The Wholesale Forums

[cobalt]

Hello!

We are a company from a small european country. We are about to start a video games rental business.

But first we need a lot of video games (PS2, PS3, XBOX, XBOX360, Wii) in several copies.

Where should we look for a reliable supplier? A supplier can be from anywhere within EU as long as they have games with english cover/manual. We are willing to buy new and used games, but not too old.

If someone has experience in video games rental business please share your thoughts. We know that finding a good/cheap supplier is essential for our business to succeed.

Kind regards,
cobalt

[Anthony]

You do realise that you would need to be buying "rental only" media and that you would be breaking the law to rent; for "retail only" distributed media?

[cobalt]

Hmm... Well I didn't know that. Does this rule also include DVD movies? I've seen video rental stores offering DVD's for rental bought from local retail store.

Who is selling rental only video games? Are they very expensive?

[cobalt]

What about Gamefly and other big players in US. Do they have "rental only" video games? A member can buy the game he rents - so that's considered retail? Maybe that's not the case because games are used?

[anotheruser]

it is very dangerous to assume that someone practising in one region is also abiding by the law in another - you are looking at USA whilst considering what you must do in EU.

I'd check with your equivalent to the trading standards office or similar. Besides there may be a good source of used rented only media. They have to get rid of it somewhere.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by cobalt

Hmm... Well I didn't know that. Does this rule also include DVD movies? I've seen video rental stores offering DVD's for rental bought from local retail store.

I hate to burst your bubble but if you have made such a fundamental oversight on the industry in which you are considering entering into you perhaps need to go back to the research stage of starting your business.

I'm not entirely sure where you are located in the EU but here in the UK the rental market is huge and would be impossible for anybody to enter it without multi-million pound investment, probably much greater.

There is a site called LoveFilm that has the market nailed with (without looking at the official stats) around 70-80%+ of the market share. Even the likes of Tesco who have massive buying power realised this and joined forces with LoveFilm as have many others because of their market strength.

In other words, if your country is anything like the UK it would be impossible for you to compete on any level.

[cobalt]

My country is much smaller (2 million population). It isn't really a market in which major players would go into. We would be the first to start something like this.

I don't think that we made a fundamental oversight on the industry. A lot of those businesses we asked rent games bought in "retail". I think that the law should be similar within EU. Do we have a law expert out here?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by cobalt

I don't think that we made a fundamental oversight on the industry. A lot of those businesses we asked rent games bought in "retail". I think that the law should be similar within EU. Do we have a law expert out here?

Its distribution laws that you want the lowdown on but I can assure you that DVDs, Games, any media product that is destined for a specific retail channel is not then allowed to be rented instead. Hence why on the back of DVD boxes you have "For Rental Only".

It would be best to check with one of the distributors in your country (if you have any). Otherwise you would need to go to neighboring countries and attempt importation from there.

[cobalt]

Well there is another catch. We have 2 distributors, one of them having over 60% market share. They also have a retail online shop. They might not be willing to sell to us because we would then be considered competition.

I'm aware that you cannot know what is best for us but anyway: What do you think - should we try to make somekind of partnership with them or should we try and find a distributor from abroad?

Also I've been searching for a wholesaler for the past week but never came across "For Rental Only" video games.

I really appreciate your help.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by cobalt

Well there is another catch. We have 2 distributors, one of them having over 60% market share. They also have a retail online shop. They might not be willing to sell to us because we would then be considered competition.

I'm aware that you cannot know what is best for us but anyway: What do you think - should we try to make somekind of partnership with them or should we try and find a distributor from abroad?

Also I've been searching for a wholesaler for the past week but never came across "For Rental Only" video games.

As such I've never come across "Rental Only" video games, that wasn't my field of expertise several years ago however as DVDs was. (You should obviously try to find out what the details are with this product line).

To be honest it really depends on how big your operation is actually going to be. As I have already said running a viable rental business requires a large amount of investment if you are going to carry a variety of titles and enough quantities to fulfil demand. Clearly there would be zero point in running a business without enough choice and decent stock levels for your customers to choose from.

In addition, I believe unless you can offer the existing distributors something they don't already have (or without too much effort they could do for themselves) I highly doubt they would agree to you joining in on their activities.

Can you honestly say that you have enough investment capital to make this business work?