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Cheap Silver/White Week for Trading (2008 thread)

dioxide45

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Lifetime Member
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Location
NE Florida
Resorts Owned
Marriott Grande Vista
Marriott Harbour Lake
Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
If one was looking to purchase a cheap low season (white/silver) week for use in trading during flexchange, which would be the best? Important things are low MF's, lock off, and low upfront cost. Two possibilities come to mind.

Legends Edge (Silver) - Can book at Ocean Point at 6 months out and lock off. Deposit in to II for trades during flexchange. Couldn't find what the MF are for silver as they don't appear in the MF list.

Horizons Branson (Silver) - Can lock off at 12 months out and deposit in II for trades in flexchange. MF ~$700.

We have great flexibility to book on short notice. Like the ability to "upgrade" to a larger unit as we sometimes have others travel with us. Also would have the Marriott internal exchange preference, even if only 3 days.

What would one expect to pay for these? Were either sold as an EOY option?

Anything else I may be missing?
 
Within flex, trading power isn't going to matter, so you want the absolute cheapest week with the absolute best MF bang-for-your-buck.

Outside Marriott, the answer would be Worldmark points. 4,000 points for any flex trade in II.

Within Marriott, the answer is a Summit Watch bronze week, $1,500 from Marriott, around $900 in MF, and you can lock it off and get two flex trades with the Marriott advantage. Outside of flex? Won't have much value at all.
 
I agree with the suggestion of a Summit Watch bronze week, but want to point out that the MF were almost $1,000 for 2008. I expect they will rise above $1,000 in 2009. But you can't beat these weeks for Flexchange exchanges!
 
If you're looking to stay at a Marriott, that Marriott priority is extremely important, especially during flexchange. I check every AM in the summer using both my Marriott studio and non-Marriott studio. The best Marriott weeks only come up with my Marriott studio and they are usually gone within minutes and never last for more than a day or two. I can never see them with my non-Marriott.

As for LE EOY silver - if you check carefully enough you might be able to find one. Many people didn't think OP was sold in EOY, but I have 2 EOY gold weeks. They weren't openly marketing EOY when I bought, but brought it put when I balked at the price of a week. Since it was my pre-TUG days, I bit, with the option to purchasing the other half within a year's time at the 40% price (which I did). Having had such a hard time selling LE, there might be a few of these out there.
 
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Summit Watch bronze does not trade very well, but a Blue week (the equivalent of a bronze week) out at Desert Villas I or II do! If you book the right week it trades as red and not as yellow. Because there is a full service hotel on the grounds it ranks very high on II's scale (8 out 10) The M.F.'s aren't the cheapest, but you can pick up those weeks pretty cheap. You won't believe the trades you can get with those weeks!

Good luck!
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I had read about Summit Watch bronze. However, with the MF ~$1000, add to that $200 for the exhange fees and one is paying ~$600 for each week. Compare this to a resort with ~$700 MF and then exhange fees it is closer to $450 a week.

Annual cost is a bigger factor in the decision than upfront cost, but the lower upfront cost the better.

Trading power really isn't at issue here as most if not all weeks would be in Flexchange.
 
Do you pay extra to lockout a Summit Watch? I thought about getting one of these Bronze weeks, but I would rather have something that trades well and would get some respect in a Marriott internal system. It's a difficult decision to decide what to buy, plus I cannot afford much right now. I was thinking of Branson, but I want bottom-dollar price, and I know some slip through....
 
rickandcindy23 said:
Do you pay extra to lockout a Summit Watch? I thought about getting one of these Bronze weeks, but I would rather have something that trades well and would get some respect in a Marriott internal system. It's a difficult decision to decide what to buy, plus I cannot afford much right now. I was thinking of Branson, but I want bottom-dollar price, and I know some slip through....
Click to expand...

I owned two UT Silver weeks and couldn't wait to unload them. I searched each morning and believe me it was difficult to find a trade. I finally traded my last week a few weeks ago. They sat in my account for years. I wouldn't buy any of the UT weeks in anything less than Platinum time.

I think that either DS I or DSII would be a good choice in the off season.

I think a silver Barony or GO (and maybe Surfwatch) with the right week reserved, will do very well for trading no matter if it is flexchange or not.
 
A platinum Marriott Legends Edge just sold on eBay for $4600 (I almost bought it). Just before trading my MLE July 2009 week for a 2BR July 2009 Ko'Olina week, I checked into Ocean Pointe availability. There were plenty of January and March weeks and a few February weeks available at OP. In September, if my trade hadn't come through, I was thinking about booking a March OP week and locking it off.

With MLE you would definately have a decent trader and multiple options at a low price. 2008 MF = $865

Terry
 
thinze3 said:
A platinum Marriott Legends Edge just sold on eBay for $4600 (I almost bought it). Just before trading my MLE July 2009 week for a 2BR July 2009 Ko'Olina week, I checked into Ocean Pointe availability. There were plenty of January and March weeks and a few February weeks available at OP. In September, if my trade hadn't come through, I was thinking about booking a March OP week and locking it off.

With MLE you would definately have a decent trader and multiple options at a low price. 2008 MF = $865

Terry
Click to expand...

