Reduced Price Guides-Discussion Thread

Once in a while I get lucky at GS and get a stack 'cause the manager is feeling benevolent, but usually I have to hit about 5 or more stores to get a few good guides as they usually let one go if they missed it.
 
I went to a gamestop tonight after having some decent luck with Best Buy last time.

As I'm browsing around collecting the ones I want, the Jay-and-Silent-Bob dorks behind the counter start nudging each other and giving me a stink eye. When I'm done and ask them to ring everything up they say it's all sticker price and refuse to even ring anything up. The guy narrows his eyes as much as I've ever seen someone and asks me "do you have some reason to believe they'll ring up different?". Then Jay chimes in "even if they were clearanced we couldn't sell them to you", before I can even respond.

Jesus, these people. I mean, I know penny guides are super ymmv and all, but they were treating me like a criminal.
 
This is not uncommon at GS. You will hear about how they can get fired for selling/giving you the guides. The best luck I have had is with Managers or Asst Managers and it is still more likely to hear "thanks for pulling all the guides but I can't sell them to you" than "here I pulled all these this morning take 'em all if you want". Better still to just have one or two and 50% chance they will wave you away with it. It does not pay to get all fired up about it, just walk away and try again next time.
 
I totally get what you're saying. I'm not taking it personally or anything. It's just that I don't mind putting myself in an awkward situation if it's for something I really want, but for these silly guides it doesn't seem worth it.

There are a ton of gamestops around here so I could try some more, but it seems everywhere I go the employees are all terrified they'll be fired.
 
If you want GS pennied guides, checking out many stores is what I found one must do, unless you get lucky and get one of those managers on a good day;). If you drive a gas guzzler, your best bet is to trade for the ones you really want.
 
[quote name='N3UROP0D']I went to a gamestop tonight after having some decent luck with Best Buy last time.

As I'm browsing around collecting the ones I want, the Jay-and-Silent-Bob dorks behind the counter start nudging each other and giving me a stink eye. When I'm done and ask them to ring everything up they say it's all sticker price and refuse to even ring anything up. The guy narrows his eyes as much as I've ever seen someone and asks me "do you have some reason to believe they'll ring up different?". Then Jay chimes in "even if they were clearanced we couldn't sell them to you", before I can even respond.

Jesus, these people. I mean, I know penny guides are super ymmv and all, but they were treating me like a criminal.[/QUOTE]

I probably would have questioned "If you can't sell them, then why are they still on the sales floor?" I mean, they obviously know the stuff is pennied out, but they willingly leave it out for customers?
 
[quote name='Josef']I probably would have questioned "If you can't sell them, then why are they still on the sales floor?" I mean, they obviously know the stuff is pennied out, but they willingly leave it out for customers?[/QUOTE]
Oh they CAN sell them ... for the sticker price. I had a single guide they missed at the counter and the manager was keying way too much so I said I'll wait to get it next time and then she let me take it. She was obviously trying to adjust to full price. Don't get me wrong, the employees don't need to be jerks about it, but most of the time they are pretty up front or matter of fact about it and it's no big deal. If you put up a fuss, you're likely to get banned from the store. Mostly at Best Buy though because of managers that can't accept that they screwed up. I have inquired at Best Buys about "What happened to all the guides? They were here yesterday." I get the manager over and s/he explains that they don't get full credit if they sell them so they were pulled. And hey, they did their job and pulled them when they were supposed to. It's the managers that get upset because some schmoe with an iphone knows too much about how they failed a part of their job that create the good stories we hear on CAG. Of course, the CAG is always very polite and calm in these encounters;).
 
Huh got lucky and actually managed to snag a Dead Space and Valkyrie profile guide from gamestop. Also got another 3 of the $1.99 Unreal Anthologies.
 
went to 5 stores today and they were all clean. i dont think anyone picked them up. they threw them out im sure. im going to try a few more tomorrow.
 
[quote name='PapaSmerf']This is not uncommon at GS. You will hear about how they can get fired for selling/giving you the guides. The best luck I have had is with Managers or Asst Managers and it is still more likely to hear "thanks for pulling all the guides but I can't sell them to you" than "here I pulled all these this morning take 'em all if you want". Better still to just have one or two and 50% chance they will wave you away with it. It does not pay to get all fired up about it, just walk away and try again next time.[/QUOTE]

Maybe it's just in my area but every drop I try to take the pennied guides to the same clerk at certain GS and they always ring the guides up and charge me the penny. They even give me a receipt and offer me a plastic bag.

