ShareGrid

ShareGrid Review:

ShareGrid is an online marketplace where you can rent out (or rent) high-end photography and film equipment.

You set the price of your rentals. But ShareGrid can change your listing price “in order to maintain reasonable rental prices relative to other listings.” If an owner does not agree with a price change, they can refuse to accept the rental request.

Costs

The site charges a reasonable 15% fee to equipment owners (and another 5% to renters). For that fee, owners get a guarantee that covers 100% of your property to $20,000.

If your equipment is worth more than that amount, ShareGrid recommends that you buy your own “voluntary parting” coverage, which would kick in if the renter failed to return your equipment or severely damaged it.

Details

Importantly, you need to list all of the components of your rental. Anything that could be detached from the camera, such as lenses and eyepieces, for instance, need to be listed — and valued — separately. Anything that’s not listed is not covered by the site’s protection plan.

While most users appear satisfied with the platform and can make good money renting here, complaints usually have to do with an uncovered loss for equipment that failed to qualify for the site’s guarantee.

Recommendations

If you own high-end film and camera equipment, you can make decent money renting it out here. However, it makes sense to have your own “voluntary parting” insurance, if you rent things out regularly. Additionally, document everything before and after every rental. Tiny components can be easily lost. And having to replace them is time consuming and expensive.

If you’re renting out particularly costly equipment, also do some due diligence on your renter. Ask about what production he/she is working on. And ask whether they have production coverage that covers your stuff. Schmooze a little bit to gain comfort that your renter is trustworthy. If they are, you can consider it networking. You’re in the same business, after all.

But trust your gut. If you feel that the renter is vague or reluctant to tell you what they’re doing with your equipment, decline the rental. There are a handful of crooks that inhabit this space and regularly take off with valuable merchandise. Don’t be an easy mark.

What their users say: (from DVXUser)

In late December of 2016 I rented out my FS7 to a production company through ShareGrid. I got the equipment back covered in sand, with parts damaged and missing. I had to pay about $2,000 for the repair of the camera. After 4 months of back and forth with ShareGrid and the renter, I’m $2,000 in the hole. ShareGrid basically told me they are not responsible for the damage even though they facilitated the arrangement and made money off the rental of my equipment. The renter himself has declined to submit my receipts and pictures of the damage to his insurance.

I finally heard back from [ShareGrid] last week and got about about 70% of the damage and losses refunded to me. The renter also lost an eyepiece that I had already replaced twice, from previous renters who lost the same part. The renter refused to acknowledge he lost it, even though I had a sales receipt from immediately before he rented it, and I made sure it was in the case when he picked it up. So I’m still out that $600+

James DeRuvo of DoodleNews says the process worked well for him with multiple rentals, but stresses that you should keep great records, including the serial numbers of all your equipment.