Won comp tickets in auction, not upgradable - now what?

[jbish]

Someone posted the following photo online. I found it interesting...it looks like the letter from Disney that accompanies comp tickets donated to charities. It pretty clearly says that the organization is responsible for showing all the ticket restrictions. It also says that the letter must accompany the tickets.
View attachment 156980

This is the exact letter we got. In fairness to the organizers, it says the letter must be accompany the tickets FOR USE - nothing about bidding or anything like that. Had I seen this letter at the time of the bidding, for sure I would not have bid. Maybe I would have bid up to $200 or something, but not much higher than that as I would have needed to buy another one-day ticket for someone in the family to use on our trip.

 

[VTGirlinNC]

OP, thank you so much for sharing your experience! I am going to a silent auction tonight and was planning to bid on these same tickets (4 one day hoppers). I have done all the calculations to determine the price I am willing to pay, based on the fact that we need 5 day tickets. It never crossed my mind that they would not be upgradeable. Thanks to this post, I will not be bidding on these tickets. Sorry you had to go through that, but I'm so glad it all worked out for you.

 

[mshanson3121]

$425

That definitely sucks, but it's not Disney's fault, and they're not going to do anything about it. I agree with some others, mention it to whoever headed up the fundraiser that next time they should make people aware. If I were you I'd try and sell them on eBay.

 

[mshanson3121]

But weren't you already planning on buying tickets? It's not like you bought a set of five tickets and now have to buy another set of five

She's out a lot of money. She's already spent $425. She still has to turn around and buy (4) four day park hoppers, and (1) 5 day park hopper, for a cost of $2000 (the 4 day passes are the same price as 5 day right now on UT). So that's $2425.

If she had been able to do what she was thinking (upgrade to the 5 day hoppers, plus buy the extra 5 day hopper), it would have only cost her an extra $1345 extra (approx), or a total cost of $1770.

Quite a big difference. She'd have been better off just buying them from UT, where she could have gotten (5) 5 day park hoppers for her family for $200, basically she's out every cent she paid for them.

 

[DavidNYC]

This is the situation, exactly.

Well, all's well that ends well. Our eBay listing was successful and we have been made whole. Whew!!

Honestly, these boards have been so instrumental over the years. It's too bad I didn't know about comp tickets ahead of time. But it sounds like I may have also helped others through this experience. Thanks!!

Congrats! Glad e-bay worked. As I noted a few pages ago, based on what you paid and how easily those were selling on e-bay I had no doubt you'd at least get your money back plus be able to give someone out there a decent deal on the tickets.

 

[DisMommyTX]

Using these tickets would be a waste of money for the OP.

Does it say anywhere that they cannot be sold or transferred? OP could probably sell them on ebay or Craigslist for about what she paid. Just be honest about the restrictions, how you came to be in possession of them, and why you are selling them. You would still have to pay full price for your tickets but at least get out of the hole.

A second option is to donate them to another charity event. If you regularly itemize your taxes then you can recoup some money in the form of a tax deduction. Doesn't give you money back in your pocket now, but it is fiscally better than each person using a 1-day and a 4-day ticket. Plus, the tickets could benefit another charity and family, assuming all details are properly revealed in advance!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

the OP has already sold the tickets.

 

[AZMermaid]

What if you use all four days for one person (child)? Then buy one child's single day park pass for that child for about $100 depending on park/days. I didn't run the numbers... and you will still be out some money, but it might be better than buying 4 days hoppers for everyone.

Eta- Oops, saw you sold them, glad it all ended well.

 

[goofyernmost]

The OP has 4 separate tickets for 4 separate guests, but...
we'll only discuss one ticket to keep it simple.
Let's say the OP needs 5 days at the parks.
If the OP bought a new 4-day ticket at WDW and used the Comp ticket for the 5th day, that comp ticket would then only be "worth" about $15.
I'm thinking that the OP paid a lot more than that for the Comp ticket at the auction.

The other option would be to buy a single one-day ticket for one of the guests and have that guest also use all 4 of the Comp tickets, one for each of the other 4 days.
That would be very "wasteful" of the Comp tickets' total potential value, as well.

Yea, I guess I can understand that, but, if the auction were for a charity that has to be figured in as well. The price paid is not for the ticket but to benefit whatever the occasion was about. The ticket was just a happy side effect of a donation. And $15.00 is $15.00. Make believe that it is the first one used which it could be, and then the individual ticket is worth one day admission, full price. The rest are on a descending scale depending on the number of days purchased. I don't know how much was paid for it, but, it seems that the money was spent on something else and the ticket was just an extra benefit or reward, if you will, for their generosity.

Isn't it the same as buying (example) a four day ticket and getting an extra day in the park at no charge at all? One could have donated that money with no perk, and they still would have paid the extra cost of five days. It's not what they bought, it's where the money went. In this case... not to Disney.

 

[Robo]

Yea, I guess I can understand that, but, if the auction were for a charity that has to be figured in as well. The price paid is not for the ticket but to benefit whatever the occasion was about. The ticket was just a happy side effect of a donation. And $15.00 is $15.00.

1. Make believe that it is the first one used which it could be, and then the individual ticket is worth one day admission, full price. The rest are on a descending scale depending on the number of days purchased. I don't know how much was paid for it, but, it seems that the money was spent on something else and the ticket was just an extra benefit or reward, if you will, for their generosity.