At a certain GS, there is a girl who always tells me that it's my lucky day since the guide is pennied. She then explains the whole procedure to me. She's been there a while so I guess it depends on the store/district managers. To be safe, I usually try to avoid the store manager or veteran employees. I have rarely been rejected at GS. It's more a matter of them pulling the guides or if they have them in stock in the first place.
 
So I was goofing off at work but doing guide drop research.
I went in the computer and started looking up info on the last few guides the pennied.

Mad World - off the site - status = deleted
Then it was pennied.

littlebigplanet - on the site - status = active
I do believe littlebigplanet will not be dropping unless it's status changes.

I'll be looking around more later since I'm closing tonight.
So far the guides that are offline with a status of deleted are:
Mortal Kombat vs DC, Left 4 Dead, Bionic Commando, Resident Evil 5 Limited and Fallout 3 Limited.
Again I'm not saying these are going to drop but I think there's a great possibility.

None of the previous penny guides I looked at had a status of Discontinued.
The guides that do have a status of discontinued are still on the site with one exception.
Pikmin - off site - status = discontinued

While Mirrors Edge Limited, Fire Emblem, Dead Space, Fear 2, and Prince of Persia non Limited are on the site but discontinued.

Again this could mean something it could mean I have too much time on my hands. I usually work Monday mornings and get there 45 minutes early. I'm also on the East Coast so everyone will get an advanced notice. During the last drop I posted a few early. I check everywhere the night before but couldn't find any lists or anything with the guides on them.

I don't usually post at work but I will post any more findings when I get home tonight if there's time.
 
I didn't have any luck at one GC I tried. I don't usually try GS unless I check the dumpster. I did check the other GC and got two guides.

SW: KOTOR 2 (Xbox) $5
Star Ocean First Departure $.01

I was rather surprised to find the KOTOR 2 guide. I picked that up since I have a copy coming in the mail. I got the Star Ocean guide since I was getting the other guide and the guy there knows me. I didn't see VP: CotP, which I wanted. I'm not sure if I'll try looking in their dumpster since they share one with a pet shop that does grooming.

I am going to keep the Star Ocean guide. I just hope I can find the guide to the Second Evolution to go along with it.
 
GC does have a few $5 titles out there. Another is Fable (Xbox) and I believe one of the SW: Battlefronts (I or II). It's worth a price check it you are playing an older game and you see the guide there.
 
I thought the Best Buy Guide Research headline with the Best Buy yellow tag was a reference to where. :)
Anyways I did a slight bit more research and didn't find to much new info.
I also left my list at work. So let's all hope these deleted guides drop cause I may have a large number of Resident Evil LE's at work.
More then 15 less then 17. :)
Well that's all I got.
Hope it helps in the future.
 
I took a look at the Best Buy Outlet eBay store and searched for guides. There are tens of Halo 3 guides with zero bids at $4.98. I wondered many posts back when these would show up. Has anyone seen these on retail shelves anymore? Locally, they were discounted and pulled before (read never) being pennied. Also of note was one GoW2 CE starting bid $9.98.
 
got a nice little collection at a out of town game crazy tonight.

gears 2 LE
Resistance Fall of Man
Resistance 2
WoW Atlus
Dragon Quest IV
Final Fantasy IV
Soul Calibur IV LE
Socom US Navy Seals Confrontation.
Fable II

They'll be on the tradelist ;)
 
[quote name='PapaSmerf']I took a look at the Best Buy Outlet eBay store and searched for guides. There are tens of Halo 3 guides with zero bids at $4.98. I wondered many posts back when these would show up. Has anyone seen these on retail shelves anymore? Locally, they were discounted and pulled before (read never) being pennied. Also of note was one GoW2 CE starting bid $9.98.[/QUOTE]

Come to think of it, I haven't seen a Halo 3 guide at Best Buy in a while. And that one was never pennied out, correct?
 
