Pricing Changes

Some of you may have notice prices on some items have changed recently. We tend to be pretty up front about such things so we wanted to explain why. Rental prices are determined largely by the initial investment we make when we buy the equipment, the cost of maintaining the equipment, and the residual value (what the equipment is worth at the end of its rental life). We had to adjust some prices upwards in 2009 as the cost of lenses skyrocketed (although because of the increased residual value and some cost saving measures our rental prices only went up about 5% even though lens prices went up about 20%).

What we haven’t done, until now, was determine accurate data on the cost of maintaining the equipment. Rental lenses need rather frequent repair and even replacement, as we’ve always posted in our lens repair data articles. What those don’t show is the cost of repairs differ widely depending on manufacturer and item. Anyway, to make a long story short, it became apparent that we were charging too much for certain items, and not quite enough for others when we took took the maintenance cost into account, which is why some prices are changing. Very little in most cases.

But we’ve made the statement many times “we don’t care what you rent, we make the same % on every item”. We think this is very important because we’re often giving advice and making recommendations. Those recommendations are made entirely because of what we think would be best for you, and we want there to be no question that it makes no financial difference to us what item you rent. Plus, it’s just fair that renters of a lens with very low maintenance costs should pay less than renters of a lens with very high costs.

Damage insurance costs will change more dramatically — there’s a lot more variation in how much a certain brand costs us to repair and how long it takes to get it back. For example one lens that costs us $950 new has never had a repair bill less than $350 and never gotten back in less than a month. Another lens that costs $950 usually as repair bills of $100 to $125 and is back in 5 or 6 days. Under the old model the damage insurance was the same for both, but under the new model damage insurance for the first lens will be twice as much as the second, so you’ll probably notice that change.

Changing prices on several hundred items takes a bit of time in our system, so it will be done over the next week or so. If you have a lens already reserved and the price increases, you will still get the lower price that you reserved it at. If you have a reservation and the price decreases, you will get the lower new price.

BTW – for the cynics among you who expect overall price increases, the first items we’ve done with the new model were camera bodies, and 80% of the prices were lowered after the adjustment :-)