well, I initially had been kneeling/squatting next to the bin, but I just threw off my winter coat I was wearing and sat down. I only sat down on the floor since when I was kneeling I was in some peoples way.

Either way, that was about the ONLY time I was ever offered a chance to dig through their stacks of guides. And unfortunately, none of the employees could find the older guides I actually wanted from the list they printed up, which included a copy of the original Brave Fencer Musashi guide, which I figured I could've traded/sold here easily.

Of course, no store can compare to the one that FOnewearl told me they have near their house, which just recently threw out guides going back to 1999 or so, about 200-250 of them I believe they told me. When I think of all the hard to find guides that probably went into the dumpster there, it kinda makes me tear up.
 
[quote name='Chronis']This story had me chuckling a bit , mainly because i just imagined you as a toddler on the floor, digging through his toys. I was amused. :lol:[/quote]

well, he is a midget - so makes it even funnier
 
Hey now, just cause I smoked throughout high school and it maybe stunted my growth, doesn't mean I'm a midget. Although, I am short(like 5 foot 5), but far from a midget.

LOL Like I've said before, Pooky, you seem to have an unusual obsession with me. Not that I don't want an adoring fan or two, but your attention borders on stalking. :p j/k
 
[quote name='bassec']Sweet. I picked up 2 copies of the LOTR:O World Guide, 2 copies of Everquest II atlas (been there for a LONG time, even marked as a penny), and a copy of Heroes of Mana.[/QUOTE]
Thats one sweet guide (EQII Atlas) - do you know if its the base one or a specific expansion?
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Hey now, just cause I smoked throughout high school and it maybe stunted my growth, doesn't mean I'm a midget. Although, I am short(like 5 foot 5), but far from a midget.

LOL Like I've said before, Pooky, you seem to have an unusual obsession with me. Not that I don't want an adoring fan or two, but your attention borders on stalking. :p j/k[/quote]

I've told you before, that tight little Thrill Kill T-shirt you wear is an attention grabber. Even dudes can't look away. :lol:
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Hey now, just cause I smoked throughout high school and it maybe stunted my growth, doesn't mean I'm a midget. Although, I am short(like 5 foot 5), but far from a midget.

LOL Like I've said before, Pooky, you seem to have an unusual obsession with me. Not that I don't want an adoring fan or two, but your attention borders on stalking. :p j/k[/quote]

he may be a midget but he's a giant amongst us due to getting more game guides than all of us combined....i salute you my friend!
 
I grabbed a bunch of stuff this past week, including:

- Three more each of Prima Pokemon and Ninja Gaiden Sigma that were floating around at Best Buy
- Several Wild Arms 5, I'll probably be holding on to them
- two PGR4's, one minty that I'm keeping, one with a crease that I'll probably sell/trade
- One Rogue Galaxy after hitting like five stores, torn cover...whatever, though, it'll get beat to hell when I play through the game anyway.
- A couple each of Viva Pinata, Stranglehold and Lair, keeping one of each and trading the rest
- One or two misc current-gen RPG guides that I'll be holding on to (Eternal Sonata, I think?)


Overall, a pretty nice haul. I'll be needing to reorganize my lists
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']

- One or two misc current-gen RPG guides that I'll be holding on to (Eternal Sonata, I think?)

[/quote]

Eternal Sonata is pennied? if so which store did you get it at?
 
[quote name='Slim Gatsby']I grabbed a bunch of stuff this past week, including:...

...- One or two misc current-gen RPG guides that I'll be holding on to (Eternal Sonata, I think?)[/quote]

You can't be vague on RPG guides.
Keeping me in suspense over Eternal Sonata and potentially others.
 
[quote name='Frosty The Batman']You can't be vague on RPG guides.
Keeping me in suspense over Eternal Sonata and potentially others.[/quote]

That's because they're doing like I used to when I found out about guides that no one had known about before and making sure they grab all of them that they can before telling the rest of CAG. Why would they do this? Why, to stop other people in their area from getting a shot at the guides too, of course.:roll:
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That's because they're doing like I used to when I found out about guides that no one had known about before and making sure they grab all of them that they can before telling the rest of CAG. Why would they do this? Why, to stop other people in their area from getting a shot at the guides too, of course.:roll:[/quote]

Sadly I thought about that.
Hey Slim I'm not in your area I promise!
 
LOL For a while, it didn't matter if it was MY area or if I was just hitting stores en route to someplace else. I used to make a 3 hour non stop trip to Atlantic City from the house here into a 6 or more hour trip, since I'd stop wherever I knew there were Gamestop or Best Buy stores and sometimes a Kmart or two.

I used to love hitting the stores in Springfield, down near Philadelphia, since they were almost always loaded. I would walk outta the Best Buy down there with no less than 50 guides every time. The Toys R Us up the road from there closed down and since I convinced a friend to go on a couple trips to AC during the time it was being liquidated, we stopped each time at that store so I could check out the % off it was up to.

Occasionally I would stop in Deptford, NJ or Pottstown, PA along the route too, but Pottstown was out of the way, so I didn't stop there much.

