If you had to do it over again, would you change your direct/resale strategy?

[SkampyOne]

If not, we will look for a smallish (100 pts or under) contract at BWV and wait for DLH or Poly2 for our direct points, if we decide to get any.

FWIW, prices on BWV resale have dropped a TON in the past week. What I thought was a good deal a week ago has now been eclipsed. That said, I didn't see much at 100 pts or under. 150 seems to be the most common...

 

[intamin]

Sandi just explained very well above - you’d pay prorated 2023 dues based on date you bought. Dues are calendar year, not UY.

Just to go along with this I purchased in mid-December for an April UY contract. I ended up paying about 1/24 of what my normal dues are to cover the 2022 fees which were applied to my 2023 dues. You could get all of the dues covered if you get your contract at the beginning of the calendar year like right now and get 2022 points (unless your UY is February); however, for us they were raising the price of direct by 10 dollars per point so we ended up saving 1500 (150pts x 10) by buying in at that time even though we paid like 70 dollars in dues.

 

[Sandisw]

Hmmm... my guide didn't mention anything about pro-rated for 2022 points, and made it seem like these were "extra" so I also assumed it was like double points, and only paying MFs for the current year.

Oh, and for new members, you're getting a Sept UY (switched from August a few weeks ago). They do this so that you have plenty of time to hit your banking deadline.

Dues are only for 2023. Yes, they make it seem like you are getting something extra….but its more buying at a strategic time to capitalize on starting number of points.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Dues are only for 2023. Yes, they make it seem like you are getting something extra….but its more buying at a strategic time to capitalize on starting number of points.

At the very least, they are "dues-free" points.

 

[sethschroeder]

Thing is with resale you can fairly easily get your money back in the short run as long as you aggressively get a good price on your contract.

Example I bought 2 contracts in Oct 2019, transferred all the points to my other UY, sold the 2 contracts in April 2020 (during the pandemic), and came out even after fees if I value the transferred points at like $5-$7/point which obviously worth more than that.

If you kick yourself for resale simply sell after buying direct and getting an extra discount on the direct because you are already a member as well.

 

[CarolynFH]

Oh, and for new members, you're getting a Sept UY (switched from August a few weeks ago). They do this so that you have plenty of time to hit your banking deadline.

For newbies, September UY is apparently what DVD wants to sell you currently. But if you’ve done enough research to know that September is not a reasonable UY for you, you can get a different one. May have to be firm however and refuse to buy if you don’t get what you want!

 

[Jayunit09]

For newbies, September UY is apparently what DVD wants to sell you currently. But if you’ve done enough research to know that September is not a reasonable UY for you, you can get a different one. May have to be firm however and refuse to buy if you don’t get what you want!

Can vouch for this! Although we wanted Sept UY (follows the school year nicely for us in NH) and I made it clear I was not going to buy for any other UY. Got a call back within 5 minutes that they would honor the Sept UY

 

[CarolynFH]

Can vouch for this! Although we wanted Sept UY (follows the school year nicely for us in NH) and I made it clear I was not going to buy for any other UY. Got a call back within 5 minutes that they would honor the Sept UY

I want to add that I’m a little surprised they’re pushing September UY now. For BWV it’s the least common UY so would be difficult to find resale, but it’s perfect for us because we’d almost never book a DVC trip for May through August.

I wonder what the UY spread is for the more recent new resorts? The latest I could find on DVC News is from 2021 (https://www.dvcnews.com/dvc-program...ty-of-disney-vacation-club-points-by-use-year) - any other site with more updated information?

 

[Jayunit09]

I want to add that I’m a little surprised they’re pushing September UY now. For BWV it’s the least common UY so would be difficult to find resale, but it’s perfect for us because we’d almost never book a DVC trip for May through August.

I wonder what the UY spread is for the more recent new resorts? The latest I could find on DVC News is from 2021 (https://www.dvcnews.com/dvc-program...ty-of-disney-vacation-club-points-by-use-year) - any other site with more updated information?

Agreed we would never leave New Hampshire may-august when it’s actually nice here!

I had trouble finding good sept UY resale and that was partially why we went direct.

 

[vacay77]

Direct member here. No regrets although most of the blue cards perks I built up in my mind haven’t been great. MM at Ca Adventure is geared more for locals and the short window for ride previews for DVC members has been a dud so far (specifically TRON). Also, I don’t understand why Disneyland doesn’t offer DVC previews for new rides (or at least they didn’t for the new ride that recently opened in Toontown).

With that being said, I like that I’m not restricted from staying at a resort like the Riviera. Does it justify the added cost? Probably not.

