Posted on 2008 under news
I ran into an interesting post on Craigslist a few days ago that I wanted to share. Check it out…
I have ten DVD rental machines available for trade + several hundred DVD’s. These units are similar to the REDBOX machines you see at McDonalds, Smiths, and Wal-Mart. They hold 648 DVD’s, BluRay, HD-DVD, and can also rent gaming system media (WII, PS2, PS3, etc.) - This is twice the capacity of REDBOX - They also have the capability of playing movie trailers. They are currently wrapped in EVOBOX graphics; however they can be re-wrapped to suite your needs. I also have the domain name and active trademark available if interested. These are estimated to bring in $1000+ monthly each if placed in a high traffic area, such as supermarket, apartment buildings, military bases, gas stations, etc.
This guy is selling these kiosks for $7500 (each? for all 10? I don’t know). You can see the full post here.
The question is this: Do you think buying your own DVD rental kiosk could be profitable? Is there still someone who can compete with the Redbox brand?
While there is always room for competition (and innovation), I am just not sure it would be a smart move to try and compete with Redbox at this time. What do you think?
Giovanni said
July 4 2008 @ 11:47 am
Looks like his website is back up:
http://www.evobox.com/
Also, here is a mirror site of the same thing:
http://www.youhavechosenwisely.com/evobox/
He is also selling the domain name:
http://www.who.is/whois-com/ip-address/evobox.com/
Here is the active trademark (also selling):
http://tmportal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow?SRCH=Y&isSubmitted=true&details=&SELECT=US+Serial+No&TEXT=78940491#
He also has both EVOBOX (trademark) and Evolution Entertainment, LLC registered in Utah.
Here is his current contact information:
Robert Heward
2250 N UNIV PKWY #48
PMB4888
PROVO, UT 84604-7575
Mobile: 801.319.2033
Fax: 801.421.2073
I spoke with him at he is selling for $7,500 each unit; however if someone purchases all units he’ll sell the whole business for $60,000. He’ll finance with $20,000 down.
Ed said
July 3 2008 @ 1:55 pm
At this time it would be difficult to compete with Redbox and Dvdplay
if they keep giving out promo codes. When the machine goes down you have to give refunds to everyone or you lose business. A tech told me in some areas people jam the machine then claim it was out of order when they tried to return the DVD so they pulled the machine from that location. Who has time to go out to fix it at about $50/hr or is your time free.
Bert steele said
June 30 2008 @ 10:10 pm
I work on a major army base (FT Campbell) and they have thier own machines, granted they are a lot slower and have less selection they beat the heck out of the local rental stores. So I would think if you don’t have red box then the next best thing would be the best thing going…. just my thoughts
ddthesm said
June 29 2008 @ 10:55 am
This could be profitable…..if it’s planned & executed absolutely perfectly and lets say in theory that these kiosks work perfectly. I would think for this much money, no good business person would see it as a good investment, especially from a random posting on craigslist (unless they already have an established business). And the other posters are correct, unless one has a huge amount of cash to invest on top of a huge savings in the case the whole project crashes and burns, this would be a huge risk to any business owner because of restocking and maintenance.
Me said
June 27 2008 @ 11:50 pm
Twice the capacity of redbox? Redboxes hold 630 disks.
Chip said
June 27 2008 @ 8:07 pm
E-mail me with some incentive. The cash is here, but can I make some money, too? Tickle me pink!
Harry reply on June 28th, 2008 3:44 pm:
So you buy one of these questionable kiosks for $7,500 or so (or one from DVDNow for @ $19,500), bust your hump convincing someone to put it in their establishment, then go out and buy 300-500 dvd’s from one of the distributors at $5 to $20 a pop to stock it.
What do you set your price point at? Lessee . . . How about $1 like Redbox? Take about $.05 from that for the credit card processor. Looks like you’re making $.95 per rental to me. Of course you’re going to be as successful as Redbox with their 8000 kiosks and average about 400 rentals a week, so that makes about $380 from your one kiosk. So maybe you won’t be that successful and do a whopping 200/week for $190. Are you SURE that many people will rent from a “me too” kiosk at Lois and Fred’s Family Market?
