going to buy, but what can I get?

[Dean]

Not all direct purchasers pay twice as much, though. We initially bought BLT in April 2010 and paid $106 pp for 450 points. We've since added on another 250, with the bulk of those at $108 pp. There was little to no resale market for BLT back then, and that was the only resort we wanted. We also did not finance. So for us, buying direct was "financially worth it".

I'm comfortable my statements were that broad to suggest that every situation was unreasonable at any point along the way. That's the reason I mentioned the difference was only around 20% a few yeas ago and one of the reasons one should not consider negative discussions about buying retail as an insult. There are valid reasons to buy retail. GF early will be early on just like BLT was for some, smaller contracts (25-50 or so) certainly can be. However, the reality is that for most options it is an extremely poor choice to buy retail. The current price can be double or more depending on specifics and there are NO valid reasons related to exchange options (DCL, CC, DC, ABD) to justify buying retail, it's just wasted money. Some will kid themselves into thinking buying extra points will allow them to do things they couldn't otherwise, but this is simply not true. Now I realize some would not have the discipline to make the choices to buy less points and do the other things on cash much like using payroll taxes as a forced savings plan but it's even a worse deal.

I'd add that only a percentage of those that bought BLT really did so reasonably. Certainly the maint fee difference wasn't a good reason and those that intended to use the points elsewhere a significant portion of the time would generally have been better off buying elsewhere or only doing an add on there.

 

[MinnesotaChill]

One time when we were really tired, and needed to get across property for some reason (can't remember why), we told the guide at a park that we wanted to take a tour and they sent the red van to pick us up and transport us to the models. We took the tour and then we where we wanted to be.

Funny enough, we wound up adding on to our points after the tour.... most expensive free van ride ever!