 

[Anthony Vito]

We definitely don't have regrets on direct vs. resale. We have 318, all direct. We have 118 points at Copper Creek in a Guaranteed Week that we bought in 2019, and 200 at Riviera (split into a 130-point Guaranteed Week contract and a 70-point contract) that we bought in August 2020.

We started looking at DVC in probably 2017, but we researched for a while and held off, thinking we should wait until we could pay for it and not finance. Even back then though, given we had two kids in day care, we probably needed to wait even to finance. We ended up buying in spring of 2019 because we had decided we wanted to own at Copper Creek. Our intention was to only buy the minimum for direct benefits (at the time it was 75) then add on a resale contract a little later. We ended up digging into Guaranteed Week ("GW"), and we went that route instead. (Our week is the week after Thanksgiving, usually.) The funny thing is, we have yet to actually use the GW, although we may this year if we can't get into Grand Floridian that week - at this point it looks like we'll have to waitlist since it's already not fully available and we're 9 months out.

We stayed at Riviera in early 2020 and really liked it, so we intended to add on at some point. We bought sooner than we thought we would have in August 2020 because the discounts were really good (we paid $160/point).

For us, we've actually been able to take advantage of the direct benefits and bought Gold APs in 2019 and have kept the renewed, so we still have them (obviously the name's now changed). Losing APs is honestly one of our bigger fears because the access to the cheaper pass makes it worth it but also allows us to go more often than we might otherwise - or we'd have to go for the regular pass which would cost us significantly more. So for us, that's saved us I believe over $1,600 per year for a family of 4.

Honestly, I'd almost feel a bit of regret over waiting a couple years to pull the trigger, thinking we needed to wait to pay cash, since the price per point went up $20 during that time, but it worked out pretty well because we have the resort we want more (CCV vs. Poly) and a contract we might not have fully researched at the earlier time (the Guaranteed Week), so really no regrets there. I'm also really happy we pulled the trigger on the Riviera add-on when we did, since it's now $43 more per point (with incentives).

That's all the justifying rationale - honestly, I have no regrets because, while we could have saved money and bought elsewhere resale or waited, putting aside whether I agree with Disney's approach to restrictions on resale, I like the peace of mind that we have no restrictions of any kind and I don't need to think about where I can use the points, etc. Owning DVC has allowed us to take even more Disney trips, and we love that. While part of it is simply paying extra for a status or a level of comfort or peace of mind, I'm willing to accept that. While I always thought we'd eventually add more points through resale because of the value, there's a part of me that realizes if we add more, it might be direct again just because that's what we want - yeah we'll pay more, but we already give Disney a ton of money - far more than needed..

 

[tom1944]

Do you get a better deal with a guaranteed week?

 

[Sandisw]

Do you get a better deal with a guaranteed week?

No. You actually pay a 10% premium to get it. If you cancel, you get those 10% points that are extra back to use as normal, but when you take the week, they all get used.

 

[Anthony Vito]

No. You actually pay a 10% premium to get it. If you cancel, you get those 10% points that are extra back to use as normal, but when you take the week, they all get used.

Exactly - although we actually do get a better deal, but that was not really the intent at the time. One of the benefits of the Guaranteed Week is you also lock in the point chart, essentially.

So, to elaborate slightly on @Sandisw's point, through example:

For the Copper Creek GW, at the time, that week was usually 107 points for the week. So, they added 10% to it, and so our contract, and the price for the week for us, is 118 points. So the week (Week 48, typically the week after Thanksgiving) is automatically booked for us each year, and it costs us 118 points for the week. So, we pay 10% more, assuming the week should cost everyone else 107 points. For that week, however, this year, it would cost 119 points for the same week. Now this may have a little to do with point chart changes, although I don't think they've changed a lot for that week - it's more that this year, we have a lot more days that fall in November, when the points are a bit higher. Now as stated above, if we cancel (which Member Services has to do for us) that reservation, we get all 118 points to use as normal.

Further example, and a better one to illustrate the changes is the GW we got at Riviera. We got it for the first full week in October. We have no intention to go for a full week then any time soon since our kids are still young (currently 3rd and 4th grade), but maybe when they're out of school we might go. We have it more for the future if we want to do a week for Food & Wine at a hard time to get a Standard View (although Riviera's always hard to get a Standard View). Now, when it opened, that week was 118 points. So our contract and GW for that week costs 130 points. So where it would cost everyone else (at the time) 118 points to book it, it would cost us 130 points to book it. We'd pay 10% more, but have the week guaranteed for us.

However, we really made out on this, if we want to keep that week and use it in the future. For this coming year, 10/1-10/8 at Riviera in a Standard View costs 139 points. It was booked for us with our GW for the 130 points - so we would have actually saved 9 points and had it booked for us automatically. That's because the October points chart there has been adjusted so much as that's a high demand time.

