Abstract: This disclosure includes a description of a system for inducing renting of an item by acquiring an item, by a merchant in the business of renting a kind of the item. The system provides for advertising, to induce a consumer to rent the kind from the merchant, a rebate of a consumer's payment for rent whenever the consumer later purchases the kind from the merchant. The system provides for renting temporarily the item to a customer other than the consumer. The system provides for renting, without obligation to transfer title, the kind to the consumer in exchange for a payment-amount. The system provides for calculating a rebate-amount using a portion of the payment-amount. The system provides for selling, after renting temporarily, the item to the consumer for a sale-price minus the rebate-amount.