# Huge Fairfield Ebay auction



## CaliDave (Nov 29, 2006)

It would be a fulltime job to manage all these points

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290056692406

any thoughts on the value of these?


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## arlene22 (Nov 29, 2006)

Wow! That's some maintenance fee!
I wonder why they didn't break them up? Can't imagine it will be easy to find a buyer for so many points...


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## Jya-Ning (Nov 29, 2006)

Actually, if you use it to reserve the president 4 BR in Wikiki, you will get between 5 to 6 week.  Each week count as $1500.  Not that bad.

The owner probably has all in one contract, so unless FF willing to help break it, it is close to impossible for the owner to break it.  And I doubt even if FF could do it since it may involve some local TS rules.

Jya-Ning


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## reddiablosv (Nov 30, 2006)

*Full time, Full time living!!*

Here is somebody's chance to live 52 weeks in a year in a timeshare.  Heck, they might even have a few points left over.  Ben


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## Bill4728 (Dec 1, 2006)

reddiablosv said:
			
		

> Here is somebody's chance to live 52 weeks in a year in a timeshare.  Heck, they might even have a few points left over.  Ben



That is what I was thinking. 6 million points divided by 52 weeks is 115K points per week. With cheap condos in Vegas selling for >$500K maybe spending $100K wouldn't be so bad.


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## maiwah (Dec 1, 2006)

$2,000 a month for maintenance?  I don't think so.


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## Steamboat Bill (Dec 2, 2006)

I don't know anything about the FF program, but the price seems like a bargain. 

I am HAPPY to see owners with TS investments with over $100,000 value. I think this is a very small market of buyers and is healthy for the industry. I used to have over 1,000 DVC points ($80,000 cost at the time) but sold 1/2 of them as I never used all the points and renting was a hassle.

At least the ownership comes with a free RCI membership (an annual savings of $99).


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## JudyS (Dec 2, 2006)

Hmmm, it's being sold by Laman34, whom I believe is one of those "pay us to take your timeshare off your hands" people.   I wonder if someone paid him to take this timeshare off their hands?


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## Giselherr (Dec 3, 2006)

That comes out to approx .016 cents a point -- but since they aren't "developer" points, you won't get VIP status.


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## BocaBum99 (Dec 3, 2006)

This would be a good purchase for someone who is already a VIP Gold or Platinum owner.  Since the market for 6M point accounts is so small, I expect this ownership to sell for less than $50k.

Here is my business case for this purchase if you are already a Platinum VIP:

1) Offer $50k.  I'd be surprised if they didn't accept it.

2) Use the 50% discount on less than 60-day reservations.  List them on eBay like all of the current FF renters do.  I did one assessment where they were getting about $10/1000 points after discount and eBay fees.  That is a margin of $6/1000 points.  So, the net annual return would be roughly $36k on a $50k investment.  72%.  Not bad.

You'd probably have to do 100 rentals per year to net this return with the average rental requiring about 60000 points.  So, it would be quite a bit of work, but imminently doable.

Any VIP Platinums out there interested?  Let me know and I'll show you how to do it.


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## acesneights (Dec 3, 2006)

Too bad FF/WYN took away the ability to deposit an actual FF LV week. These points aren't really special anymore.


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## topcop400 (Dec 4, 2006)

Giselherr said:
			
		

> That comes out to approx .016 cents a point -- but since they aren't "developer" points, you won't get VIP status.



Wouldn't it be FUN to watch a sales weasel trying to convince the buyer that they needed to buy MORE points for VIP status?


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## prasadv1 (Dec 5, 2006)

I think it is not cheap.
Ebay item 290056647386 by same laman34 went for $5202 for 504000 points.
So if you buy 10 of them like that you wll get 5,040,000 for 52000.
He is asking 97000 for  5 million points.

Prasad


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## mishugana (Dec 5, 2006)

JudyS said:
			
		

> Hmmm, it's being sold by Laman34, whom I believe is one of those "pay us to take your timeshare off your hands" people.   I wonder if someone paid him to take this timeshare off their hands?




They are crooks


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## mishugana (Dec 11, 2006)

auction ended nobody bought


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## topcop400 (Jan 1, 2007)

*It's Back!!*

The auction for six million points is back.  This time it started at $.01 with no reserve and is a thirty-day auction.  It's going to sell this time.

http://tinyurl.com/ye32lb


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 1, 2007)

Already at 30K. Think it will go to 50K at least.  Too bad i dont have that much spare, heck i could change job and do this full time!


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## GeorgeJ. (Jan 6, 2007)

BocaBum99 said:


> This would be a good purchase for someone who is already a VIP Gold or Platinum owner.  Since the market for 6M point accounts is so small, I expect this ownership to sell for less than $50k.
> 
> Here is my business case for this purchase if you are already a Platinum VIP:
> 
> ...



Did you figure in high Ebay listing fees in your calculations? Most Fairfield Grand Desert rental auctions go unsold. You might need to list each one 5-10 times to sell it, if it sells at all.