2. Isn't it the same as buying (example) a four day ticket and getting an extra day in the park at no charge at all? One could have donated that money with no perk, and they still would have paid the extra cost of five days. It's not what they bought, it's where the money went. In this case... not to Disney.

1. That would then make the "make believe cost" of the other four-day ticket outrageously expensive. Not a benefit to the park guest that way, either.

2. Charity auctions are different than simply giving money to a charity.
If they weren't, charities wouldn't bother with them (as they ARE a lot of trouble for the charities to arrange for the auction items.)

Consider the venerable PBS TV auctions.
If the merchandise was not of some value to the bidders, what's the point?

So, in the case of charity auctions, much of the "value" that the charity ultimately gets in the overall process is in the relative value of the original gifts from the donors of the auction items.

 

[mshanson3121]

So glad you were able to sell them! And glad you posted this thread, good information for other people to have!

 

[patty57]

I'm surprised that others have such good luck with selling tickets online. I had two, 7 day hoppers that I wanted to sell for what I paid for them on Craigslist. There had already been two price increases, so they were a very good deal. All I got were two very low ball offers. They were UT tickets, so ultimately, I returned them to UT minus the restocking fee of (I think) 5%.
Anyway, happy for the OP on the ticket resolution.

 

[goofyernmost]

1. That would then make the "make believe cost" of the other four-day ticket outrageously expensive. Not a benefit to the park guest that way, either.

2. Charity auctions are different than simply giving money to a charity.
If they weren't, charities wouldn't bother with them (as they ARE a lot of trouble for the charities to arrange for the auction items.)

Consider the venerable PBS TV auctions.
If the merchandise was not of some value to the bidders, what's the point?

So, in the case of charity auctions, much of the "value" that the charity ultimately gets in the overall process is in the relative value of the original gifts from the donors of the auction items.

Robo, you are missing my point. Charity auctions are indeed different, as you said. They solicit donated items to be auctioned off to encourage people to spend money that otherwise they might not. If a person is in the market for a one day ticket at a good price, while still making a contribution to whatever it is that they are supporting, then that ticket is probably worth around $100.00 in value when redeemed and whatever they paid is what it's worth to the charity. However, there are restrictions placed by the original donator and that is that it can't be upgraded, because they only want that expense once and at $100.00 it is a good tax deduction for them. Clean and easy!

Now if the purchaser decides to combine it then, as you say, it loses it's value and also it's worth as a contribution and record keeping becomes really messy. As it is more then one person is taking a tax deduction on the same merchandise. On the other hand if you buy a 5 day ticket, it is not a tax deduction for anyone. For the purchaser it is a non-tax related expense and for Disney it is taxable income.

So it's up to the individual to know what they are buying and plan accordingly. They can use it separately and just the one, and have a value of $100.00 (+-) or choose to think of it as a part of the package and therefore only worth the $15.00. All they were buying is one (1) day admission, not a package deal. The extra time required is just that, extra time.

 

[brooke789]

Thinking about this thread today because at my work (an event center) there is a group right now having a raffle for WDW tickets. There is virtually no info on their signs! Now, this is a raffle and not a silent auction. So, $10 raffle ticket to try to win 4 1 day hoppers. There is literally zero info other than it is a $600 value. So, I'm sure they're just like the ones mentioned in this thread with blackout dates, not upgradable, etc etc. If I won them I'd be happy for my $10 but still surprised they don't mention the 'fine print'.

 

[jbish]

Thinking about this thread today because at my work (an event center) there is a group right now having a raffle for WDW tickets. There is virtually no info on their signs! Now, this is a raffle and not a silent auction. So, $10 raffle ticket to try to win 4 1 day hoppers. There is literally zero info other than it is a $600 value. So, I'm sure they're just like the ones mentioned in this thread with blackout dates, not upgradable, etc etc. If I won them I'd be happy for my $10 but still surprised they don't mention the 'fine print'.

I would guess that these are similar tickets - if it's a raffle for a fundraiser, I'd guess that it would be these comp tickets. That "fine print" is really quite essential, I would think. But, hey, for your $10, that's a great deal! That literally would be what it would cost to add one more day on to a multi-day ticket anyway. Hope you win!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Glad you were able to sell the tickets.

This is the exact letter we got. In fairness to the organizers, it says the letter must be accompany the tickets FOR USE - nothing about bidding or anything like that. Had I seen this letter at the time of the bidding, for sure I would not have bid. Maybe I would have bid up to $200 or something, but not much higher than that as I would have needed to buy another one-day ticket for someone in the family to use on our trip.

I still see that this is on the organizers. If they had read it (and I doubt they did, because so few people read things anymore) they could have thought for 2 seconds and realized that the info in that letter was *important*. Important for the people bidding to USE the tickets to know about ahead of time!

I seriously could not participate in those auctions in the future. I don't care who it was for, I just couldn't.

Thinking about this thread today because at my work (an event center) there is a group right now having a raffle for WDW tickets. There is virtually no info on their signs! Now, this is a raffle and not a silent auction. So, $10 raffle ticket to try to win 4 1 day hoppers. There is literally zero info other than it is a $600 value. So, I'm sure they're just like the ones mentioned in this thread with blackout dates, not upgradable, etc etc. If I won them I'd be happy for my $10 but still surprised they don't mention the 'fine print'.

Show them the letter they should be showing with the tickets. Tell them it's important info to have. Explain WHY.