3rd contract resale again or direct.

[RickNJane]

I think I am an anomaly. We have 1008 points all direct. The first contract was back in 1996 at BWV was the only one financed. Adding on direct was convenience thing. More instant gratification.

We have a great Guide and he even got us VGC points direct! Price difference is not that much for VGC. The other contracts were when they had pretty good incentives. Direct was very easy and no hassle. I like easy! No haggling, no ROFR, Points show up almost immediately. No muss, no fuss. We used our airlines card and DVD divided the payment into 3 or 4 chunks. Racked up a lot of Airline miles! Now we are racking up the miles actually flying!


Our number of points at AKV is pretty tight and may add on there, but would try resale this time, maybe.

 

[intamin]

I'm a hybrid owner, and I'm pretty sure the perks are not worth the price on purely dollars-and-cents terms for most people. You might have an argument based on access to the Sorceror pass, but it depends A LOT on what tickets you are buying now. If I were going twice a year, I'd be buying two 5-day hoppers, give or take, each year. That's about $1,670 per year (assuming I was not buying from a 3rd party broker, etc.) If my trips did not include a blackout period, the Sorceror would save me about $500 per year per person.

So, maybe, but even then maybe not.

But the admission deal can change anytime. It has in the past. If it does, that will change the math. The more years you need to recover your purchase price, the more risk there is that the math changes---and if it changes, it's not going to change in your favor, because that's not how The Mouse does things. Plus, your kids have to live at your address to be eligible. If they move out before payoff, it that extends the window of risk.

For me, the Direct purchase was not a dollars-and-cents decision. It was an emotional one. I get to feel like I am "part of the club." I never have to worry about not being able to use my (direct) points at any particular resort. I get a little dopamine hit each time I get a discount, even though I can probably get similar discounts other ways.

This is the reason we bought direct originally. This is hopefully a 30 to 40+ year thing for us. We don't want to be asking ourselves the whole time, am I able to enjoy this? Am I able to use this lounge? Can I use TOTW lounge? It's stupid but during our wedding one of the best things we did was take a group of our friends into McKim's mile house because it was blisteringly hot that day and we also had MMB so we didn't have to wait. It was cool to be like we can get you in here and get free snacks and etc. It definitely does not make financial sense because alternatively I could've been like lets all take a break in hall of presidents or some other sit down indoor location but IDK, it's nice to know you're truly part of the club.

 

[RMDVC24]

For me, the Direct purchase was not a dollars-and-cents decision. It was an emotional one. I get to feel like I am "part of the club." I never have to worry about not being able to use my (direct) points at any particular resort. I get a little dopamine hit each time I get a discount, even though I can probably get similar discounts other ways.

I didn't mention this in my previous response, but 100% the sense of feeling that we weren't 'full' members was a factor. Plus I got tired of my wife saying we were 'fake' DVC . Now she's happy with her DVC-Y and gold member water bottle! As they say: Happy Wife = Happy Life!

 

[Girlstar30]

I think one direct minimum points for perks contract is good to feel like you're an actual dvc member and probably at some point, if not several in your dvc membership life theres going to be something that rolls out that you wish you were direct whether that be a new hotel, character meet and greet, giveaway while youre there or whatever.

Its nice to know you are eligible for anything they put out without question. The diffence between some resorts like vdh and poly direct vs resale is not large at all.

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

It's important to realize that none of our membership extras are guaranteed. Moonlight magic, access to the Sorcerer Pass, lounges, etc., could all go away in 5 minutes and we'd have no recourse.

Being able to buy the Sorcerer's Pass if the blackout dates work for your travel habits represents a decent savings every year. For a family large enough to need 2 bedroom villas, that amount of savings could make the price difference between direct and resale easy to justify in just a few years.

Access to the Sorcerer's Pass and the ability to book Riviera and successive resorts are the reasons I'd buy direct. Moonlight magic and the lounges are bonuses, but I certainly didn't buy direct so I could get a bag of cheez-its and a Coke at EPCOT. Moonlight magic events are lots of fun but unless your travel dates coincide with one they don't mean much, and even if you are on property then there's no guarantee you'll even get tickets. Every time registration opens for the events, people post here and on social media disappointed that they missed out.

The bigger issue is in a year or two, it's likely there won't be a MK resort in active sales (The Polynesian Tower may be sold out by then) so buying direct will be extremely expensive. DVC hikes the price of sold out resorts and ends most if not all promotions on them except in rare cases (like the current Copper Creek incentive). That is at least, unless you consider Lakeshore Lodge a MK resort - that resort should be selling by then.

I plan to own my points until I physically cannot travel any more, which hopefully will be many decades in the future. So I purchased most of my points direct. That way as more restricted resorts come online, I can use my points at them. The only points I own that are restricted are for a 2042 resort and I only use those points there, so it doesn't matter that they're restricted.

All of this. The Sorcerer's Pass saves us ~$3K per year, and that adds up fast. If you're only going for a few park days per year, then it's not really helpful. But if you're out of state and plan on 8+ park days every year, then it would quickly become a better option to buy 150 direct points. The more points you have and the more trips you do, the more the direct benefits would help you and the more worthwhile they become. If you're looking at owning ~700+ points, I feel like direct would make sense.

I do not recommend buying BLT direct right now because the price is insane ($275/pt with no incentives). The best current option is Poly, IMO, because the direct pricing is decently close to resale.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Remember that in 1-2 years Sorcerers Pass might not even be an option so I wouldnt use that as my reasoning. Again so many things can and likely will change in 1-2 years.