Terry, Do you know if the silver week MF for MLE is also $856? The MF list only shows platinum. Unfortunately buying silver MLE won't allow one to use the Florida Club to get in to MPB platinum season. I guess the question is, how good is a MPB silver week as a trader outside of flexchange? Silver at MPB is weeks 18-21 and 35-50. This is mainly hurricane season. MPB is the only FC resort with a silver season and lock off so it would be the only option if one goes with MLE. I don't know how cheaply one could pick up a MLE silver week for. I think Marriott sold them for around $7500 at the end. They may still have some on the books.
 
My sister owns an OP silver week and it has been a very good trader. In the last couple years, all OUTSIDE of flexchange, She has traded into 2 BR at Disney Wilderness Lodge (September), Surfwatch (August), and Ocean Watch (April), just to name a few. I think she paid around $11K developer, but not positive. A lot of people like to go there during November and December - it's a nice break from the cold of the northeast. Also, silver includes Thanksgiving week.
 
luv2vacation said:
Also, silver includes Thanksgiving week.
Click to expand...

It may be difficult for one to book Thanksgiving week at 6 months out with the FC. Were your sisters trades with Thanksgiving week?
 
dioxide45 said:
Were your sisters trades with Thanksgiving week?
Click to expand...

No, I'm sure they weren't. She's not the least bit TS savvy, I'm sure she just takes whatever Marriott gives her when she wants to exchange.

I've tried & tried to help her learn how to use her TS (even) better but she just can't be bothered. To me, it's enough that I got her to buy it - at least, after 20 years of marriage, she finally takes a vacation every year on her own (instead of just waiting to go on mine :rolleyes: ).
 
dioxide45 said:
It may be difficult for one to book Thanksgiving week at 6 months out with the FC. Were your sisters trades with Thanksgiving week?
Click to expand...

Your correct. The "good" silver weeks would all be gone at the six month mark, and if you waited for the second half of the MPB silver season, you may not get anything at all.

I'll bet that you can buy a MLE Gold for next to nothing. Then you would have a great summer season at MPB. Summer at MPB is platinum at the new Oceana resort down the street.


Terry
 
MLE Gold and Florida Club

We have a MLE Gold and have always used Florida Club to obtain Beach Place (May), GV (May) and OP (summer). All have traded for whatever we wanted. We've never been there and are happy to own it.
 
IMHO, forget about Marriott seasons and look at the II seasons. Therefore: The Palm Spring's resorts have cheap summer weeks (silver or blue seasons) but they are red in II. (Granted they are pink not really red) They will likely trade much better than the other weeks talked about, which II lists as yellow or green weeks.
 
I have a Silver Shadow Ridge week and have traded twice into Newport Coast Villas. Once in February a few months out (not great weather) and this year for the first week of September (should be fabulous weather). I never really new how to do trading before I found TUG and now I think I'm more confident about being able to get some great trades.

I spoke to another TUG member a while back who owns Silver SR as does his dad and dad's friend. Together they have all traded into Hawaii with their silver weeks over a dozen times. Sometimes even in prime summer. His dad has also traded into NCV in prime summer before. I think the 24 day Marriott priority has helped a lot in those cases.

We can't wait to try for Hawaii someday. We plan to never use our actual owners week again, since hearing these success stories.


Janna
 
What would be a good price for a silver week at MLE or one of the Palm Desert resorts?

Thanks
 
Historically, A good price for the summer weeks at Palm Desert was about $5000 but in recent months that seem kind of high. Since, some fall weeks Gold/White season have been selling for about $6000, I'd look at about $4,000 maybe less for the summer weeks.
 
I have no info about ROFR, but there have some Horizons Branson Silver weeks been sold on ebay for less than $1,500 in the last few months.

So this would beat Summit Watch Bronze in annual fees and upfront cost.

Outside flexchange I would expect Branson silver to trade marginally better than summit Watch bronze, but still very poor.

Any strong arguments against Branson silver?


dioxide45 said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I had read about Summit Watch bronze. However, with the MF ~$1000, add to that $200 for the exhange fees and one is paying ~$600 for each week. Compare this to a resort with ~$700 MF and then exhange fees it is closer to $450 a week.

Annual cost is a bigger factor in the decision than upfront cost, but the lower upfront cost the better.

Trading power really isn't at issue here as most if not all weeks would be in Flexchange.
Click to expand...
 
abdibile said:
I have no info about ROFR, but there have some Horizons Branson Silver weeks been sold on ebay for less than $1,500 in the last few months.

So this would beat Summit Watch Bronze in annual fees and upfront cost.

Outside flexchange I would expect Branson silver to trade marginally better than summit Watch bronze, but still very poor.

Any strong arguments against Branson silver?
Click to expand...

I think Branson silver may be the better choice. The lower MF and possibly lower buy in price (resale) will prove to be better in the long run. Finding them though it not easy. Guess I have to be methodical at watching EBay.
 
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We bought a silver Horizons Branson EOY for $1,200 and sold it for that same price.
 
Took a presentation for Oceana Palms the other day (should have some photos of the model unit to post shortly). We discussed this strategy with the sales rep and he confirmed that Branson and Legends Edge would likely be the best options. He also mentioned Doral, but I think the MF are too high for this to be effective. Marriott has very little Ledends Edge and Branson silver inventory, but he could make a deal. A Branson silver doesn't have a MRP redemption, so that negates any benefit of paying developer price.

I plan to be on the lookout for either resort in silver EY or EOY. A MLE silver recently went on EBay for around $1700.
 
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