Peerflix: a different breed of movie PSS

Since so many product service systems rely on variations on a similar leasing theme, I thought I would highlight one of the competing models.

The Peerflix community is a collective ownership and trading model which has relatively little in common with a Netflix-type organization with regards to ownership. The mechanisms of trade look, if you squint, basically the same; one receives DVDs in paper cases in the mail, one puts DVDs back into paper cases and sends them off in the mail.

The key difference is that at any given time, all the DVDs that have arrived at your house are yours. You own them, free and clear. You've simply traded one DVD for another, not directly, but using an in-community voucher system called "Peerbux". You just list all the DVDs you're willing to send out, and when someone requests one, you print a mailer, send it to them, and get your Peerbux credit. The voucher system keeps people from gaming the system too outrageously; you can't send out 10 scratched versions of Parts: The Clonus Horror and expect to get 10 copies of rare Criterion editions of film noir and modern classics in return. Ten worthless full-screen films will only trade for maybe three Criterion editions.

I use Peerflix on a regular basis to keep my DVD library refreshed. My core DVDs are comedies that I rewatch over and over, and I've more than gotten my $18 or $24 out of them. But for many DVDs, even if they are really good dramas, I may never watch them again. I have to fight the instinct to hoard them just because I might watch them again someday. With Peerflix, I know that I can request them back (not the exact copy, of course) if I want.

The DVDs that I want are slow to arrive, but my queue is also selective and obscure. If I were willing to trade for Stealth, there'd be people falling all over themselves to send me their copies immediately. The arrival time is random, since the source of the DVD could be anywhere in the US; sometimes it arrives in two days, sometimes a week. And of course, with this direct ("peer-to-peer") routing, privacy is not absolute -- when you print out the mailer for the DVD you are sending out, it automatically contains the person's name and address who will be receiving the DVD, though it does not contain YOUR name in the From: address. Personally, it bothers me no more than a faceless company having my name and address.

Lest you think this is some kind of paid plug for Peerflix, it's not. I just like it. Yeah, sometimes the DVDs arrive broken or unplayable, but in my experience, less often than with my Netflix account. All in all, it's a pretty good system for casual trading.

UPDATE 2/13/2008: Peerflix is no longer the same as described above. It's still a trading scheme, but for cash, which makes it more like an eBay for movies. Most of the new features are social networking-related, which makes it rather like a Facebook site where you can sell your DVDs.