DVC: Resale vs Direct

[Ashlee Moll]

Age old debate I know, but we met with a guide last week and I am torn between the direct vs resale option. There are some fairly good incentives at the moment, backpacks, luggage, dining credits on top of the already known discounts for DVC members. I asked about Annual Passes and he mentioned there where whispers of it coming back fairly soon. I am leaning towards direct, because well I get fomo pretty easily, but husband sees more value or at least more bang for the buck in resale.

How much of an incentive do you really feel the perks being a direct member vs resale?

 

[kilik64]

Age old debate I know, but we met with a guide last week and I am torn between the direct vs resale option. There are some fairly good incentives at the moment, backpacks, luggage, dining credits on top of the already known discounts for DVC members. I asked about Annual Passes and he mentioned there where whispers of it coming back fairly soon. I am leaning towards direct, because well I get fomo pretty easily, but husband sees more value or at least more bang for the buck in resale.

How much of an incentive do you really feel the perks being a direct member vs resale?

The ONLY incentive that matters is access to future resorts going direct. The rest is just ancillary. If you will have serious FOMO in not getting to use your points at RIV and possibly/probably future ones (VDH, maybe poly2, and anything after), then thats a big plus for direct.

AP is the main member benefit to factor in, but you need to go enough park days per year for that to save any money. Yes you can get discounts on food and merch, but really thats a drop in the bucket, and even resale they will still give you the discount more often then not.

If both of those matter to you, then direct might be a good choice. Prices are in a trough right now for resale so the savings via resale are pretty significant right now as well vs direct.

 

[pianomanzano]

Age old debate I know, but we met with a guide last week and I am torn between the direct vs resale option. There are some fairly good incentives at the moment, backpacks, luggage, dining credits on top of the already known discounts for DVC members. I asked about Annual Passes and he mentioned there where whispers of it coming back fairly soon. I am leaning towards direct, because well I get fomo pretty easily, but husband sees more value or at least more bang for the buck in resale.

How much of an incentive do you really feel the perks being a direct member vs resale?

With the money that you save going resale over direct right now you can buy some LV or other expensive, name-brand bags and luggage, instead of the very mediocre baggage they provide that slop on a DVC logo. I'm not aware of any dining credit incentives, maybe the 10% discount for table service but that's not a reason to go direct. Ride previews and moonlight magics are nice to have, so long as you can win the lottery of having one of those events occur during your already scheduled trip AND the registration lottery.

Guides don't know when APs are coming back and of course they'll say something to entice you to get direct for the chance of buying discounted APs. They don't know what's going on within DVC, let alone other business units.

To me, the only real incentive in going direct is having unrestricted points that could be used anywhere. With another new resort coming online that will most likely have restrictions, it's a valid reason to go direct. Because of these restrictions, we added on direct points. But we went resale first then added direct points later to take advantage of better incentives given to current members. We also were able to get "double" points when adding direct since we got to add on to the UY of our resale contract, a UY they wouldn't let us pick before we decided to go resale first. So nothing wrong with going direct, but with the fire sales going on for resale, I'd strongly consider going that avenue first and adding direct points when you can.

 

[Sandisw]

We are direct buyers now because of the unrestricted points and we like being eligible for whatever membership extras are there.

RIV is our top resort as well so having points that are good there is crucial.

You can save a great deal resale especially now, but have to go in assuming no stays at future resorts…which very well could include the new Poly tower and in 2042, the resorts that may replace the ones expiring.

For us, in the scheme of things, we were comfortable with the extra cost and the AP savings is a big plus..right now, that can’t be used as part of it but resale automatically leaves you out of an special ticket deals just for DVC if they ever offer them.

So, it does come done more to being able to stay everywhere and depending on the resort you would choose resale, it may be worth it in the end.

And, some do buy just the 150 direct to have some points good everywhere, elgibilty to membership extras, and then go resale for the rest.

 

[tom1944]

What stops me from buying direct is the point charts on the newer resorts.

I have identified 8 WDW resorts that I would be fine with because of the point charts.

I am new at this and wanted to keep my financial exposure to a certain amount. Buying direct would not have provided funds for enough points for access to the newer resorts. I would have been limited by that alone.

Direct points will not go away and I can revisit that in the future if necessary.

 

[CrystalClear82]

For us, we bought resale based on 1 thing ---- Price ... if you're at the right place at the right time, you can nearly get 2 resale for the price of 1 direct.
There's the option to add-on direct points once a member at a discounted price. This is something we'll consider down the road but in all fairness though I'm already looking at another resale contract.

The FOMO dissipated from buying direct when I found out that you sign a paper in the contract saying that there is no guarantee that those extras will continue to be given. Additionally we're fine with staying at the original contracted resorts and will otherwise rent if we want to try one of the newly offered resorts.