[quote name='Josef']Come to think of it, I haven't seen a Halo 3 guide at Best Buy in a while. And that one was never pennied out, correct?[/QUOTE]

It never did, but if you REALLY want a copy then Gamestop has it marked down to $4.99 NEW in store now, since it never pennied there either.
 
[quote name='Josef']Come to think of it, I haven't seen a Halo 3 guide at Best Buy in a while. And that one was never pennied out, correct?[/QUOTE]
Come on Josef, I know you hang out in this thread a bit. I have put forth my black helicopter theory and asked if any one else saw what I have about Halo 3 strat guides a few times in the last month and a half or so. I actually asked more that once because this thread gets no respect. We need to make better use of this thread.

STEPS OFF SOAPBOX (Then again that's what this thread is for, right?)
 
[quote name='PapaSmerf']Come on Josef, I know you hang out in this thread a bit. I have put forth my black helicopter theory and asked if any one else saw what I have about Halo 3 strat guides a few times in the last month and a half or so. I actually asked more that once because this thread gets no respect. We need to make better use of this thread.

STEPS OFF SOAPBOX (Then again that's what this thread is for, right?)[/QUOTE]

I think the Halo 3 guides were marked as a clearance item (but not pennied out), that's why a lot of individual stores did a "manager's special" with them. I'm not sure if any other guides have that status currently.

Were you also the one that said Fallout 3 LE guides started to get pulled from the BB shelves? For that one, at least, they are still fairly plentiful in my area.
 
[quote name='Josef']I think the Halo 3 guides were marked as a clearance item (but not pennied out), that's why a lot of individual stores did a "manager's special" with them. I'm not sure if any other guides have that status currently.

Were you also the one that said Fallout 3 LE guides started to get pulled from the BB shelves? For that one, at least, they are still fairly plentiful in my area.[/QUOTE]
No, I have not seen FO3 LE pulled. They seem to be selling very slowly. Stacks of 6 or so are down to 2 or 3 over the last couple of months.

Halo 3 was definitely "specialed" 'till they were pulled. I bought one at $2.50. Nice price for a guide and seems pretty good now that they won't be pennied.
 
Ethical question:
I know we're not supposed to give employees a hard time, if they wont sell us the penny guides. I know that they're just doing their job to not sell us the guides. However, what if they turn us down for a guide, and then we find that they've got the guide themselves and sold it to another store? This has happened to me once before with GameCrazy. If you find out that the employees are doing that, then do you think it's ok to threaten to complain to their manager, etc.?
 
[quote name='KABUKISTAR']Ethical question:
I know we're not supposed to give employees a hard time, if they wont sell us the penny guides. I know that they're just doing their job to not sell us the guides. However, what if they turn us down for a guide, and then we find that they've got the guide themselves and sold it to another store? This has happened to me once before with GameCrazy. If you find out that the employees are doing that, then do you think it's ok to threaten to complain to their manager, etc.?[/QUOTE]

That would irk the crap out of me if it were me it was happening to. However, I had a more irksome occurence happen a few short years ago when they were pennying the Gran Turismo 4: Driving The Game hardcover books.

At that point the manager of the one GS store was a real hard ass and they gave both me and my one friend who I sent in to try and buy the book a hard time about buying it since it was 'pennied and we can't sell it blah blah blah'.

About two weeks after we BOTH tried for the book I go back in to buy something else and lo and behold BOTH copies of the book are STILL on the shelf and even marked with a .01 sticker now.:roll::roll:

So, I tried again....and was denied again.

Moral of the story: Employees are gonna do what they're gonna do and you just have to realize which stores are 'good' and which ones are 'bad' and steer clear of the bad ones.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That would irk the crap out of me if it were me it was happening to. However, I had a more irksome occurence happen a few short years ago when they were pennying the Gran Turismo 4: Driving The Game hardcover books.

At that point the manager of the one GS store was a real hard ass and they gave both me and my one friend who I sent in to try and buy the book a hard time about buying it since it was 'pennied and we can't sell it blah blah blah'.

About two weeks after we BOTH tried for the book I go back in to buy something else and lo and behold BOTH copies of the book are STILL on the shelf and even marked with a .01 sticker now.:roll::roll:

So, I tried again....and was denied again.

