I find this topic interesting after being a TS owner for 22 yrs. While on a vacation in Orlando with my wife and 6 yr old son at the time, we went on our first TS tour (I'd call it sales salvo) at Vistana in 1996. I fell for the pitch and purchased a 2BR for what I think was $14K. Next day we went to the Marriott Royal Palms. While I was listening to the secondary pitch by the sales mgr to buy a 2 BR unit for $17K, I blurted out as a defensive comeback, "your prices are too high - I'd buy a resale if they were lower". It just popped in my head that there must be some people that want out of their units, so why can't I buy one of them? The sales mgr immediately took me into another room and had a fairly lengthy list of re-sales. I purchased a floating Red Week (although deed is for July 4th week) for $12,500, or $4,500 less than the other sales room. Then I realized that I probably screwed up on the Vistana purchase, but had 10 days to rescind. I returned home and looked around on the internet (when it took a minute or two for a page to download) and saw re-sale companies even then. I called one and was told that I could get Vistana for 1/2 of what I paid, or less. Wow, I immediately rescinded my Vistana purchase. I then found TUG and called and spoke with Brian's father at great length and joined. I used to call periodically and we had great conversations.
The following year I went back to Orlando and did a tour at Cypress Pointe (was a Gold Crown and nice in 1997) and they wanted $16,500 for a 3BR. I then found the same unit for $5000 on the internet as a resale and bought it. I used to rent it for nearly 2x my maint fees through TUG and recouped my $5000 back in about 7 yrs. Never once stepped foot in the resort and either rented or deposited into RCI for maximum points. I would tell anyone I ran into to go on tours but buy on internet (or some form of resale) after they understand the pricing. I recently flipped the Cypress Pointe back to Diamond and was glad to be rid of it - the maint fees had doubled since 1997 and it ran it's life cycle with me - impossible to rent and points through RCI deposit were only 2/3 of where they once were, while the cost of owning doubled! I kept the Marriott only b/c we can turn the unit back for hotel points, even though it is no longer a good trade-off, since the points are the same as in 1996, but the points to stay at a Marriott hotel has risen 50-100% since 1996. I called Marriott earlier this year and they said the average resale price for my unit was $4000 to me if they sell it. I decided to hold onto the Royal Palms a few more years.
I must admit that I was really into TUG for about 7 years after I joined and then dropped out. Spotted it online a few years back and decided to re-join and have appreciated the forums. It was this forum that enlightened me to deed-back my Cypress Pointe TS to Diamond earlier this year. Very good decision. TUG has really grown from the mid-1990s for sure. I belong to II and RCI both but use them to book cruises only. If I wanted a TS week I think I would rent one online like TUG classifieds. With so many TS rentals on the market, I would guess that there would be a lot less owners if they knew they could find good rentals all the time on sites like TUG, and never be on the hook for maint fees that increase too much over the years, at least in my case. Even my Marriott maint fees are 2x what they were in 1996.