My feeling is that the glut of auctions turns people off. They get the feeling that something is not kosher when they see 50 FF Grand Desert rentals on Ebay at the same time..

No way of telling if these people rent most of their time there OFF EBAY since many of the auctions are really advertising trying to get e-mails from people wanting OTHER time periods in Vegas. It's possible that their rentals are generated through Ebay and not ON Ebay so that they'd save the Ebay fee on the sales price. My feeling is that sooner or later, Ebay will kick these sellers off when they finally look at their auctions and figure out what they're really doing...

But bottom line, getting ten rentals a month off Ebay, each and every month, to keep this thing rented out, would be pretty difficult (in getting the rentals). It wouldn't take all that much time, since you could just keep running the same basic ad over and over...

Bocabum99, did you also figure in the $2000 a month maint. fees in your calculations? Right there, that would eat up maybe a rental a week easy. So in the neighborhood of 50 rentals a year would be needed to just break even on the maintenance fees...Does Fairfield have a reservation fee (such as Hilton's $49 reservation fee each reservation you make) for each reservation? Or guest certifiacte fee? (This too used to cost $49 each from Hilton before they dropped the fee a year ago)

Interesting idea, but I think all the possible fees would cut the profit down to nearly nothing. Another fee would be 3%+ to Paypal since most renters would most likely pay that way rather than by check or money order..


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## GeorgeJ. (Jan 6, 2007)

My other question is who on earth would have bought a package with 6 million points?

Someone who was told they could stay 365 days a year in a one bedroom unit if they bought this many points?

Wouldn't be a bad deal if you didn't have to pay $25,000 a year in maintenance fees...That's the real bummer..having to shell out $2000 a month on top of the purchase price to live in a one-bedroom condo...You could RENT a nicer one-bedroom condo for much less; or rent a nice 3 or 4 bedroom house for less than that per month...


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## acesneights (Jan 6, 2007)

With points renting for $6 or even $6.50/K.

That's $12,000 to $15,000 on a $97K investment.

Stan


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 6, 2007)

I dont know how you calculate this but for me 5 968 000 points that you rent at 6$ for every 1000 pts gets 35 808$  Pretty good investment if it sells around 50K!!! Even with the MF, should take only a few years (less than 5) to make profit!


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## acesneights (Jan 6, 2007)

The MF are $24,000. 

So $6/K * 6 million = $36,000 - $24K=$12K

Aces


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 6, 2007)

Ok but as i wrote, IF it sells for 50K, after 5 years you're making profit and the points are paid! You only have to deal with the MF!  At 97K it is a non sense to me, but at 50K...


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## BocaBum99 (Jan 7, 2007)

GeorgeJ. said:


> Bocabum99, did you also figure in the $2000 a month maint. fees in your calculations? Right there, that would eat up maybe a rental a week easy. So in the neighborhood of 50 rentals a year would be needed to just break even on the maintenance fees...Does Fairfield have a reservation fee (such as Hilton's $49 reservation fee each reservation you make) for each reservation? Or guest certifiacte fee? (This too used to cost $49 each from Hilton before they dropped the fee a year ago)
> 
> Interesting idea, but I think all the possible fees would cut the profit down to nearly nothing. Another fee would be 3%+ to Paypal since most renters would most likely pay that way rather than by check or money order..



Yes, I absolutely accounted for the $24000 per year in MF.  I said $6/1000 point margin.

We'll see what it sells for.  If there were a way to break it up into smaller pieces, I would have bought it already.  Too much risk in having an account that large.


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## Jya-Ning (Jan 7, 2007)

Boca:

Have not really explore the possibility.  How about equity transfer?  You may break it to one big one and several comfortable manageable size contracts.  This contract have enough points to cover the equity transfer.  If the MF is less than $1 start with then in 3 years, it become $.5 less than GD, you can still recover most of the purchase price.  Plus, the newer resort usually get more resell price, you may sell and get some cash back.

But never try to pursue that way, so don't know if it will really work or not.  Knowing you, you probably manage to get the president suite for 12 weeks and have the extend family and friends thre for the fun and ends up paying all the MF.  


Jya-Ning


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## Bill4728 (Jan 8, 2007)

As of Jan 8th, the current bid is $42K and it closes on Jan 20th


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## Steamboat Bill (Jan 8, 2007)

Bill4728 said:


> As of Jan 8th, the current bid is $42K and it closes on Jan 20th



Maybe I will Snipe it at the last second for $42,000.01


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## acesneights (Jan 8, 2007)

I was talking about just renting the points on Yahoo to other FF owners not making a business of renting.

One of the Platinum VIP's ought to buy it now that points are costing close to $6/K to rent from board members.

Stan


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 20, 2007)

Only 2:30 left and it is ONLY at 45600$ !!!!  Too bad i dont have that "extra" money!  Below 50K this is a real steal!!!.  Eager to see what is going to happen within 10 min of the end!!!!


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## jesuis1837 (Jan 20, 2007)

Gone for 65100$  Lots of action in the last minute!!!


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