Spontaneous Purchase of SSR and Experience buying Direct vs. Resale

So this past weekend, I made a spontaneous trip to Disney (I live 2 hrs away) and ended up adding/buying points at SSR. LOL talk about spontaneous!

I'm buying VGF resale, passed ROFR on 6/15, waiting for estoppel/closing. I was getting very impatient waiting (even though I knew it would be a while), because I'm registered for the upcoming RunDisney races in Nov and January and plan to do Princess in February (couldn't get in registration today). Not long after I purchased VGF, I knew I wanted/needed more points. I've been watching the resale market, but didn't really want to go through the length of another resale process while I had one still in the works.

Meanwhile, I had a cash reservation at SSR for Wine & Dine Marathon weekend that I made before I decided to buy DVC, and no reservations for Jan/Feb made yet. I was getting impatient not being able to book Jan/Feb and wanted to use my DVC for then. I felt that if I waited until my VGF contract was closed, I wouldn't have much to pick from.

While in HS, I passed the DVC kiosk and decided see about going on a tour of the rooms". I never did the full DVC sales experience, so I figured why not.

So I did...Perhaps I made the mistake of telling the CM I was under contract for a resale at VGF that passed ROFR and only wanted to tour the rooms, but in hindsight, I don't think it really made that much of a difference. I told the CM I was looking to tour the rooms, and see about possibly purchasing more points.

The sales person at the preview center tried to sell me Aluani saying "well, if you just want it for points, that's your best bet". Then she tried to sell me Poly, not interested. Then, the sales pitch started (which I was waiting for).

She said "you know, if you buy resale, many times I've heard of loaded contracts ending up being stripped by closing, I'm thinking okay, whatever, call me naive, but if that happens, I have a breach of contract on my hands by the other party, and that could be serious stuff.

Then she said "you know, you're paying for the "premium" of booking at 11 months out with VGF when you don't really need that for most places". And, of course, she reiterated and emphasized how my points were useless for anything but Disney Resorts (no RCI, Cruise, etc). By now, I knew she was trying to talk me out of the resale contract (she even said I should cancel it IF I decided to buy today). I just nodded and said okay, and decided to end the topic on the resale part.

Then she goes back to the sales pitch. At this point she was just trying to sell points and I felt this was going nowhere with her trying to push Poly or Aluani on me. I started to get up and said "maybe I just need to head home and think about what I want to do". I was getting frustrated, it was getting late (about 4 pm now) and I had a 2 hr drive home with work the next day.

Then she pulled out the candy...she said "we may have a contract in SSR with a small number of points, and if you buy today, you can change your cash reservation in November to DVC, and we can get you all set up in DVC so you can start booking your January trip". Okay, NOW you got my attention! So I give her the dates for November, and I tell her to see what she has with SSR. I was looking for less than 100 points.

She comes back with a loaded contract with SSR, 80 points @ $135 per point, all 2014/2015/2016, different UY from my VGF purchase, and a "guide hold" on SSR for November. I start crunching some numbers in my head and calculate the total price, the money I'm "saving" on my cash reservation (kinda/sorta) in November and other non-cash benefits. I knew the market value resale of SSR and how much I was "overpaying" buying direct, and the issue of a different use year (which I was fine with). To me the value was non-cash such as the loaded contract, having some direct points, and immediate DVC account set up.

So the sales person starts talking financing and I tell her this would be a cash sale, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go forward now when I still had my VGF purchase outstanding (to which she reminded me again I could just cancel that deal, HUH!?, what part of under contract is not making sense). I asked about the deposit needed today, balance due, etc. She gave me the totals and said the balance is due in 30 days, BUT she said if I bought today she "might" be able to extend the balance to 60 days.

I agree to the purchase and about two hours later, I'm waking out of there with my membership card in hand, a really, really nice canvas bag (that only cost me about $10,000 ), another cheap black canvas bag, and ALL my paperwork, point book, membership stuff, etc.

I'm happy, she's happy and once again, Disney is a happy, magical place...

TL;DR version...

Buying resale is more cost effective but a LONG LONG patient process - DO NOT do it if you have a trip planned within the next year you want to use it for.

Buying direct has its benefits, will cost more, but is good for immediately being able to plan a future trip and a fun experience with some perks. I would recommend it if you are willing to compromise on cost in favor of expedited planning.

When buying direct, don't be afraid to be firm, and sniff out other options other than what they guide is saying is available. She got me in SSR when I know there was no availability, and if I wanted, she could have booked my Jan/Feb trip probably anywhere but VGF and BLT.

You can use rci with any points. I read this a lot but the resale is only cruises. Disney collection and AbD

I agree buying direct has its place. I never would have considered it before but this resale process is starting to get out of hand long. I would never buy a big contract direct but I may consider something between 50 and 100..someday.

Congratulations on the new points! Any reason why you didn't push for the same UY as your VGF points? It would be so much easier.

Sounds like a nice deal! I need to be reminded to stay away from the DVC folks while I'm there in Oct otherwise I may do the same!

disneynutz said:

As long as your are happy with your purchase, that is all that matters! Congratulations.

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I totally agree with this statement. As long as you are happy with your purchase, that's all that matters.

