Silly Burrito

I just came from Best Buy and picked up a bunch of strategy guides for a penny each. This was at the Baton Rouge location, so YMMV, but it's worth looking into. Other people have reported finding other guides in their local Best Buy. Not all Best Buys have these guides for a penny, but if it's not marked on the book and it's in this list, bring it to a cashier to scan and check the price.

Edit - 3/30/03: Here is the complete list alphabetically. I've tried to give credit to those who've found them, but if I missed you, please let me know and I'll fix it. Thanks!

Complete List:

007 Nightfire
Black & White Creature Isle
BloodRayne
Civilization III
Consumer's Guide to Xbox
Deux Ex
Dragon Ball Z Budokai
Empire Earth: Art of Conquest
Grand Theft Auto 3 (PC only)
Heroes of Might and Magic 4
Icewind Dale 2
Mafia
Mario Party 4
Mario Sunshine
Max Payne (PC guide)
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (PC guide)
Medal of Honor: Frontline
Medieval Total War
Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance
Metroid Prime
Myst III: Exile
NFL2k3
No One Lives Forever 2 (PC guide)
Resident Evil Zero
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2
Shinobi (with nice comic book)
SimGolf
Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth
Soldier of Fortune 2
Star Trek Bridge Commander
Stronghold Crusader
Stuntman
The Sims Hot Date
The Sims Online
The Sims Vacation
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Unreal II The Awakening
Unreal Tournament 2003
Virtua Fighter 4
Wreckless The Yakuza missions

Here are the people who reported new games:

GaraSensei at FatWallet:
Dragon Ball Z Budokai
Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance
Resident Evil Zero
Stuntman
Virtua Fighter 4
Wreckless The Yakuza missions

Matrixrok9 at DVDtalk:
Mario Sunshine

gizmo5096 at FatWallet:
Deux Ex

ZRl201 at FatWallet:
Empire Earth: Art of Conquest
Stronghold Crusader

baclips6 at Anandtech:
Star Trek Bridge Commander

Kriegsmarine at Anandtech:
BloodRayne
Max Payne (PC guide)
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (PC guide)
Medal of Honor: Frontline
No One Lives Forever 2 (PC guide)

While you can go to Gamefaqs and get a lot of helpful info, for a penny a book, I don't think this is a bad deal at all!
So, for less than the cost of a can of Coke, you can cheat to your heart's content! Enjoy!

Silly Burrito

Added new titles I found today (3/28/03)

tanman

very nice thanks I guess I will have to go and annoy the cashiers again and have them check the prices. They do this every once in awhile in case you never caught the other threads.

nodeerforamonth

Is this an april fool's joke? Or just a mistake on Best Buy's fault?

Silly Burrito

It's not a mistake. Most of the guides I have are marked 0.01.

~~ PAL ~~

Thanks for your effort in putting this list together.

nodeerforamonth

Guess I'm going to Best Buy tonight! Thanks!

But what's to stop someone from buying all the guides for $1 and turn around and sell them on e-bay?

ben12

How do you know if they're a penny? All the guides at my local BB have price tags for more than a penny. Do you have to take them up to the register and get them scanned? Will this only work for a strategy guide without a price tag? Basically, how would I know that a guide's going to cost a penny before I walk up to pay for it? Thanks!

young

i took a whole stack and had them check the prices. but many were already labeled on the shelf (not on the covers).

ben12

They were labeled for a penny on the shelf? Or do you mean that the shelf was labeled like $15 but the scanner said they cost a penny?

young

they were labeled on the shelf - they put out a bunch of tags for the titles w/ 1 cent as the price. but if they don't do that at your store, i'd still grab the ones i want and have them scan it in.

afaik, they do this to clear out all the older books.

matrixrok9

True dat. I picked up Mario Sunshine and RE: 0 were a penny apiece. BELIEVE...ben12

IIG

I've been looking for the Tony Hawk guide for a while... I hope it turns out.

the_dude8

before u go to BB, copy and paste the list from silly's post into word, print it out and head to your bestbuy and search for the guides on list, if u find it, than it will most likely be a penny, if is not on the list, than it's reg. price.

Silly Burrito

Matrix, I wish they had Mario Sunshine here. You wouldn't be interested in picking up another copy and swapping it for one of my computer ones, would you?

Edit: Added it to the main list above

matrixrok9

The Mario I found was the last one. It was hidden over a crapload of other guides. Same with RE: 0. I'll look for another next time I go Silly.

Silly Burrito

Thanks!

In fact, if you pick one up, I'll double the price you paid for it!

young

don't forget to save taxes by buying 4 at a time... i think Pal suggested that

vwbeetlvr

These are a penny because instead of throwing them out best buy "pennies them out", therefore some of the stores either throw them out or sell them for a penny each.

Sloth911

The Metal Gear 2 SG's are only $0.01 for the XBOX

khieng

Looks like they already cleared them out by the time I got there. The shelves only had the newer games that were not discounted.

nodeerforamonth

My Best Buy (San Diego) didn't have ANY for a penny. When I asked about it, I got a look like I was crazy!

~~ PAL ~~

I'm glad to see that you remembered my tax-saving tip.

edytwinky

Thanks for the tip, picked up a couple guides earlier today.

bmello

Thanks, I picked up a few different ones and handed them out at work. A funny thing happened when I purchased two at one store. I only had a quarter and the cashier gave me hell so she pulled 2 pennies out of her pocket and paid for them.