What's the most you've paid for a strategy guide?

[DigitalSpace]

I have a small but decent collection of strategy guides (http://www.freewebs.com/jkwh/gamebooks.html), despite the fact that I don't like to pay too much for them and hardly ever acquire "penny guides." Even the two in my collection that stand out the most - the official Earthbound guide, and a Nintendo Power guide for SMB 3 - were Goodwill finds that cost me 49 cents each.

My record shouldn't be too hard to top - $2.99. Here's the guides I've paid that price for:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Official Nintendo Player's Guide
Sega Dreamcast Collection - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

And I can't remember if I paid $1.99 or $2.99 for this one, but if it's the latter, then the Versus Books "Official Perfect Guide" for The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons is a part of that list as well.

So, what about you? And if there's something you paid a lot for, tell us why.

[maxlords]

I think I paid retail for the Lunar: Eternal Blue HC guide.... $29.99. I THINK that's the most I've paid for a guide....though I may have paid as much as $35 for the Phantasy Star IV guide...that was a bitch to find. 95% of em were under $30 and I'd say 20% of my guides (around 150) were $5-10 and maybe 75% were $5 or less.

Just as an aside...it's INSANE to pay more than $50 for guides...I've seen some of mine rocket to $100+ before and then come all the way back down to $10 or $20.

[Nirvana]

I paid 20 bucks for a Legend of Dragoon strategy guide on eBay, but it also came with the game. I actually already have the game, but it's nice to have 2 copies :P

[mindlesspunk77]

I sell strat guides on ebay in my store and it is ridiculous to me what people pay for guides. Like today I sold a final fantasy 8 perfect guide for 43.00. I never saw one except for one that was in completed listed at 10 and ended early so I didnt know what it was worth.

[TurboGenesis]

The most I had paid was $43.00 for the Valkyrie Profile (Prima) guide for the PlayStation game. This was back around 4 years ago - I had got to the 7th chapter and was stuck in a dungeon and I needed the map to get through… that was the cheapest I could get it at that time as they were sell for even more back then. It was for months I search to get that guide at that price…

For Lunar 2 Eternal Blue complete and Arc the Lad Working Designs guides, I paid retail price which I believe was $29.99 plus tax.

[coreys429]

Sold my Earthbound one for $50 if that counts?

[Aussie2B]

Probably 20-some dollars. I mostly only go after RPG guides, and since they often get expensive, I don't have any qualms paying MSRP. But I really don't like paying more than that. I don't think I've gotten the majority of my guides through the standard means, though. I'd say my collection is equally divided between guides I got as subscription bonuses, guides I got in game lots, and guides I found at thrift stores. Unfortunately, I mostly only come across PC guides in thrifts, though.

[Leo_A]

$.01 for a Metroid Prime 3 guide and a Twilight Princess guide at a GameStop recently (Only two I've ever owned, I think they're mostly a waste of money).

[darkslime]

Like 30 bucks for the kingdom hearts II LE guide before I knew that if you wait a month it'll be a penny.

[boatofcar]

I paid retail for the Link's Awakening guide about a year after the game came out. I think it was $15 or so. I paid $20 for the Prima FFIX guide, probably the worst guide ever because most of the stuff in the book was only 50% complete.The $@#* guide had the nerve to tell you to go to Prima's web site to get the rest of the info! I BOUGHT THE GUIDE SO I DIDN'T HAVE TO GET ON THE INTERNET! Argh! It gets me fired up just by talking about it.

[Emuaust]

Ive been using gamefaqs for many years so what ever that cost me in dial up calls back then would be and will be the most ill ever pay for a guide.

[carlcarlson]

I got a Disgaea 2 guide and a guide for Vay for $12 (for both). I also just got Final Fantasy XII and Oblivion GOTY guides for $8.50 (again for both). Other than that I think I've mostly done penny guides.

[namzep]

I think it's probably around $20 for some of the old Nintendo Power guides (from the mid to late 90s) in my collection. Since I got back into collecting, I haven't spent more than $10 on a guide.

[heybtbm]

I think I paid $40 on ebay for a Final Fantasy Anthology guide. This was before the reprint years later. Lesson learned.

[The 1 2 P]

Back in the day(before I discovered penny guides) I paid full retail that amounted to about $12.99. Today I'd never pay full retail. Also, I sell strategy guides on ebay alot and I too am amazed at what some of them go for. I just sold a Lost Odyssey guide on ebay last week for $24.00, but you can still find it new in some stores for less than that. It simply boggles the mind, but I'm not complaining.

[Gameguy]

I haven't really bought many strategy guides. I think I bought one for $10 when it was new, and most others used for under $5(or traded for them). It seems I can't sell off many of my extra guides for more than $5(it's lucky if I can sell them at all), so I don't spend much on them. There's a few that are worth more than $5, but I still limit myself with my spending.

[Cornelius]

mine was today, when I picked up the MGS4 guide at CC for 2.14 after tax. I'm not at all into guides. I have probable 30 or so, but all the rest came from garage sales or game lots

[VACRMH]

I never saw Phantasy Star 4 guides on eBay that often. So when a new one was up for about $40 BIN I snatched it up. Wasn't really thinking, just wanted it.

[maxlords]

Nah, that guide is rare as hell it seems like. It was only available via a coupon that came with the game. You'd mail in the coupon and $15 for the guide. Old guides like that are a pain to find.

[Cobra Commander]

The Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass hardcover guides. I think they were $30 or maybe $40. I can't remember, but they were too expensive.

[DonMarco]

$35 for the Fallout 3 hardcover guide at a Best Buy. It was an emergency last-minute birthday gift, otherwise I would have bought it through Amazon.

