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Best Gold Season Traders?

D

DCBoy

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There seems to be a general consensus on TUG that just about any Marriott Platnum week will be a very good trader within the Marriott system or in II(with maybe an exception or two). What are the best Marriott gold season traders and what types of trades have you been able to make with your gold week (even recently within the new trading environment)?
 
Our two bedroom Aruba SC gold season trades very well. Even when locked off. Two weeks ago we traded the lock off for a two br at the OC for July 4th week 2012.

We have gotten a 3BR at Hilton Head Surfwatch in October last year with the 1br side.

Plus, we tend to use it alot as well.
 
In this down resale market platinum anything is probably best. For gold, I think that MGO and NCV are pretty good. Some of the Hawaii properties are good, although fluxuations in air fares can make them less desireable at times. Aruba always trades pretty well too.
 
I should have mentioned to consider MF's. They vary widely and are irrelevant of purchase price.
 
I've seen some 2 BR platinum non-L/O's sold for around $300, but I wouldn't buy a non-L/O. I like the 2-for-1 idea.

The cheapest 2 BR platinum L/O sold recently, that I've seen, sold for around $1300.

I just purchased my Shadow Ridge 2 BR L/O Gold for $26. We'll see how it works as a trader in the off seasons (Hawaii spring/fall). NOTE: a platinum week would have cost me about $3300, but the MF's would have been the same.
 
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My sister and I just bought two Gold Summit Watches in Park City and I think we are going to be very pleased with the trades. So far, I have traded to Marriott Barony Beach for next week and we have a ski week at Marriott in Tahoe. Funtime
 
kjd said:
In this down resale market platinum anything is probably best. For gold, I think that MGO and NCV are pretty good. Some of the Hawaii properties are good, although fluxuations in air fares can make them less desireable at times. Aruba always trades pretty well too.
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There is no Gold season in Hawaii--only Platinum (in most cases weeks 1-50) and the holiday (Christmas and New Year's) platinum plus weeks.
 
The seasons at Newport Coast (NCV) in California were very badly done. So more than 1/2 of the plat weeks trade exactly the same (or worse) than the gold weeks.

So IMHO, buy platinum there only if you want to stay at NCV during the summer months. For trading, you'd be much better off buying and trading gold weeks. Pricing on gold is about $5000/week. BUT I'd not buy any NCV for trading since they do not have lock-offs. I'd buy somewhere with lock-offs so I could get 2 trades from my one week.

Last year we traded our gold week for a week in mid-summer week at the Maui Westin.
 
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Cypress Harbor sport week (gold?) trades for 2011,2012

We traded this week (Memorial Day week reserved in both cases) for a 3 bedroom in Marbella Easter/April week this past year and have a late August Newport Coast villas 2 bedroom reserved for 2012.

We are also Destination Club point owners and have reserved Easter Sunday
through Friday at MOW oceanfront for 2012. All in all, we are happy with our trades and DC reservations (also visited Marco Island this past August - great resort/property, beautiful room/oceanfront view).
 
You can't do better than a platinum willowridge week. Most likely can be bought for less than 1k, including closing and it's a lock-off and dues are $825 or so a year.

Reserved a late July 2011 week and booked a 2 bedroom planet hollywood this past may with the studio part of that week. Then, I booked an Easter 2012 2 bedroom at SurfWatch with the one bedroom side of that week.

For 2012, I reserved 4th of July week at Willowridge and used that deposit to get both a one bedroom and a two bedroom unit at OceanPointe for 4th of July 2012.
 
Grande Vista- a TOP TRADER!

My Grande Vista gold is a great trader. In fact, we have never stayed there in gold season..... always trading up to spring platinum season at GV, or elsewhere in Orlando and other east coast locations.... Also, we have rarely stayed in the lockoff.......... it trades nicely for 1 or 2 bedroom units elsewhere..........
 
Just curious to know which plat weeks/resorts would be the exception.


DCBoy said:
There seems to be a general consensus on TUG that just about any Marriott Platnum week will be a very good trader within the Marriott system or in II(with maybe an exception or two). What are the best Marriott gold season traders and what types of trades have you been able to make with your gold week (even recently within the new trading environment)?
Click to expand...
 
I agree on buying a lock-off as well. Trading power has so much to do with your travel habits, more than the actual resort in my opinion. I have a Shadow Ridge gold, and in the last 3 years I have traded into 1 bd Ko Olina, 2 bd Newport Coast, 2 bd Marbella, 2 bd France and 2 bd St. Thomas, and still have a 1bd on deposit. I have been able to do this because I can go anytime, therefore I just go online and pick a 6 month period to see what's available, and the best one wins. If you can do this, then the actual week does't matter.

If you have a very limited window, then you're going to have problems trading unless you own at a premium resort.

For my purpose above, Shadow Ridge, Desert Villas, Branson Platinum, Grande Vista, etc. would be what I am looking for. If your limited on when you can travel then you wouldn't be happy with these weeks and would need to go with a better trading week. I don't have any advice on these because it's not what I ever look at buying, so the only premium weeks I regularly follow are at Aruba, Hawaii and St. Thomas and I wouldn't buy them for trading because of the large maintenance fee's.

My last words of non-wisdom are about trading in general. I have noticed a large decrease in resorts available in advance at the more premium resorts using my shadow Ridge. This started immediately after the DC club. There is still availability, just not near the amount of standing inventory there used to be. Just something to think about, because I have seriously thought about selling my Shadow Ridge because of this.
 
josh1231 said:
have a Shadow Ridge gold, and in the last 3 years I have traded into 1 bd Ko Olina,

Did you lockoff and trade a 1 bd for a 1 bd?


I have seriously thought about selling my Shadow Ridge because of this.

What would you replace it with?
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Ocean Watch
Grande Ocean
Surfwatch
Ocean Point
Crystal Shores

Cypress Harbour doesn't have platinum, gold, etc., but the equivalent to Gold trades very well.
 
My Gold Barony trades well. If I reserve Memorial Day week, it trades extremely well.
 
ironweed said:
My Grande Vista gold is a great trader. In fact, we have never stayed there in gold season..... always trading up to spring platinum season at GV, or elsewhere in Orlando and other east coast locations.... Also, we have rarely stayed in the lockoff.......... it trades nicely for 1 or 2 bedroom units elsewhere..........
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I agree that Grande Vista gold is a great trader. It can trade back in to Orlando for just about any week or season. I have found though recently that trading has gotten worse and we are not getting as great of trades as we did in the past. Having to give up a 1BR instead of just a studio to snag a full 2BR for a shoulder season week is a good example.

It still trades great and I think we will still do very well going forward, just not as great in the past. Though other gold season weeks could be seeing the same issue we are.
 
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