I also used to hit Middletown, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh in NY and once I hit a mall or two just over the border in Connecticut in Danbury. I was ALL OVER THE PLACE at one point, so ANY area was 'my area'. LOL

But, with gas over $3 a gallon now(and closer to $3.50 in NY now with oil over $100 a barrel), I wouldn't DARE go on such long trips without GOOD reason, though I may be hitting an auto auction in Newburgh again soon, so I'll have to hit their new Target while I'm there.
 
im thinking about picking up some of these penny guides. So i just go into the store and ask? Never done it before(hopefully it doesn't turn out as bad as the front row games which i never found)

So far, im thinking about getting Sonic and the secret rings, Bully(same guide as that wii version right?) wind waker, F-Zero GX. The big deal is how to get them.
 
I would probably limit the guides to the ones you want and don't be too greedy at first. But, if they say they're just gonna throw them out anyway, then ask if you can grab some more. Although, if you check the Wiki and see any of the pennied guides out on the shelf @ Best Buy, go hog wild, since most BB stores won't stop you from grabbing assloads of them.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']I would probably limit the guides to the ones you want and don't be too greedy at first. But, if they say they're just gonna throw them out anyway, then ask if you can grab some more. Although, if you check the Wiki and see any of the pennied guides out on the shelf @ Best Buy, go hog wild, since most BB stores won't stop you from grabbing assloads of them.[/QUOTE]
just called my local bb, asking about guides for sonic and the secret rings. they had nothing, even the actual game. Should this stop me from going?

Also, anyone who lives in NYC, who went to the store on Houston and broadway, where is the game guides? I'l like to Know.
 
Calling the store is a big mistake, since they will probably pull the guides if they see them coming up as .01 in the system, since the .01 price is really only a marker for the store employees to know to pull them because they've been junked out.

So, DO NOT CALL THE STORES. I know with gas being over $3 a gallon in most places that it would be better to do that, but unfortunately, that 'tips off' the employees about the guides dropping.

Also, if you're looking for anything in the way of older guides, you can check peoples trade lists. You see the line to the left of my post that says 'iTrader'. Well, if you click the little thing that has the letters CML on it next to the 100%, then it'll take you to my trade list of guides and other stuff.

You can do this for ANY CAGs with a trade list up and it'll take you to their respective TL's.

OR, you can check the Game Guide Clearinghouse, which is just one massive TL, made up of each CAGs respective lists of guides.

Best of luck should you decide to just go out and try your luck though.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Calling the store is a big mistake

You can do this for ANY CAGs with a trade list up and it'll take you to their respective TL's.
[/QUOTE]

This is the best CAG advice possible . . . never call . . . deals must be done in person.

Speaking of trades, anyone have an extra Crackdown guide?
 
[quote name='schultzed']This is the best CAG advice possible . . . never call . . . deals must be done in person.

Speaking of trades, anyone have an extra Crackdown guide?[/quote]

Yes, but its a little crinkled in the top rght corner.
 
and SCORE!

I went to 4 stores today, 2gs's, 1cc, and 1bb. Nothing at cc, including MP8, and You and wii, etc, was NOT on sale. GS had all their clerarance stuff gone. But going to BB, that was a blast. I saw tons of stuff that i know are clearance now(like scarface and elder scrolls) but only picked up spiderman, maybe because they might think im not old enough to buy those kind of games so i wouldn't be able to buy the guides. Oh, well no loss. Anyway, at BB, when i was checking prices for MP3, PBR(which was NOT a penny), and spiderman, she stopped at spiderman and said, "wow, this must be a mistake" Another employee said "enter that by hand!" It came to a penny, yet again. So she called a manager, and he said they used to give it away free with the game, but now no one needs it anymore, so it's a penny. So i got it, but i really don't need it cause i don't have the game. Sadly, I didn't get what I wanted (how is You and wii, MP8 and PBR NOT a penny CC and BB?)So, should i buy spiderman 3, or just trade off the guide?


I was looking for:
Sonic and the secret rings
SPM
MP3
Wind Waker

And found NONE of them
 
[quote name='blackbird3216']and SCORE!

I went to 4 stores today, 2gs's, 1cc, and 1bb. Nothing at cc, including MP8, and You and wii, etc, was NOT on sale. GS had all their clerarance stuff gone. But going to BB, that was a blast. I saw tons of stuff that i know are clearance now(like scarface and elder scrolls) but only picked up spiderman, maybe because they might think im not old enough to buy those kind of games so i wouldn't be able to buy the guides. Oh, well no loss. Anyway, at BB, when i was checking prices for MP3, PBR(which was NOT a penny), and spiderman, she stopped at spiderman and said, "wow, this must be a mistake" Another employee said "enter that by hand!" It came to a penny, yet again. So she called a manager, and he said they used to give it away free with the game, but now no one needs it anymore, so it's a penny. So i got it, but i really don't need it cause i don't have the game. Sadly, I didn't get what I wanted (how is You and wii, MP8 and PBR NOT a penny CC and BB?)So, should i buy spiderman 3, or just trade off the guide?


