Direct from Disney or Resale?

[Mjasp]

Did you buy direct from Disney or Resale? AND why did you choose that method of buying?

 

[booklady]

I purchased resale because the price was about half of what it would have cost to buy direct from Disney. Had no problems, it's been great!

 

[nolanboys]

Bought 200 resale at SSR, loaded contract, because it was $4500 cheaper than 180 points direct of AKV.

 

[ToddyLu]

Bought 210 points at AKV, direct from Disney and financed. We did not want to get money out of savings and honestly we could afford to finance through Disney and they made it so easy. When we were looking for other lenders, they were almost non existant in 2009. I would have been happy anywhere--DH had to have AKV. Fine with me.

 

[joandegennaro]

We went Direct with Disney because we were buying into OKW and we wanted a particular UY as well as the extended years. At that time there was very little with the extended years and very little with the amount of points we wanted with the UY we wanted. Also, I'm the type of person who is very impacient... wanted to get it all do before DH changed his mind

 

[JimMIA]

We've purchased both ways. First we bought resale at OKW with a $4,000+ savings.

Then we added on direct at SSR because we needed more points (our timeshares are held in a family trust and shared by three families) and there was a very good promotion going at that time.

We recently sold the SSR contract because we wanted to have better and more varied options outside of WDW. We took about a 30% loss on that SSR sale, but we purchased a large Wyndham contract on eBay for practically nothing (<$2,000, including closing).

Both of our DVC purchases, however, were in 2004. If I were buying today, I'd definitely buy resale. The differentials between direct and resale are simply too great to pass up, and the recently-announced restrictions on future resales are trivial to us.

Also, in this economy and this resale market, I would consider whatever I paid for DVC to be a "sunk cost" -- in other words, gone forever. I think in a few years (<10), DVC resales will be the same as most other timeshares -- virtually zero.

 

[soxyes]

We bought resale. We wanted to pay cash and the price difference was just too great to pass up. The processes went smoothly - with the only difficulty being the dreaded wait for the ROFR response. (I say difficult because of the emotional stress of waiting, not because anything went awry.)

We're in a dilemma now. I'd like 40 points (and will likely wind up going Direct for those) so that each child would have 200 when we're ready to pass them on, however, with resales being so attractive, maybe 100 is a better option right now??? That will keep us uneven for the kids (a feel an add on later---DH will KILL ME!), but it sure would be nice to have those extra points to use.
I'm trying to imagine going from July 2011 to summer 2012 without any intermittent trips and it's making me very sad. I need a WDW fix more often than that!

 

[ttepsich]

We did it both ways. First we purchased a small resale because we wanted to pay cash and not finance. We couldn't afford to pay cash by going direct with the min point buy in. (150 ???) We have since added on twice by buying direct. Both add ons were for 50 and 40 points respectively. All are BCV points. The price per point for the add ons were not that much more buying direct vs resale since small contract BCV resale points seem to be more expensive than most. After adding on the resale closing costs, the price per point direct difference is that much less. ( not to mention being able to use your direct purchase points almost instantly ) We also used our Disney Visa to buy our direct add on points. This gave us 6 months 0% intrest to pay for our points.

 

[joelnkelly]

We purchased direct, I would have been happy to go resale but when the whole talk came up about possible resale restrictions the wife didnt want to chance it. We had the cash to pay upfront so no financing with our purchase.

 

[LouisianaDisneyFan]

Also, in this economy and this resale market, I would consider whatever I paid for DVC to be a "sunk cost" -- in other words, gone forever. I think in a few years (<10), DVC resales will be the same as most other timeshares -- virtually zero.

Unfortunately, I am leaning toward this opinion as well. It makes me sad because we purchased contracts for each of our children as college grad gifts. Now I just hope we didn't saddle them with too much of a burden further down the road.

We previously owned a timeshare with another company... at a home resort that we personally loved to visit. We spent many summers there and have lots of happy memories. But, the moment that new sales ceased with that resort, the quality went downhill... fast. When the home resort quality dropped, so did the trading power with RCI. Within a few years, we no longer wanted to visit the now pitiful home resort and we couldn't trade out for anything desirable either. Whenever I see someone comment about how they wish Disney would quit developing new properties, I cringe a bit. Sure, I'd prefer that the resorts not be overbuilt... but I understand the reality all too well. If Disney doesn't have a strong motivation to make ownership look attractive to potential buyers of new properties, then the quality will drop and the perks will completely disappear.