Welcome Home from a fellow owner of Saratoga!

coastalhh said:

You can use rci with any points. I read this a lot but the resale is only cruises. Disney collection and AbD

I agree buying direct has its place. I never would have considered it before but this resale process is starting to get out of hand long. I would never buy a big contract direct but I may consider something between 50 and 100..someday.

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How long is the resale purchase getting? In the past we were looking at about sixty days. Haven't bought a contract in a few,years. Itching to add on to bring us to 1000.

quandrea said:

How long is the resale purchase getting? In the past we were looking at about sixty days. Haven't bought a contract in a few,years. Itching to add on to bring us to 1000.

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Seems to be closer to 90 days now from offer to making a reservation.

Bill

quandrea said:

How long is the resale purchase getting? In the past we were looking at about sixty days. Haven't bought a contract in a few,years. Itching to add on to bring us to 1000.

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disneynutz said:

Seems to be closer to 90 days now from offer to making a reservation.

Bill

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Definitely at least 90. We made our offer on February 26th, and the points weren't loaded to our account until June 8th.

quandrea said:

How long is the resale purchase getting? In the past we were looking at about sixty days. Haven't bought a contract in a few,years. Itching to add on to bring us to 1000.

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ROFR 30 DAYS
ESTOPPEL 30 days
closing and loading points/member letter 30 days

And one of those processes will go over by a few days so add 10 as cushion

Which equals about 100 days.

I wouldn't plan on buying anything with banked points that expire any time soon. As many saw their banked points expire they paid a premium for. Best bet is to find a contract with 3 or 4 months out from the use year with 2 years of points coming about the time you would close.

Home and Much

It is interesting to see how they can magically find a reservation for you when it is sold out to all of us.

That is really exciting, congratulations! Sounds like a good addition to your portfolio .

Congratulations!

Can someone break down for me the exact differences between buying direct and resale? I understand that there are certain experiences you can't use resale points for, but is there anything else? Are there other perks I would be missing out on if we didn't buy direct? We are hoping to be able to buy DVC in the next year!

It's my understanding that for resale contracts you can still use RCI. But you can't use for Disney cruises or Disney hotels, which is not a good value anyway IMHO. Besides, I don't ever plan on using for anything but DVC anyway.

DVC Doctor said:

It is interesting to see how they can magically find a reservation for you when it is sold out to all of us.

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Not really. There are almost always rooms in the cash inventory (not available to members booking with points) and that is the pot that the guides usually pull from to make a sale. Not surprising at all that the guide was able to get the OP into SSR.

Congratulations and welcome home!

If the value is there for you and you are happy that is fantastic - congratulations!

Buying direct takes away so much of the hassle. Maybe one day for us but I still shiver at the idea of $135/point for SS. I don't know if it is b/c hubby and I are accountants but my mind automatically calculates how many points that would have gotten us via resale.

TakeMe2DisneyNow said:

Can someone break down for me the exact differences between buying direct and resale? I understand that there are certain experiences you can't use resale points for, but is there anything else? Are there other perks I would be missing out on if we didn't buy direct? We are hoping to be able to buy DVC in the next year!

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to sum up:

if you pay extra to buy direct, you get access to your pts faster (usually just about immediately). DVC will usually make an effort to access their inventory if you need a reservation that would otherwise be sold out (first reservation perk only). DVC will also cheerfully bank pts that would otherwise be past the banking window (say, if you buy a sept UY in july/august - at initial time of purchase only).

buying direct also (usually) allows you to dictate exactly how many pts you want for your contract. if you want a 53 pt contract or a 147 pt contract, you might be waiting a long time for that exact number to come along on a resale.

and of course, by paying more to buy direct, it's easy to get a loan from disney to pay an extra 10-15% on your timeshare purchase. (this is not really a perk in my book.)

as others have said, buying direct also gives you the option to make (expensive, by my calculations) trades for disney hotels and disney cruises (also adventures by disney but those point charts are completely ridiculous).

all other perks are consistent between direct and resale buyers. (but all perks are subject to change at any time for BOTH direct and resale buyers.)

resale buyers still have the option to book DVC resorts (including aulani in hawaii and hilton head island in south carolina) in the same booking windows as direct purchasers and resale buyers can trade for other destinations through RCI for other timeshares (these options are both very, very unlikely to ever change).

whether you pay $135 per pt for SSR or $80 per pt for SSR resale, you will still be staying in the exact same rooms...and all SSR contracts end in 2054 whether you buy direct or resale...so it's not as if you are buying "new" as opposed to buying "used." i should also add that if you decide to end your DVC ownership so you can stop paying annual dues, disney will NOT buy back your contract and you will be forced into the resale market as a seller - so you might as well get comfortable with it now...

(i almost forgot to add: if circumstances do force you to sell your DVC earlier than you planned, obviously you will lose less money if you paid less upfront - even if you pay extra to buy direct, you cannot pass along those benefits and will be selling at resale prices no matter how you initially purchased DVC.)

take some time and read random threads on the DVC forums - search for more info on things that pique your interest - ask questions. learn about how things like "use year" work. it's a pretty big purchase.