Moral of the story: Employees are gonna do what they're gonna do and you just have to realize which stores are 'good' and which ones are 'bad' and steer clear of the bad ones.[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately, there's only one Gamecrazy in my town, so I've got to do with them what I can. I even tried getting a pre-order when I went to pick up the guides last time, but no dice.
 
[quote name='Frosty The Batman']So I was goofing off at work but doing guide drop research.
I went in the computer and started looking up info on the last few guides the pennied.

Mad World - off the site - status = deleted
Then it was pennied.

littlebigplanet - on the site - status = active
I do believe littlebigplanet will not be dropping unless it's status changes.

I'll be looking around more later since I'm closing tonight.
So far the guides that are offline with a status of deleted are:
Mortal Kombat vs DC, Left 4 Dead, Bionic Commando, Resident Evil 5 Limited and Fallout 3 Limited.
Again I'm not saying these are going to drop but I think there's a great possibility.

None of the previous penny guides I looked at had a status of Discontinued.
The guides that do have a status of discontinued are still on the site with one exception.
Pikmin - off site - status = discontinued

While Mirrors Edge Limited, Fire Emblem, Dead Space, Fear 2, and Prince of Persia non Limited are on the site but discontinued.

I don't usually post at work but I will post any more findings when I get home tonight if there's time.[/QUOTE]

maybe im misunderstanding but Mortal Kombat vs Dc Universe is still on the site. So are Resident Evil 5 CE, Left 4 Dead.

i hope Star Ocean: The Last Hope pennies soon...i dont want to have to order from amazon..
 
So those guides I mentioned that are discontinued and deleted have a ''x'' or ''y'' next to them.
x = Discontinued SKU which means replenishment my still continue.
y = Dead SKU which means the warehouse has zero inventory.
All the previous penny guides were of course marked y.
Again all guides marked y are:
Resident Evil 5 Limited Edition, Bionic Commando, Prince of Persia Limited Edition, Left 4 Dead*, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe* and Fallout 3 Collectors Edition*.

I hope this all pans out to be useful. Then we'll all have a better chance of scoring guides. Even though some CAGs have been having trouble picking any up, those of us that can score extras should trade or sell cheaply to those less fortunate. There will be lots of hook ups if I can score all the RE5 guides. 16 in my store 15 in a nearby one. 1 for me 1 for my bro 29 for trade. (In a perfect situation)

*my store has none will need trades :)
 
[quote name='shelisheli']maybe im misunderstanding but Mortal Kombat vs Dc Universe is still on the site. So are Resident Evil 5 CE, Left 4 Dead.

i hope Star Ocean: The Last Hope pennies soon...i dont want to have to order from amazon..[/QUOTE]

Oh crap look at that they are on the site. Not so sure how I over looked them. Either way they are deleted so the warehouse should be emptying out.
Star Ocean has a status of A which means Active. So I doubt it will be pennied.
 
Frosty, can you please look up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare guide? A BB employee looked it for me using the grey inventory screen with the search text "call of duty SG" and it came up as a 0.01 pennied out on 6/1/09. Can you confirm?
 
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[quote name='jgamezcua']Frosty, can you look up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare guide? A BB employee looked it for me using the grey inventory screen with the search text "call of duty SG" and it came up as a 0.01 pennied out on 6/1/09. Can you confirm?[/QUOTE]

Looks like it's not on the site.
 
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I'm not having any luck finding any pennied guides in my area. I've got one guy at a GameStop that I frequent that's going to hold out guides for me, hopefully he actually will.

In the more reduced-price vein, I went to TRU for the 20% off clearance sale and saw that all guides were 50% off. I searched around for the clearance guides, and got these for 50% off + 20% off
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl $3.99
Pokemon National Pokedex $3.99
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess $3.99
Yoshi's Island DS $2.00

Not bad for an unexpected haul.
 
I'm at work and just looked up Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
I don't know the date but it has been pennied.
8578069 is the sku number.

*That's Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare just to be clear, since I didn't see any numbers and don't follow the series.
Call of Duty World at War (5?) is still $19.99.
 
No dice at chapel hill ohio. Those were deleted when they were looked up, but still not pennied. Will try again tomorrow.
 
[quote name='dabamus']No dice at chapel hill ohio. Those were deleted when they were looked up, but still not pennied. Will try again tomorrow.[/QUOTE]

Which guides did you check?
I went to the register and typed in the sku for CoD and it was .01.
 
