The Economics of the Wii rental market

Submitted by rernst on Sat, 06/09/2007 - 7:55am

Today, I overheard a story told by a video store clerk about how they stopped renting out Wii consoles in May because there was no profit in it. People were bringing them back after a month ($2/day late fee, apparently) or not bringing them back at all.

Given the scarcity of the Wii, it stands to make sense that this sort of thing might happen. Given human nature (profiteering, yay!) it should be absolutely predictable.

Comments

Submitted by Donald (not verified) on Sat, 06/09/2007 - 11:08am.

I guess the only way to make sure they bring back the Wii is to have them sign something saying that if they don't bring it back then they will be charged a $1000 fee or something like that. I can see people thinking that since the Wii is so hard to find they may as well just rent it and not return it and let the game store charge their credit card for the price of the Wii. The person may be paying full value for a used machine but that's a small premium considering they can't find a new one anywhere and they want to play with the Wii now.

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