So maybe they will. You’ve spent a MINIMUM of $1500 stocking that kiosk with titles that might not rent more than 5 or 6 times. Then next week and every week after that you have to go out and buy maybe 5 to 10 each of 5 to 8 new releases to keep things fresh every week. Lessee, 5*5*$5(minimum, and some of the more popular titles will cost you $18-20) is something like $125. How much did you make on those 200 rentals? or was it more like 16 rentals? How much of the revenue are you sharing with Lois & Fred?
Then the kiosk goes down. Surely you have the technical expertise to get it running, right? And the time to go out to the kiosk every week to stock it and clear the inevitable jams caused by kids putting foreign objects in the rental slot?
Yessir, this looks like a REAL money maker!
gadget said
June 27 2008 @ 6:48 pm
this is a great money making idea. anyone who bought a evo box shouldnt have any problem placing the machine i have a t least 15 places i could place them now
G B said
June 27 2008 @ 2:27 pm
Sounds like a great formula for a scam offer. Dangle “potential” profits in front of gullible people. IF it is such a good deal, why isn’t the seller doing it? With such cash flow(?), you couldn’t pry these machines out of his fingers. And… how did he suddenly end up with 10 machines? What’s so wrong with this deal that he isn’t profitting from them himself and must “sell” his “money makers”?
Think about it.
Michael reply on June 27th, 2008 2:35 pm:
@G B: While it is possible that this offer is not legit, it actually looks fairly safe. I think the guy who is selling these kiosks actually owns the “Evobox” brand and is selling the kiosks, brand, and everything.
He is probably selling because Redbox is way too competitive in this market (Salt Lake City), and he has had no luck on getting good placements.
A some other comments have mentioned, I think if you could get the right location this would be profitable (like a university).
john said
June 27 2008 @ 2:15 pm
RENT GAMES!
KYJurisDoctor said
June 27 2008 @ 1:10 pm
GREAT. Movie previews will be good too if no one was waiting in line!
Tim said
June 27 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Redbox currently does not offer BluRay or game rentals. I think it would be easy to compete with Redbox by matching the $1/day rental on DVD and offering $2 on BluRay and games. This would give an opportunity for higher revenue.
daniel said
June 26 2008 @ 10:25 pm
you could always rent games for like 2 dollars a day thats something redbox doesn’t have.And do this along side of renting dvds.
Derffie said
June 26 2008 @ 10:10 pm
a classic business flaw for redbox… no real barriers to competition… anyone can buy a machine..and by better placement they can cut into redbox’s turf
helpmick2 said
June 26 2008 @ 3:53 pm
I live in a small community where the closest redbox is over 20 miles away. I think it would be a great opportunity for someone to place one at the local community store. I remember thinking about investing in one when the commercials were on television a couple of years back.
vallen reply on June 27th, 2008 4:58 pm:
these machines still have to be maintained and stocked, rotated, not to mention you have to have a contract with the distributors in order to get movies on to market, and cheap (little guys dont get price breaks like a larger buyer just look at the mom-and-pop bookstore that went extinct in the 80’s).
Another point is- vending kiosks come in MANY flavors of software and hardware- All of them have glitches aplenty. these could be dated out prototypes, or re-purposed from another use. older kiosk vending is horrid, and lots of people got stuck with $10k boat anchors (See agfa Imagebox- now belly up, and noone will service them.
It’s a Bad move.
Brad said
June 26 2008 @ 2:17 pm
At $1 a movie, it’s not like there’s any room to under-sell RedBox. The only way you could get ahead of them would be if you had better placement of your machines. With RedBox being in McDonalds, super markets, etc I don’t know if that’s possible. If you could get it to fly, however, I’m sure it’d be a great business opportunity.
Eric reply on June 26th, 2008 8:17 pm:
My college has a non redbox rental machine in the lobby of the student union. To the 15,000+ college students that is better placement then in a grocery store