renting games

[moviesgamesetc]

Is anyone charging a deposit to customers before they can rent games, especially the new formats like Wii, 360 and PS3? If so, how much and how do you adminiatrate it? Any bad karma from it?

[direct007]

We require all members who sign up now or have been a member less than 12 months to leave a $100 deposit.  We recommend that they leave us a check filled out for $100.  We run it through the scan system for an approval first.  If the game is not returned after we first attempt to contact the customer by phone and then by mail, we will deposit the check.  If in fact the check is returned for any reason, SCAN will blackball the customer and an affilliated collection company will attempt to collect on the check.

We also have them sign a seperate 1 page video game rental agreement that spells out these details.

We have plenty of customers that have left us these checks, we have never had to deposit one though.

We have also had plenty of customers look at us crossed eyed before we even get done explaining that they are not actually tying up any funds and run from our counter like we just told them they had to leave their first born.  Of course, these are the customers that we were trying to avoid in the first place.

We've been in business 25 years as of 2007 and have been in and out of game rentals all along.  A high percentage of Games unlike movies do not get returned, do not come back in working condition and do not come back with instruction books....unless you do something proactive about it.

Our clerks all know that we rather not have the customer rent, then take the risk of losing the games.  So far after about 9 months, we have seen growth in our game rentals, but it's been a slow rise because of our hard line approach.

[thevideostrip]

We have brought in every type of new technology as it comes out. We have the Wii, the PS3, Blu-Ray, HD, etc.

The only rule i have when it comes to games or new tech is that new customers are limited to 3 rentals at first. After they've been a customer for awhile we allow them to take more. But we have lost videos and games to every possible way down to fake IDs even credit cards that were good one day and bad the next.

I still feel the the loss that I get from the bastards that skip out still outweighs the money we make back from the other customers who do return due to relax options.

I've never had an angry customer with the 3 options. Disappointed yes but understanding.


Joe

[falsedragon]

Wow, you're generous, letting even a new renter take 3 games at a time, opening yourself up to $150 loss everytime.  We're a little more strict, allowing new renters to only have 1 game or 2 movies (3 or 4 if they're catalog movies).  After their 10th visit they are allowed.  If they want to rent more than their limit, they have to leave a deposit of $50 per game or $30 per movie.  A few have stormed out but most people do understand and don't have a major problem with it.

[thevideostrip]

Wow, you're generous, letting even a new renter take 3 games at a time, opening yourself up to $150 loss everytime.  We're a little more strict, allowing new renters to only have 1 game or 2 movies (3 or 4 if they're catalog movies).  After their 10th visit they are allowed.  If they want to rent more than their limit, they have to leave a deposit of $50 per game or $30 per movie.  A few have stormed out but most people do understand and don't have a major problem with it.

I do get burnt every once in a while but same happens with movies. Overall I think it does balance out with the extra rental money i make from the late fees since they have more then they need out.

[wannabevideostoreowner]

Are any of you using Rentrak for games? The website mentions a lot about DVD's but very little about gaming...

I'm just curious about how many titles/companies they offer per month, etc.

[Retrofit]

I hate video games.  When I did it, I never picked the right games, I barely broke even on them, and they often came back scratched up.

I have games as part of my buy/sell/trade and if people want games I tell them to buy them from me, I'm cheaper than anyone else in town.  I'll even buy buy, but I don't rent.  Have I mentioned I hate video games?   

[wannabevideostoreowner]

I hate video games.  When I did it, I never picked the right games, I barely broke even on them, and they often came back scratched up.

I have no idea how much you are exaggerating or if you just know your own faults, but a lot of video stores do gaming wrong. I've seen one as recent as a couple years ago that still offered mostly old Nintendo video games. I'm not talking Super Nintendo, or Nintendo DS. I'm talking the original 1985 Nintendo!! What did the store expect people to do with these?

The Blockbuster in my town that just closed down never ever updated games. Every game they had for XBox was at least a year old. They had none of the top rentals as listed by sites that rank such things (like Gamefly). What if stores did movies that way?

[Retrofit]

These are all fair points.  My store is young, about a year and 9 months old.  The turn around to break even on games compared to movies plus wear and tear (I didnt' have a resurfaceing machine at the time) just worked against me.  I know a Blockbuster manager.  I can't say this is true, but he told me if a games gets wrecked they send it to corporate and corporate sends them a good copy.  Blockbuster, so I'm told has a deal with the big guys and they sort of get games as a leader.

My store is finally starting to take off, this combined with my resurfacer, I may consider games again in the future.  So far, my Buy/Sell/Trade/Buy Back has worked for me.

While I worked in two video stores before I opened my own, I am very new at this and have made numerous mistakes along the way.  So it's fair to say I should reconsider games.

However right now, their high up front cost, and the history I have discourages me.  Perhaps I'll consider them again in the future though.

[videovault]

Games, in my store, are a necessary evil.

