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How rental ‘libraries of things’ have become the new way to save money
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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Ah, but is it? A quick search shows wood chippers ranging from $400 to $2400. If they're renting out the $400 model, yeah, you come out ahead by buying even if you're only chipping things on two weekends (and you could resell on craigslist or something).
But if they're renting out a $2000 model, I'm not sure how fair it is to compare to the $400 model (I'm not a wood chipper expert).
Wood chippers might be a bad example. I'd think if you need one, you need one multiple times -- chipping branches every fall at a cabin, things like that.
But overall, yeah, you make a good point that the rental prices can change the tipping point in rent vs. buy.
Sorry, I was unclear. Chippers are not the tools I was thinking of that would be cheaper to buy (a low quality version of) than rent. Was thinking more about stuff like torque wrenches and rotary hammers. Chipper rental prices were just one thing I was looking at recently that seemed way out of line with what other people from other regions were paying.
Ha, fair enough. Yeah, a quick search shows low-end torque wrenches available for like $25. It's hard to see a rental making sense at that scale.