 

[joelnkelly]

We previously owned a timeshare with another company... at a home resort that we personally loved to visit. We spent many summers there and have lots of happy memories. But, the moment that new sales ceased with that resort, the quality went downhill... fast. When the home resort quality dropped, so did the trading power with RCI. .

The big difference is location, Disney is Disney and will always be Disney. People will always come to disney. Its the #1 destination in the world for family vacations. You will always have that power. That is a very important thing to remember. While the magic might fade for you and your family, there will always be another young family right around the corner wanting to visit disney, so I think that does hold our value up more than others.

 

[LouisianaDisneyFan]

The big difference is location, Disney is Disney and will always be Disney. People will always come to disney. Its the #1 destination in the world for family vacations. You will always have that power. That is a very important thing to remember. While the magic might fade for you and your family, there will always be another young family right around the corner wanting to visit disney, so I think that does hold our value up more than others.

Yes, folks will continue to come to Disney... but even now, there are definite preferences about where to stay. If Disney doesn't have a motivation to keep ALL properties in buyer-ready shape, then I do believe some, if not all, of them would suffer. Instead, Disney would focus on those properties that directly brought them a profit... the wholly-owned resorts.

 

[joelnkelly]

Yes, folks will continue to come to Disney... but even now, there are definite preferences about where to stay. If Disney doesn't have a motivation to keep ALL properties in buyer-ready shape, then I do believe some, if not all, of them would suffer. Instead, Disney would focus on those properties that directly brought them a profit... the wholly-owned resorts.

I guess none of us truly knows what the future holds, as everything has a expiration date. Disney will always be expanding and updating, its part of their business, but it is disney and they on the whole are a cut above the rest in most regards to accommadations. In 20 years what will the AKV look like? Who knows, but why worry about that now. Enjoy what you have today, for nobody knows what tomorrow brings.

 

[LouisianaDisneyFan]

I guess none of us truly knows what the future holds, as everything has a expiration date. Disney will always be expanding and updating, its part of their business, but it is disney and they on the whole are a cut above the rest in most regards to accommadations. In 20 years what will the AKV look like? Who knows, but why worry about that now. Enjoy what you have today, for nobody knows what tomorrow brings.

Very true! But, because of our previous experience, we hedged most of our bets and purchased in DVC properties located directly adjacent to Disney-owned hotels and theme parks.... BWV (next to the BW Inn and Epcot) and BLT (next to the Contemporary and MK). Maybe it was meaningless to do so, but it sure made us feel safer! =P

Our one deviation was sinking money in to Aulani... time will tell.

 

[Disnydad]

I bought one direct and three via resale. Cheaper via resale.

 

[DougEMG]

I bought resale. It was also a loaded contract and I rented the banked points out. So buying resale was all about price.

 

[kristenrice]

Bought our AKV contract resale (paid cash) and actually spent $45 MORE than what direct would have been. BUT, the contract was a Jambo House contract, Disney was selling only Kidani contracts and Kidani wasn't going to be opening for another 6 months when we bought. The resale contract also had 100 banked points available which I rented to a co-worker for $1000. So, all together, we did save about $950 going resale because I would not have been able to rent those points if we'd bought direct.

We just added on 50 points at HHI and bought direct for $80/point. *IF* I could have found a Feb UY for 50 points at $55/point (with $425 closing costs), I would have saved about $825. I just got sick of waiting....and waiting....and WAITING for a Feb UY at HHI with less than 80 points to come available. Spending the extra money was totally worth it to me because now I FINALLY have my points and we are planning on using them this October for my birthday.

 

[Sandisw]

We started out with a small resale contract at VWL to become members. It was only 50 points and at the time, the rumor was that Disney was going to be raising the initial buy in at BLT from 160 to 200.

I knew that I didn't want that many BLT points to start so we thought we would start small and then could add on with only 100 BLT points about 6 months later

Of course, it didn't take long once members to decide we wanted BLT and added on 1 week later. Then we decided that we really wanted to own only at BLT so I put VWL up for sale only 2 months after closing. We had a trip scheduled using the points so we delayed closing for about 4 months.

During that time, we added on at BLT again. In the end, even with the small loss we took by selling VWL so quickly, we still ended up with a net price of only $96/ppt for BLT via Disney so it worked out.

 

[mousefan1972]

We purchased direct through Disney. We wanted Bay Lake Tower for our home resort and the purchase incentive was great. We did not finance our purchase. We are very happy.

 

[kristie03]

We have bought only from Disney....original sale and 2 addons...BUT they say to buy where you love and so all of our points are BLT...and the resale market isn't so great for BLT...we are really happy with all our purchases and have no regrets