I went to Best Buy tonight since it was right near the Toys R Us, I thought maybe I could find COD4 or something. No such luck. I somehow managed to get another armload of Pokemon Ranger guides though.
 
[quote name='Frosty The Batman']Which guides did you check?
I went to the register and typed in the sku for CoD and it was .01.[/QUOTE]

They didn't have any CoD4.

I had them check Fallout 3 CE, RE5 CE, L4D, and Mortal Kombat.
 
[quote name='dabamus']They didn't have any CoD4.

I had them check Fallout 3 CE, RE5 CE, L4D, and Mortal Kombat.[/QUOTE]

Stuff usually only pennies on the first Monday of every month and I don't think there has ever been two drops in one month. Your best bet for the next drop is Monday, July 6th.
 
[quote name='Frosty The Batman']I'm at work and just looked up Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
I don't know the date but it has been pennied.
8578069 is the sku number.

*That's Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare just to be clear, since I didn't see any numbers and don't follow the series.
Call of Duty World at War (5?) is still $19.99.[/QUOTE]


Thanks for verifying Frosty.
 
July 6th.
I checked yesterday and they were all the same status.
I'll be going in tomorrow morning and I'll check to see if anything changed.
I really hope they drop cause I want the Left 4 Dead guide. My store doesn't have it or MK v DC. If I score all those RE5 LE's I'll be trading them for those. 1:1 even.
 
I'm probably just getting over-excited about this so bear with me, but I've also noticed the following plentiful guides (at my store) seem to be gone from the site: GTA4, Pikmin Wii, and Zelda Phantom Hourglass (and probably a couple more I can't remember). No idea if this is useful information but at least I'm trying. :lol:
 
For all the Northeast Ohio CAGs(I'll post this again next Sunday) I'm getting up early and extracting my revenge on BB for being an evil empire and not price matching for me next Monday. I shall get FO3 CEs, PoP CEs, and more for anyone who wants them in Northeast Ohio!

I saw several FO3 CEs and a HUGE stack of PoP CEs at a BB today.
 
[quote name='N3UROP0D']I'm probably just getting over-excited about this so bear with me, but I've also noticed the following plentiful guides (at my store) seem to be gone from the site: GTA4, Pikmin Wii, and Zelda Phantom Hourglass (and probably a couple more I can't remember). No idea if this is useful information but at least I'm trying. :lol:[/QUOTE]

GTA IV and Zelda: PH are long gone from the site, and Pikmin was never there to begin with.
 
[quote name='Frosty The Batman']Our schedules came out today and I wasn't on Monday the 6th.
I talked to someone in my department and we switched.
I will be posting my finds around 930am EST.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for all the help, if you get that info out by 9:30am EST, you will be considered a God among men. Perhaps you should post it on the discussion thread first and then let it trickle into the main thread to give all us serious guide hunters a chance to get them before the main thread lurkers.

Did you just start working at BB? Watch out, they really frown on employees buying these guides for themselves. My best friend has worked at BB for three years now and has seen employees get in trouble over penny guides. It could just be his store, though.
 
I started a few months ago but the last drop was the first we had guides for.
I bought only a few from the drop and my friend was the cashier and I'm LP (AP now) so it was cool. Plus I didn't use my employee ID. I'm supposed to be there at 930am but people are there at 7am so getting in at 915am won't be a problem.
 
Wow! I thought for some reason that BB opened at 8AM like Target. Now I can still get up around 8 and make it to the BB about 40 minutes away before they open. :D

I'll also post Northeast Ohio updates as I visit the various BBs to pillage. I can say now that I don't remember seeing any of the ones that might go on Monday at the Niles, OH BB, but they may have been hidden away somewhere.

I know there was a CAG at the Fairlawn/Summit Mall BB because there were guides hidden behind others.(upcoming possible penny guides)
 
Like I mentioned earlier, the best strategy if we all want to get the guides we want is to post any drops that we find at opening on the discussion thread first and not the main one. I'm not 100% sure that this thread is lurker free, but it will have far less than the main thread. The drops will eventually trickle out to the main thread, but by that point the actual CAG users who check this thread will have been able to get out and snag their guides.
 
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