 

[RichVIII]

The delta between small resale and direct was small for a while, so we purchased our first direct (the rest resale). The ease and convenience of direct were amazing.

That delta has been growing by the week and hard to ignore the current pricing of resale. AND the ROFR monster is on pause and resale is moving quicker now. I would start with a small resale, figure things out. It is much easier to add on-direct once you are member. You could even add 50 points at a time to you reach the magic 150 for benefits. In eight years of being members, we lucked out once...once for a DVC party - and that was back in the day were you could just show up.

 

[intamin]

IMO there's no need to limit yourself to one or the other. Buy resale now while it's cheap and choose the UY/resort you want and then add direct to reach benefits so you know you're not locked out of any events/perks that may be available. I know people say the perks aren't worth it and that you're paying a lot for those extras which can be taken away at any point which is true. However, I also find peace knowing I'm not missing out on anything and am not excluded from any events. I only recently became a DVC member and managed to snag a reservation for the Tron previews and also magically had a trip already planned that coincided with one of the moonlight magic dates later this year. I enjoy knowing I'm not locked out of any future resorts thanks to my direct points and all of these things are worth the premium IMO.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I asked about Annual Passes and he mentioned there where whispers of it coming back fairly soon.

I would get a new guide, no guide should be telling you this. He certainly has no inside information and is lying to try to sell you. Personally I wouldn’t want to reward a liar like this with the commission that he will make if you buy from him.

 

[Ruttangel]

Age old debate I know, but we met with a guide last week and I am torn between the direct vs resale option. There are some fairly good incentives at the moment, backpacks, luggage, dining credits on top of the already known discounts for DVC members. I asked about Annual Passes and he mentioned there where whispers of it coming back fairly soon. I am leaning towards direct, because well I get fomo pretty easily, but husband sees more value or at least more bang for the buck in resale.

How much of an incentive do you really feel the perks being a direct member vs resale?

The perks are fairly worthless atm, just save 50% on resale and then you can buy some even better luggage.

 

[RoseGold]

I asked about Annual Passes and he mentioned there where whispers of it coming back fairly soon.

Wow, that's new.

There's no indication to anyone that WDW APs are coming back. Pretty surprising they said this, really. Slimy and timeshare-y.

Resale is crazy low right now, and direct is not going anywhere. You can always sell your resale and buy in three resorts from now if your FOMO is crazy on that one in a few years. But you can't sell your direct without taking a big hit. Few people should buy DVC, even fewer should buy direct. Maybe that's you? We have no idea.

The justification that makes sense to me to buy direct is if you know DVC will be pried out of your dying hands. Then you don't care so much about the price difference and future resorts matter. That was never me, so direct never made sense to me.

 

[havoc315]

Age old debate I know, but we met with a guide last week and I am torn between the direct vs resale option. There are some fairly good incentives at the moment, backpacks, luggage, dining credits on top of the already known discounts for DVC members. I asked about Annual Passes and he mentioned there where whispers of it coming back fairly soon. I am leaning towards direct, because well I get fomo pretty easily, but husband sees more value or at least more bang for the buck in resale.

How much of an incentive do you really feel the perks being a direct member vs resale?

The difference in price between re-sale and direct is often exaggerated.
For good reason, re-sellers advertise "save 35-45% buying resale" --
But -- resale is a lesser product. You won't be able to stay at Riviera or future resorts. That makes the point inherently less value. And if you buy an older resort, you're getting fewer years than a new resort. You're forfeiting some discounts -- The discounts aren't enough to erase the price difference, but they do affect it.

But mostly -- Over the long term, you're not getting any discount on dues.

So let's say you buy with an intent to hold for 20 years.
Direct: $200 per point
Resale: $120 per point -- 40% off!
But now add 20 years of dues at $8 per point. Instead of $200 versus $120, it becomes:
$360 versus $280. -- Now it's just a 22% difference.

Planning on 30 years?
It's $440 vs $360 -- Only a 18% difference.

So for a 18% difference in price -- You lose the ability to stay at Riviera and future resorts, you may be getting a resort with fewer years remaining, you're giving up 10-15% discounts on a lot of food and merchandise, you're giving up special events like Moonlight Magic, you're giving up possible AP discounts.

There isn't a right or wrong answer, whether the savings are "worth it" -- Just appreciate a real picture of the degree of savings, and what you're giving up (or not giving up).

 

[Bmramaut]

For us, we wanted a happy medium. We need a total of 160 points to meet our vacation wants as a family. We bought the bulk of our points (100) via resale. We plan on buying the other 60 direct via add on points. Still saving quite a bit versus the minimum 150 direct. Agree with others, the perks of buying into membership direct are nothing versus your savings resale.