 

[disneydreamer781]

No way. I purchased 230 DVC (only OKW back then) points in 1992. Way cheaper than direct or resale today so I wouldn't be the one to ask. I've also stayed at every Disney resort I've wanted at 7 months or less.

 

[Myke729]

We just purchased our second resale contract. We weighed the options of direct but the price just did not justify it. After we close and become full members, we may decide to purchase direct. We shall see...

 

[EThomas]

We bought 100 points resale, because it was what we could afford at the time without financing. I’m kind of wishing we bought 125 points direct (the minimum for blue card at the time) and financed a little bit.

Now I’ve watched the blue card minimum go up, and the direct price go up, and I kind of feel like we missed out. But it’s kind of irrational. I’m not sure we would actually use many of the perks, but there’s a bit of FOMO, in being a white card member. But I’m still trying to decide if there is any real benefit to blue card for my family. We don’t get discounts, but we saved about $5,000 buying resale, i got my discounts all up front. We don’t go frequently enough to use annual passes. We don’t live close enough to be able to attend MM or special events/previews unless they happened to happen when we were already planning on being there (unlikely).

We’re talking about adding on a few more points and trying to decide if we should buy direct with the eventual goal of becoming blue card members, or if we should add resale and just enjoy the few thousand dollars we saved. There’s an emotional piece that makes me regret not going blue card at the beginning. But my math brain thinks we made the right call.

If I could go back in time I’d buy direct for the perks, if only to shut-up the emotional side. My math brain would be ok with it because it was a lot cheaper to get the blue card a few years ago, vs now.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

We bought 100 points resale, because it was what we could afford at the time without financing. I’m kind of wishing we bought 125 points direct (the minimum for blue card at the time) and financed a little bit.

Now I’ve watched the blue card minimum go up, and the direct price go up, and I kind of feel like we missed out. But it’s kind of irrational. I’m not sure we would actually use many of the perks, but there’s a bit of FOMO, in being a white card member. But I’m still trying to decide if there is any real benefit to blue card for my family. We don’t get discounts, but we saved about $5,000 buying resale, i got my discounts all up front. We don’t go frequently enough to use annual passes. We don’t live close enough to be able to attend MM or special events/previews unless they happened to happen when we were already planning on being there (unlikely).

We’re talking about adding on a few more points and trying to decide if we should buy direct with the eventual goal of becoming blue card members, or if we should add resale and just enjoy the few thousand dollars we saved. There’s an emotional piece that makes me regret not going blue card at the beginning. But my math brain thinks we made the right call.

If I could go back in time I’d buy direct for the perks, if only to shut-up the emotional side. My math brain would be ok with it because it was a lot cheaper to get the blue card a few years ago, vs now.

If the chances of you using the “perks” (negligible perks) are slim to none, you shouldn’t even think about direct! Realize that Disney’s marketing is working on you and that you are being led like a lamb to the slaughter by emotional blackmail. Take the $5k saved and put it in a mutual fund or IRA. In 20 years you will thank yourself for not getting the blue card.

 

[Yinn]

I'm curious... we have the thread about why would anyone buy direct, but I'd love to know if anyone who only has resale sometimes kicks themselves for not buying direct (since the buy in minimum jumped to 150 points) or who has since done so for the blue card or is thinking about biting the bullet? Likewise, anyone who bought direct who thinks they might have been better off sticking with resale? If you had to do it over again, would you change your buying method? Feel like this is the one decision that causes the most angst (no, just me?!?) and would love to hear from others. Is the blue card worth the up front outlay? If the "value" of the card is MM (if you can get in), having the flexibility to stay at all future resorts (especially once several are done in 2042), plus lounge access, does it justify the added expense? I'm removing discounts from the equation since those can be had with an AP or Disney card... What say you?

Yes, I would have. I would’ve bought the newest property for the minimum buy.

The reason being is because we do enjoy our blue card, but overpaid for AKV. We could’ve for the same price gotten one of the newer resorts with more time. Especially since we later added 10x the points - all via resale anyway.

Does it justify the expense? No. But it does make a difference in terms of the experience.

 

[eandt]

We would not change ours, we got "burned" with available points and soured very early on with a resale offer. Ended up renting points again (highly recommend if you are on the fence about jumping into DVC) and then finally deciding DVC was right for us and direct was the way to go. A few emails with our guide a 30 minute phone call and we had points in our account ready to be used in a few hours. Couldn't have been smoother transaction. We have since added on another direct contract. Not saying never on resale, in fact we find ourselves looking from time to time and the prices are getting a bit enticing but at this point how we got here has been great for us.