I think the solutions offered are incomplete, that is there is insufficient data in the NYT story to indicate the proportion of rentals to sales. The solutions offered have simply chosen one solution out of many. The solution needs to be parameterised, and that parameter is unknown (at this point).
I like this NTYP misses a literally perfect work problem (you can solve for the two different sales quantities from the numbers quoted in the article). But this is pretty compatible with the NYT 2012 position that you don't need algebra. Another link: https://twitter.com/ddmeyer/status/549965027948507136/photo/...
