In Montana we charge $10 a day for any lighting instrument and usually give deals to people we know and trust, the best of which is a three month rental for a summer theatre near here for the price of three days.
As far as us renting in, not exactly sure how much it costs to bring in movers here. After all, our DMXsystem has been up and running for only a week now. We will possibly be bringing in a few movers for the musical next semester from Vegas so we shall see. It is kind of wierd having an EOS and no toys to go with it (yet). Scrollers should be in next week, SeaChangers might be ordered later this year, and potentially movers next year or the year after since this years national tour for the Montana Rep is a huge sell.
With a 2 month run and lighting rehearsals spread out over 5 months, it's generally more cost effective for us to purchase rather than rent equipment. The problem, of course, becomes finding places to store all the new equipment.