Renting is available depending on where you are, but renting is not cheap. Where I live it's about $50/day + $30 additional days ($90/weekend). Silent Partner's Edge series are all under $1K with remotes and do top/back spin with less programmability than higher end machines. I almost bought one of their used top of the line ones on kijiji which was 2 yrs old for $900 which was about 1/2 price of retail but there's no hard and fast rule as to what people want to seel their used machines for. I didn't see a problem with buying used as SP has been around quite a while and provide good in and out of warranty support. I've heard that pressureless balls last about 3 years at least while for pressurized a few weeks unless you are happy to hit with them after that. The former don't really hurt your arm. It's just the ball has a bit of a different feeling when you hit.