Speaking of selling guides, if you have a Prima Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga guide, they're fetching $60-70 on eBay.

[norkusa]

Didn't pay any money, but I traded a Psychic Detective longbox PS1 game for a Clock Tower 2 guide. The guide is fairly rare and I've been looking for a copy in good condition for years, so I didn't think twice about trading a $30 game for it. Plus it has a complete walkthru + endings list for Clock Tower 1 too!

[pseudonym]

The most I've paid for a strategy guide was $25, most of the others I've paid between $1 and $10 for them. I've sold strategy guides in the past for upwards of $50+, some people are really keen on them and are willing to drop whatever amount to get a particular guide.

Maxlords, didn't we trade for my PSIV guide a few years ago on CGCC? I didn't realise it was hard to find at that time until you mentioned it.

[carlcarlson]

Speaking of selling guides, if you have a Prima Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga guide, they're fetching $60-70 on eBay.

This pisses me off, too, because my BB had one about 7 months ago. It was supposed to be a penny but it rang up full price. I didn't want it that badly so I just passed. Bah!

[Volcanon]

zero. I use gamefaqs.com.

One time I was leafing through a random RPG guide at the book store and they were doing all sorts of lazy things like listing the last boss's HP as "????" - why buy the book if they dont tell me these things?

[heybtbm]

Speaking of selling guides, if you have a Prima Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga guide, they're fetching $60-70 on eBay.

The Tales of Symphonia guide (the original one for Gamecube) used to go for almost $100 two years ago or so. Crazy. I entertained the thought of selling mine back then.

[11killer11]

The most i've paid was $19.99 for the Super Smash Bros. Brawl strategy guide. But the least i've paid was $2.00 for the MGS4,Ninja Gaiden 2 and Mercenaries 2 Strategy Guides.

[hellfire]

I paid 20$ for a pokemon peral guide =( can somebody please explain how to get guides for a penny

[carlcarlson]

I paid 20$ for a pokemon peral guide =( can somebody please explain how to get guides for a penny

Stores periodically clearance out their guides to make room for new ones. They do this by lowering the prices to a penny and then pulling them to either trash or send back to the warehouse (I think?). So what you do is, you find out what guides have been pennied (see my thread in Daily Deals), grab said guides, throw pennies at the employees and run like hell.

[Flashback2012]

Stores periodically clearance out their guides to make room for new ones. They do this by lowering the prices to a penny and then pulling them to either trash or send back to the warehouse (I think?). So what you do is, you find out what guides have been pennied (see my thread in Daily Deals), grab said guides, throw pennies at the employees and run like hell.


How it's supposed to work is the B&M vendors and the publishers have agreements in place where older non-selling books get marked down to the penny amount to be removed from a store's inventory and a credit is issued for any unsold copies. What the vendor is supposed to do is take the guides and dispose of them. Most vendors usually just dump them in the garbage complete but according to the publishers, the vendors are supposed to rip the front covers off the books before disposal (similar to how magazines are scrapped).

In my time I've had a few managers who carried out the practice to the letter of the law and destroyed the guides as mentioned above. I've had other managers let me take whatever guides I wanted after they removed them from the system.

What kills me about guides is it seems like an all or nothing affair. I've seen guides get discounted before but it's rare. Usually they bear their full sticker price up until the day they get pennied out. I'm not opposed to paying full price and have done so on many occasions in the past (the Atlus Double Jump guides are a good example). I dunno, I guess the publishers know if they allow discounting on the guides, they'd never sell for the $20 to $25 asking price they slap on them and would rather see them scrapped and offer a credit to the vendor towards new guides they're putting out. :hmm:

As for the topic on hand, I think the most I've paid was for the Kingdom Hearts II Special Edition guide. I can't remember if it was $30 or $35. I was able to use my employee discount on it though. Additionally, if anyone has an Ace Combat 6 guide they're looking to part with, I know a good home it can go to. ^^;

[maxlords]

The most I've paid for a strategy guide was $25, most of the others I've paid between $1 and $10 for them. I've sold strategy guides in the past for upwards of $50+, some people are really keen on them and are willing to drop whatever amount to get a particular guide.

Maxlords, didn't we trade for my PSIV guide a few years ago on CGCC? I didn't realise it was hard to find at that time until you mentioned it.

Hmmm.....I don't remember. I thought I bought it from someone. Maybe though. I had a hard time finding one but they were never particularly pricey. Definitely rare...but not expensive really. Kind of like trying to find the Dragon Warrior IV NES one. That took a while too.

[makaar]

Since Soul Calibur 2 came to consoles, I always buy the limited edition guides with the soundtracks at launch. They run $25-$30 usually when they first come out at Gamestop, but they're not hard to come by or pricey after being out for a while...when SC4 first came out I picked up the Premium Edition plus the guide for over a hundred, which in retrospect wasn't the smartest buy but I always buy Soul Calibur at launch...oh well....

[kainemaxwell]

Most I paid was probably when I got the collector's ed of the FF13 guide with the limited ed of the game.

[carlcarlson]

Most I paid was probably when I got the collector's ed of the FF13 guide with the limited ed of the game.

Wow, you should throw those on ebay. People would go crazy for an unreleased FF and guide.

[TheGam3r]

A Pokemon Firered/Leafgreen guide for 20$

[kupomogli]

I got Dragon Quest Monsters Joker off ebay shortly after its release "WITH" strategy guide. The game was used but in mint condition. I got the game for 20 dollars shipped(and I think at the time it was selling for 34.99 or 39.99.)

I don't really know what you could say the price of the guide was because I definitely got the game for cheap.