posted 04-05-2005 14:22            

I've been researching and trying to learn for a long long time now, and I haven't pulled the trigger yet on anything major. I bought a very inexpensive and very low MF Texas timeshare in order to get into RCI points. I then bought a few very inexpensive resale weeks at a place right near my house, which gives me the flexibility to have a place that family and friends can stay and visit, or alternatively, I can deposit weeks we're not going use into my points account. This has worked out nicely so far. While my overall yearly maintenance fees are probably not as rock bottom as they could be on a "per point" basis, it's not a big deal, since I will always have use for the weeks apart from exchanging, and overall my fees are very low for what I get. Doing all this has enabled me to get into the exchange/points world for a tiny initial outlay, get some first hand experience with rci exchanges and the benefits and limitations.

Having this little inexpensive hobby has gotten the "bug" out of my system to jump in head first, and has allowed me to learn more and more while I do more research.

posted 04-05-2005 14:31               

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Originally posted by lark:
I would very strongly second the advice not to rush into anything. Maybe start with something very modest.

I've been researching and trying to learn for a long long time now, and I haven't pulled the trigger yet on anything major. I bought a very inexpensive and very low MF Texas timeshare in order to get into RCI points. I then bought a few very inexpensive resale weeks at a place right near my house, which gives me the flexibility to have a place that family and friends can stay and visit, or alternatively, I can deposit weeks we're not going use into my points account. This has worked out nicely so far. While my overall yearly maintenance fees are probably not as rock bottom as they could be on a "per point" basis, it's not a big deal, since I will always have use for the weeks apart from exchanging, and overall my fees are very low for what I get. Doing all this has enabled me to get into the exchange/points world for a tiny initial outlay, get some first hand experience with rci exchanges and the benefits and limitations.

Having this little inexpensive hobby has gotten the "bug" out of my system to jump in head first, and has allowed me to learn more and more while I do more research.

To be honest, though, what I'm finding is that it's kind of difficult to justify buying anything else. I've had great luck with renting for the last couple of years as I've been learning, and I'm skeptical whether it's cost me very much at all -- in fact, the flexibility has been great. I'm starting to think that I might not buy anything else and just simply keep renting.

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posted 04-06-2005 15:07               

It's "by guess, by gosh" as the old saying goes. You can read here and ask questions to get a feel for related experiences of others in the past. Nothing is guaranteed, however, and things do change from year to year and over time.

You just have to make a judgement call and do what seems most likely to get you the vacations you want after you've done your homework. Then, like most TUGgers, you tweek the mix indefinitely trying to get it perfect.

JMHO.

posted 04-07-2005 12:56               

I was fully awear of the cheap SA & Aussie weeks but for some unexplainable reason I felt more comfortable buying in the US. I went with a Wapato point purchase. If I'm not mistaken Wapato Point has the cheapest RCI Points conversion rate in the US
& the mf ain't bad either

I mention Wapato point because in your neck of the woods but you seem to be like my wife & I, we feel like there are so many beautiful places yet unseen (by us), we go to different places every vacation.

posted 04-07-2005 15:30               

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Originally posted by FenBat:

When I'm checking out a possible timeshare for purchase, how do I determine its demand, or exchange value? Is there somewhere that rates the demand? Can I see its history of bookings? How about current reservations?

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The problem here is that the major exchange companies keep their evalutions for trade power purposes as tightly held trade secrets. As a result, there is no good way for anybody to really assemble the information you seek.

Points systems take some of the mystery out, in that the number of points assigned to a week becomes a matter of public information, although the rationale for the number of points assigned any given week sometimes seems to be determined by studying chicken entrails rather than any sane analyses of supply vs demand vs quality.

We can get some glimmer of relative trade power between specific resorts/weeks by doing comparative trade tests. In these, people with various weeks deposited all agree to do an online search with their exchange company. All must search for the same thing, at the same time, and then submit their results so they can be compiled. By studying the compiled results we can learn something of the relative strength of the deposited weeks used for the test.

