Bill
I doubt you're going to get TOO much better of a deal through private sellers as you're still going to run into the ROFR issue if the deal is too good.
If the price is too low, Disney will step in and take it. There really is no benefit to the buyer to avoid a broker.
They often don't update those sites and/or use listings as a tool to draw you to them. It's a certainty that contract is not available or the price has changed. However there is potential savings for the buyer and additional money to the seller for a private sale. Assuming an arms length purchase, I'd say a price roughly 5% less than through a broker is about right. That gives the seller 5% more and saves the buyer the same %. It also opens up two additional area of savings. One is the ability to use a cheaper closing service and the other is it gives the potential to not overpay on the dues accounting. But it also exposes the buyer and seller to unreasonable people more often than you get through a broker or at least you're dealing with them directly rather than through the broker. And there is some potential for a scam. But there are also some opportunities to use for barter as well. I've personally traded one timeshare for a DVC contract, fortunately the value for each was roughly equal and we both wanted what the other had and both had reasonable expectations. I've looked at a number of other exchange opportunities using DVC (in both directions both trading DVC for something else and the reverse) and almost universally the other party wanted to over value what they owned or under value what I had or both. I wouldn't let the increased possibility of ROFR loss deter a potential good deal. I've seen contracts go through that you wouldn't have thought would. When I bought by BWV contract I had a different broker contact DVC to find out why they let it go through at a good $4 a point less than the usual minimum at the time. They really shouldn't have given them any information but they did.
It's been 14 years or so and I no longer have the documentation I had plus what I did have was second hand from the broker who was not involved with the sale. It was either a foreclosure or bankruptcy where DVD was directly involved and had the potential to look self serving, I just don't remember which one it was reported as. Whatever it was not disclosed as part of the sale but everything went through, I would never have known that info had the broker not contacted a friend at DVC. It was BWV at $50 a point for 333 points back when the ROFR floor seemed to be $54 pp. Do remember their process is specifically designed to minimize the information you can gleam for it as a buyer, seller or broker. It's main goal is to keep you guessing and create uncertainty not to secure cheap resale fodder.