I was looking for:
Sonic and the secret rings
SPM
MP3
Wind Waker

And found NONE of them[/quote]

You're in luck then, since I have at least 3 of the guides you're looking for, though one is marked 'trade only' and might take a good offer to pry from me. :lol:
 
So that's a no dice on Eternal Sonata or what?
Also it's killing me to think I want the Assassins Creed and Mass Effect guides w/artbooks. I both: A. Can't imagine spending $70 on them
B. Can't imagine them ever pennying out.
 
ugh. I just had this LONG post ready and i hit wrong button, these guides dropped to $0.00 at my game crazy. im sure more dropped today BUT i only know the ones that dropped that we had. Im not gonna mention what systems they're for since i had this LOOONNNGGG post ready and it just disappeared in a flash, but I assume most of you gamers will know what systems the games these guides talk about are for. So here they are:
Atelier Iris 2
Blade Dancer
Bullet Witch
Chromehounds
Condemned
Conker live and reloaded
DragonQuest Heroes Rocket Slime
Drakengard 2
Gears of War Limited Edition
Gran Turismo 4
Guild Wars Factions
Heroes of Mana
Hour of Victory
MLB 2k7
Megaman Battle Network 6
Megaman ZX
Naruto Ninja COuncil 3
Naruto Ultimate Ninja
PGR3
PGR4
Red Steel
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner
Socom Combined Assault
Spectrobes
Tales of Legendia
Tales of the Abyss
Tiger Woods 07
Tony Hawk Project 8
Wild Arms 4
Wild Arms 5
World of Warcraft: The Art of WoW

Thsts what we had in stock that dropped. Now they dont send us a list of what drops, they just add it to a master list of every game thats $0.00-0.01 in our system. That list is almost 50 pages long and so I cannot get a copy of it, nor would I have time to type it all sinc eit lists EVERy guide game crazy ever carried since once a game drops to $0.00 they still leave it in the system instead of deleting it which would make sense but whatever. But I figure the one si mentioned is still good. if other GC employees could help on other guides you may have had that i didnt mention that dropped today, please help out. Also, i am lucky i can get ONE copy of each guide, let alone trying to get multiples to trade. My manager already was looking at me funny cuz i took a good 15 guides today from this list right here and I collect video games and strat guides so they goto my personal collection, so dont ask me to grab any cuz I cannot. we already arent supposed to take them home or give them to people anyway, we're supposed to DESTROY them by ripping of front cover and throwing them out, but our manager jus tlets us take them and any we dont want we throw out, but we cant take multiples cuz they dont want us to sell them or give them to others. its for us or for no one which sucks. SO sorry, but I will continue to post drops as they become available. So at game crazy, these, and maybe others dropped today.
 
The nearest game crazy is a bit far away, but I have a wedding to go to tomorrow (1:03am so it's today) and it's near said game crazy. I really don't wanna go to the wedding but now I'll have something to look forward to.

Thanks for the info!
 
I can confirm the drop at local GC. However the $0.00 could mean the end of getting pennied guide for me at GC. The manager knows me pretty well and usually let me buy the pennied out guides, but he wont give me any of the $0.00 guide.
 
Add these to GrimmTrixX's list for the GC .00 guides:
Crackdown
Doom 3 (Xbox)
God of War II (Limited Edition)
Grand Theft Auto LCS (PS2)
NBA Street Homecourt
Test Drive Unlimited
Untold Legends Dark Kingdom
Valhalla Knights
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth
 
Kingdom Hearts 2 Limited Edition and the Resident Evil: Archive guides were also pennied out.

Now they dont send us a list of what drops, they just add it to a master list of every game thats $0.00-0.01 in our system.
Yes they do, price drops print off every morning. To reprint them again.. Main menu > managers menu > reprint memos > reprint pricing updates > saturday. There you go. I think it's page 15 and 16 (there were 17 pages of drops/raises today, most of which were old Nintendo Power and EGM magazines). But you can only print out drops from the past 7 days, so make sure to reprint the list by next Saturday. or I'll do it tomorrow. Whichever.

I managed to get a Gears Limited Edition guide, so i'm happy. Went to get RE: Archives, and a customer literally went to buy it right before I grabbed it. And of course, it was free, so I just let him have it.
 
OK....label me as stupid. It's been so long since I snagged ONE guide @ my local BB to add to my TL that I forgot that I never would have guides that I KNEW were pennied PC'd with others I thought might be.

I took the following to be PC'd(and the one I could've grabbed more copies of caused a mad scramble to pull ALL copies of the guide).

God Of War II(regular edition)-STILL full price with the sticker over the original UPC, but since the sticker was on the plastic and the plastic was half hanging off, they checked the original UPC too, which came up as .01 obviously.

SD vs Raw 2008-still full price

And the one which I KNEW was pennied but I stupidly had them PC too-

Gears Of War for XB360

They had about another 5-7 copies of it there too, but they made a mad dash to pull ALL COPIES, including the newer PC version guide. They said they'd 'allow me to buy that ONE copy'. So I f'd myself. I guess I've forgotten guide grabbing etiquette. With any luck, they'll put the stack of GOW guides back out, including the X360 copies.

Only copy I snagged is up for trade.
 
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