But even with this, there is still a mind boggling assortment of variables that make the results hard to interpret, such as how far before checkin date the weeks were deposited (this can have a significant effect with RCI, less effect with II), the aforementioned quality ratings of the resort (if your resort "pulls" more possible exchanges than somebody else's but only to lower quality resorts, is this a good thing or a bad thing?), etc. Also, trade power can change with time -- what may have been a tiger trader because it was in a high demand/low supply situation can change drastically if a lot of new resorts are built in the area.

Trade tests are run here whenever somebody steps up and volunteers to handle the back end of assembling the returns. If you'd like to see what has been done before, go to the Sightings forum (reserved for TUG Members) and click on the announcements link above upper left corner of the topic list.

posted 04-08-2005 09:51               

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Originally posted by Makai Guy:

Trade tests are run here whenever somebody steps up and volunteers to handle the back end of assembling the returns.

[/B]

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posted 04-10-2005 13:53               

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Originally posted by FenBat:
I don't think anyone addressed my question about determining the trading value:

When I'm checking out a possible timeshare for purchase, how do I determine its demand, or exchange value? Is there somewhere that rates the demand? Can I see its history of bookings? How about current reservations?

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Fenbat,

Since you are looking into RCI points I am confused by your question of 'exchange value'. If you are set on RCI points then exchange value is non-existant. You just book where you want to go if there are exchanges available.

It is only in weeks exchanges or points programs the exchange through weeks exchanges that exchange value matters.

Scott

posted 04-10-2005 15:11               

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Originally posted by Leturno:
Since you are looking into RCI points I am confused by your question of 'exchange value'. If you are set on RCI points then exchange value is non-existant. You just book where you want to go if there are exchanges available.

It is only in weeks exchanges or points programs the exchange through weeks exchanges that exchange value matters.

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I see what you mean. Using points seems to make it easy to determine exchange value. Is a point a point no matter where you go? Can the point value fluctuate over time?

posted 04-10-2005 16:56               

Yes the Point values will change in time for some point resorts as they age or go down hill from bad management or from the owners being to cheap on maintenance fees.

Yes seeing the trades that a unit has gotten in the past can be helpfull but the trading exchanging dynamics have seemed to have changed quite a bit in the last two years for a lot of ownerships.

IMMO besides RCI Points the closest the exchange companies come to tell you about a weeks trade power is II's Peak Exchange periods.

As the other experianced Tuggers have posted before on thid string there is no one definative correct answer as there will always be changes effecting all power of all timeshares.

One more recent happening in the past several years has been the expansion of the all inclusives in Mexico which IMHO has to a degree effected all of the Mexican timeshare trade values.

IMHO the non inclusive resorts now have a higher demand than the the all inclusive resorts that were formally not all inclusives.

IMHO I would suggest that you do not buy any timeshare untill you get a excellant understanding of all of the differant dynamics of the timeshare system.

Bruce

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Originally posted by FenBat:
I see what you mean. Using points seems to make it easy to determine exchange value. Is a point a point no matter where you go? Can the point value fluctuate over time?

Also, just because something is RED, how do you know how many bookings it receives? If you buy resale, is this something the owner should share?

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posted 04-10-2005 18:36               

The trading power of a week can be determined by luck, magic, and calculated guess. Many experienced Tuggers have scored medium and high powered weeks with low maintenance fees that, with a lot of work and planning, let us score incredible bargain vacations.

The trading power of points is generally a simpler calculation. You can figure out your cost per point and see how many points it takes to go somewhere at a particular time. You can work the system, but not really as much as with Weeks. Ultimately, it is a points per dollar calculation...and that's my problem with it. Points are just dollars by another name. It's renting, the same way converting your dollars to Euros before renting would be renting. You can get a great deal on the conversion rate, but there's no magic.

posted 04-11-2005 10:11               

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Originally posted by cz:
IMHO I would suggest that you do not buy any timeshare untill you get a excellant understanding of all of the differant dynamics of the timeshare system.Bruce

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