Carl reviews the Rentcaddy

Carl Cravens, author of "A Netflix Odyssey" sent me this very nice review of the Rentcaddy:

When I first saw the RentCaddy (www.rentcaddy.com), I thought it was a neat product, but balked at paying $10 plus $4 shipping for what looked like a generic CD/DVD folder with some branding on it. But when I searched around for something similar that I could pick up at Office Depot or Best Buy, I found that I couldn't find anything remotely like it. Small cases weren't tall enough to hold the envelopes, and tall cases held 30+ discs.

So I thought, "Hey, I'll buy one of these for Mom for Christmas and get one for myself while I'm at it." And I'm impressed.

The first thing I noticed about the RentCaddy is that it's heavy. And that's because it has big, sturdy backer boards in the covers... if you leave it lying on the couch and cousin Phil sits on it, I'm betting it's not going to bend. It's like armor for your rental discs.

So I open it up, noting the snap closure, another nice touch to keep the discs secure. The next big thing I notice is that the DVD sleeve bundle isn't just attached to a big tab that slides into a pocket in the folder, it's sewn into the folder. No opening the folder and watching the whole packet of discs fall to the floor. There's a pocket that the return envelopes fit in quite nicely, plus a short pocket in front of that and an identical pair of pockets in the back of the folder. I don't know what you'd put in these pockets, but it doesn't hurt to have them there.

Nothing but your own common sense can keep you from opening the folder upside down and watching half the discs slip out on to the floor unprotected. It would have been nice to have had a little flap to help hold the discs in, especially if it were designed so that it was optional, but it's not an essential feature.

There are four pages pages of disc pockets, with two pockets on each side of the page, for a total of sixteen pockets. Quite a few pockets for the average three-out or four-out subscriber, but better too many than not enough. RentCaddy's webpage shows taking the disc out of its shipping sleeve and inserting the sleeve and disc into separate pockets. The sleeves easily fit into the pockets, and I've been doing this, but I'm not sure how I like it. It means extra handling of the disc and it may increase the chance of getting the disc back into the wrong sleeve if you're not paying attention. I'm not quite sure what the benefit is.

Overall, I really like the RentCaddy, and I'd certainly recommend it to just about anybody on a DVD-rental-by-mail plan. I think it would be especially valuable to those folks who don't watch their movies quickly and find themselves searching for discs that have wandered off. If they always go into the RentCaddy, they won't get lost. So long as you can keep track of the RentCaddy.

BTW: The RentCaddy is now available directly from their webpage through their PayPal shopping cart. You don't have to buy through their eBay store anymore.

Carl Cravens, of "A Netflix Odyssey"