I bought the 5-day Bonus passes for Universal thru the
MasterCard 5 for 4 Offer at a total cost of $394.19 with shipping. I sold 2 to a friend for $180 (face value, before taxes and shipping). Note that the prices have gone up $20 total since I bought them.
A year ago, I had purchased two Universal Premium Annual pass vouchers when they offered "Buy One, Get One ½ Price". Cost for 2 vouchers with tax & shipping: $264.49 ($132.25 each). I'm using one on this trip because I was able to snag an awesome rate at the Portofino Bay with it ($202/night for a bay view!).
I have one WDW AP, purchased at the
DisneyStore. I bought it after getting an AP discount on my room. $89/night x 5 nights x 1.115 (tax factor) = $496.17 in savings on the room. The pass cost $403.64. I look at it as getting free admission to the parks for the next year.
3 "convention" 5-day PHPs, purchased thru Disney. Cost with taxes and shipping : $731. Passes expire 10 days from 1st day of use and they must be used before 12/31/04. If you'll be in Orlando for any kind of meeting (it doesn't have to be on Disney property), I highly recommend looking into these passes.
I think that a lot of it had to do with luck, reading the boards constantly and having the $$$ available to jump on the deals when they came up. For the Universal APs, I had to raid my change jar!
I also recommend subscribing to MouseSavers.com's monthly newsletter. There's a link in it almost every month to a special page at Ticketmania just for MouseSavers readers. The passes are discounted even more over what they charge on their public website. And they ship for free.