I have been hitting my head against the wall trying to figure out Disney’s strategy for limiting resales to only the 14 original resorts and eventually to only the home resort purchased. This sounds like a dumb idea to me. If I can buy Riviera on the resale market for 1/10 the price of retail due to these limitations, then I would be more likely to buy it resale. This will make it harder IMO to sell direct because the word will get out about how cheap it is to buy resale. I think it is in DVC’s best interests for resale prices to remain high relative to buying direct. Also, if pricing of DVC on the resale market collapses, Disney will start attracting a clientele who is cheaper and less willing to spend as much. From what I can see, that is not DVC’s target market. I think it is in DVC’s best interests to ensure resale prices are high for all of these reasons.
Right now, with resale being so expensive, it sometimes still makes sense to buy direct. The bigger the price differential, the more likely people like us would buy resale. I would not be able to justify a retail purchase that is 10 times higher than resale. I can justify a retail purchase if it is only 20-30% higher, like many of the current resorts are now. I actually bought about half my points direct from DVC in the past for my small contracts (30-75 points) because the price differential was not that big. For my bigger contracts, I purchase resale since the price differential is bigger. In the future, I doubt I will ever buy direct again because of these changes. Riviera would have to be pretty amazing for me to want to stay there over the places I already own. But if I could get Riviera for 10%-30% of the retail price, I might be enticed, even if I could only stay at that one resort.