Games draw in the kids, thus brining in their parents, who in turn will rent something else. So yes, it may take longer to recoup the expense of games, but for me games work out well. 

I limit my game inventory to AAA or AA games only and if anyone asks why we don't have "BLAH BLAH BLAH" I tell them the game got a bad rating thus we don't carry it.  99% of the time they are satisfied with that. Also I have Franchise BB's and their game selection is horrible, so that helps too.
 
Oh and a "resurfacing machime" is a MUST!!!!! especially for games!


 Dan

[Robot]

Ditto on the resurfacing machine.  I had 2 games come in last week that the customer complained wouldn’t play on his machine, ran them through a repair and then a clean cycle, worked fine after that.  I’m just starting of (haven’t  been open a month yet) but my distributor (Wax Works) gave me some advice.  You don’t have to have a lot of games, just games that rate well and people want to play.  I started off with only 75 games (PS2,XBOX,360, and Wii) combined. And I only plan on buying a couple a month until I build a larger customer base.  But it’s all proportional, if you don’t rent a lot of games, don’t purchase a lot.  If you start renting more, purchase more.   Sports games are really strong in my store.  The local Movie Gallery (20 miles away) rent there 360 games for $8 for 5 days, and the rest of them $7 for 5 games.  I rent all formats for $6.50 for 5 days and 4.50 for 3 days.    The gamers love me.  There are 2 other indys around me (within 10 miles) and neither of them rent 360s and they haven’t updated there games in a long time.And I don’t charge a deposit.  I don’t hold a credit card number either.  And I would never dream of limiting the number of rentals a customer can have at one time.  Maybe I’m new and stupid but I want people to rent as many as they can carry 

[falsedragon]

Robot:

I hear ya dude, and good luck to you!  Unfortunately for me, this town seems to be full of crooks.. I always have to weigh it out... $3 income or $60 loss.. setting limits for new renters has helped cut down on the amount of stuff that doesn't get returned.  Most people that come in to rip you will do it on their first visit, you'll never see them again.

[turns]

We rent games and it is a MUST from a business point of view, now more than ever. Much discussion has taken place over the last several years as to what we can do to increase our revenue given the competition from movies being downloaded, on-line rentals, etc etc. Getting into candy, ice cream, cards etc will not do it for you. A video store must have movies for all ages, games for every sytems available in your market, and adult movies and you must have a good selection of used movies to sell to your customers. Your video store should be an ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, not a 7-11 type convenience store.

Games are very expensive and it will take several months to recover your cost and then you can start making a profit, provided they are not damaged beyond repair.  This is where we need a leasing program, much more than a leasing program for movies, from a company like RENTRAK. Why aren't they willing to get involved with revenue-sharing with games? Is it because they prefer to share revenue only on DVDs because it is very easy for them to make money from us. With games they may have more risk and therefore stay away from it.?

To attrack the "family renter", you have to have games because mom and dad will rent movies where the "game player" in the family wants to go to rent games. And many moms and dad are game players. You have to be business-like with renting games. Do not open an account for anyone to rent games unless they give proper ID and provide  a deposit, for approx the replacement cost of each game, with cash or by credit card (reserve). After they have established a track record of renting and returning games ( 15 visits) and paying all late charges, then consider refunding the deposit or issue a credit on their credit card. If they do not like these terms for opening an account, you have just stopped someone who was planning to rip you off. You don't need such a customer; sent them to the national video store rentals stores.

Also, you should carry only the AAA games; this will require work on your part. Do not carry junk games. You MUST have the AAA game in your store on the release date, not waiting for several weeks to see how it is renting at BB and other nationals. By that time you have lost these customers and they will not come back. And let your customers know you are the home of AAA games; if you don't carry it, they don't need it. And you must charge at least the same rental rate as nationals, but give 1/2 day longer for returning. Why do indepentent charge less for movies and games then the nationals, I will never understand. We pay more for the product, so we should be charging more than the nationals.

[wannabevideostoreowner]

Games are very expensive and it will take several months to recover your cost and then you can start making a profit, provided they are not damaged beyond repair.  This is where we need a leasing program, much more than a leasing program for movies, from a company like RENTRAK. Why aren't they willing to get involved with revenue-sharing with games? Is it because they prefer to share revenue only on DVDs because it is very easy for them to make money from us. With games they may have more risk and therefore stay away from it.?

Rentrak apparently has a revenue program for games:

http://www.rentrakonline.com/content/services/video_games.html

Do video stores just not use Rentrak for games? If so, why not? Games are so expensive. I see a lot of people here saying Rentrak is the way to go (for DVD's). But not much mention of them on the videogame side. I'm curious to hear how helpful they are/aren't for gaming.

[IVR]

Rentrak did at one time rev-share games and spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to make it work. In the end the game publishers were just not favorable to the program. I would suggest you contact Rentrak directly to get the full story.