 

[Chili327]

For us, we wanted a happy medium. We need a total of 160 points to meet our vacation wants as a family. We bought the bulk of our points (100) via resale. We plan on buying the other 60 direct via add on points. Still saving quite a bit versus the minimum 150 direct. Agree with others, the perks of buying into membership direct are nothing versus your savings resale.

Just curious, but why bother with direct for only 60pts.? Why not just look for another resale contract and keep saving money.? (is it because you want to use those 60 at RIV, or other future locations.?)

 

[intamin]

The difference in price between re-sale and direct is often exaggerated.
For good reason, re-sellers advertise "save 35-45% buying resale" --
But -- resale is a lesser product. You won't be able to stay at Riviera or future resorts. That makes the point inherently less value. And if you buy an older resort, you're getting fewer years than a new resort. You're forfeiting some discounts -- The discounts aren't enough to erase the price difference, but they do affect it.

But mostly -- Over the long term, you're not getting any discount on dues.

So let's say you buy with an intent to hold for 20 years.
Direct: $200 per point
Resale: $120 per point -- 40% off!
But now add 20 years of dues at $8 per point. Instead of $200 versus $120, it becomes:
$360 versus $280. -- Now it's just a 22% difference.

Planning on 30 years?
It's $440 vs $360 -- Only a 18% difference.

So for a 18% difference in price -- You lose the ability to stay at Riviera and future resorts, you may be getting a resort with fewer years remaining, you're giving up 10-15% discounts on a lot of food and merchandise, you're giving up special events like Moonlight Magic, you're giving up possible AP discounts.

There isn't a right or wrong answer, whether the savings are "worth it" -- Just appreciate a real picture of the degree of savings, and what you're giving up (or not giving up).

I think the problem lies with the fact that that difference in price is realized as soon as you purchase the contract. It doesn't take into account the value of money over time. The price difference is not that significant in the long run but nobody likes the idea of giving Disney more money than you need to aside from maybe Iger. 18% when multiplied by 50-100,000 dollars is a significant amount for most families.

All that being said I still support buying direct but really the value of it comes down to whether or not a family really cares about RIV/newer resorts and if they don't I don't really see the point of buying direct right now but maybe saving that money to buy a direct contract at a resort they actually like in the future to get the full 50 year value.

 

[Bmramaut]

Just curious, but why bother with direct for only 60pts.? Why not just look for another resale contract and keep saving money.? (is it because you want to use those 60 at RIV, or other future locations.?)

We do want to have access to RIV and future resorts. We will be using banking/borrowing strategy to make that work for us.

 

[intamin]

We do want to have access to RIV and future resorts. We will be using banking/borrowing strategy to make that work for us.

Just out of curiosity where'd you buy direct at? RIV?

 

[Transferteck]

At the moment AP’s aren’t for sale, however every DVC member that had AP’s can continue to purchase a much less renewable AP because they are Direct DVC Members. If anything can be said about Disney, is things change. DVC is a long term commitment and that means lots of changes before the commitment is over. Personally I’d rather be on the side of options as life changes verses the side Disney has chosen to limit to less and less over the last few years.

 

[E2ME2]

We are direct buyers now because of the unrestricted points and we like being eligible for whatever membership extras are there.

RIV is our top resort as well so having points that are good there is crucial.

You can save a great deal direct, especially now, but have to go in assuming no stays at future resorts…which very well could include the new Poly tower and in 2042, the resorts that may replace the ones expiring.

For us, in the scheme of things, we were comfortable with the extra cost and the AP savings is a big plus..right now, that can’t be used as part of it but resale automatically leaves you out of an special ticket deals just for DVC if they ever offer them.

So, it does come done more to being able to stay everywhere and depending on the resort you would choose resale, it may be worth it in the end.

And, some do buy just the 150 direct to have some points good everywhere, elgibilty to membership extras, and then go resale for the rest.

The AP savings can be figured in, if you're fortunate enough to have retained your APs and will continue to renew them every year. This is the most frequent complaint I have heard from other DVC members while chatting in the resort hot tubs at night on our last 3 trips (2021/2022/2023). We were fortunate that we held APs in 2020, and renewed during COVID, just to be safe.

 

[Jayunit09]

Both have been mentioned, but our main decision came down to access to new resorts and (we assume) access to whatever becomes of the 2042 resorts on 2/1/2042.

I also took the difference in price we paid and divided it by 45 years (CCV) and decided I was willing to pay that "annual fee" to have access to being a direct member.

We did add on another 50 points resale though after the fact.