TUG promotes the sale of timshares for $1

[Royal Flush]

Hello!
I am a new member of TUG, but not new to TUG nor am I new to the timeshare industry.
I appreciate that TUG offers this forum and a marketplace, but it seems pointless when TUG is sending out newsletters to celebrate the sale of a
timeshare for $1. I spent a lot of time writing to a person at TUG and this person refuses to see the sense in my points.


This is a email I wrote to TUG. Your comments please.


We just joined TUG thinking that we can find out about a more FAIR and HONEST approach to Timeshares.

We paid very big $$ for Carriage Hills (NEW! in 2003) as we knew Nothing about timeshares. I know that people need to be informed in order to make good choices and to assess the inventory of timeshares that GLUT THE MARKET since people are not informed about the great vacations they can access cheaply in their own back yard. GREAT for low income families!

I fail to see how crowing over people "buying" a timeshare for $1 helps the cause (in the TUG newsletter). Now you have people who were ripped off by the developer trying to sell a timeshare that they paid so much for and TUG creating a non-market by making a big deal over all the timeshares for sale by desperate people for a $1. Is this just and fair, if so to WHOM?

What is the point of setting up a market place to sell timeshares when people (thanks to TUG advertising the $1 timeshare) expect to get a timeshare for literally nothing? This is a swing too far the other way.
It is like people not realizing they can buy a car that is used, everyone buying new cars, then suddenly the info about good used cars gets out there. How fair is it to expect the owners to sell the car they bought for 12,000 for a $1 just to be rid of it? How does that make any sense at all!
We had someone email us from the TUG bargain basement , expecting to have legal fees included for our bargain timeshare, for sale at $299.
If more people knew about timeshares, really understood, there would be a fair resale price and much more demand.

I hope TUG will reconsider the goal that TUG has in mind and reassess how to be fair with others and to really help this horribly run timeshare industry by educating people and creating conditions to make a fair resale market, not a race to the bottom to see how low can you go in the timeshare resale!! How the heck can a fair (no upfront fee ) licenced reseller of timeshares compete with free?

let’s try to make sense here.

 

[Patri]

GREAT for low income families!

Totally disagree. These families should NOT buy a timeshare. The upfront cost from a developer could bankrupt them. A $1 timeshare might work if they can afford the maintenance fees and special assessments. But their first priorities should be a roof over their heads, food, clothing, transportation and healthcare.

 

[DeniseM]

The sales on TUG are just a tiny fraction of the resale market - not the determining factor. You will find $1 timeshares on every timeshare website on the internet. It is the state of the economy - it has nothing to do with what TUG is or is not doing.

Besides that, TUG probably has more BUYERS than sellers. We are a group of people who like timesharing, so we are interested in good deals. When someone wants to get out from under their timeshare that is selling EVERYWHERE for $1, and they find a buyer on TUG - everyone is a winner.

It is naive to blame TUG for the current resale market. You made a bad financial decision when you bought from the developer. I did the same thing with my first purchase - but after that, I did my homework, and I've learned how to make timesharing work very well for us, so I know that is entirely possible.

How the heck can a fair (no upfront fee ) licenced reseller of timeshares compete with free?

Is this your real point? That your business can't compete with the prices on TUG? Are you complaining here, because our owner's prices are lower than your prices? If that is your point - then I don't think TUG is the audience you are looking for.

 

[gpurtz]

Nothing is worth more than a Buyer is willing to pay. If Buyers will only pay a $1 for a week, then that is what it is worth. The timeshare marketplace will always determine the value. Unfortunately there is no demand, therefore, no market, for many, many timeshare weeks. When you add to this the ever-increasing maintenance fees and what RCI is doing to the market, you can appreciate the fact that TUG has not affected the value of your week or that of anyone else.

 

[Pit]

Hate to burst your bubble, but TUG doesn't determine the market price of timeshares. And raising prices, will not increase demand.

How the heck can a fair (no upfront fee ) licenced reseller of timeshares compete with free?

By making lots of sales and charging on the back-end for a professional transaction service. There are many timeshares that are nothing but a liability to the owner. They will pay to get rid of the liability (Exhibit A: PCC).

You're barking up the wrong tree.

 

[slip]

This goes on in all industry's, just ask the mom and pop store owner who is
trying to compete with Walmart pricing. I've payed $10,000 for a new car
(a long time ago) and gave it away just to get rid of it years later.
Buyers of anything need to be educated. I looked into timeshares in the mid '80's.
I thought it was a great idea but I felt at developers prices it would take too long to
get to the breakeven point. 25 years later after the kids are gone, I look into timeshares
and find Tug. I bought 2 timeshares for $3.75. Just a few years earlier the same
timeshares were selling for $5,000 on the resale market.

Supply far out weighs the demand and the bad economy definitely took it's toll.
I think they will rebound some but it may take a few years. Just my .02.

 

[ronparise]

Tug dosent advertise or promote the sale of timeshares for $1, rather tug provides a forum where folks can discuss timeshares and tug provides a vehicle that one might use to advertise a timeshare for sale

The value is what it is...dont shoot the messenger

 

[JeffW]

... by educating people and creating conditions to make a fair resale market...

The resale market, in ANYTHING, is always the combination of what someone is willing to purchase for, and what someone is willing to sell for. To a degree, basic supply and demand. Some vacation clubs (Marriott, Hyatt, probably Disney) have ROFR - Right of First Refusal - as a way to keep the public from thinking that the new baseline price for a timeshare is say $100, because one desperate seller was willing to sell for that. But that's likely the exception.

The reality is that $1 resorts are the exception. If my goal is to buy a Key West or Marriott or Disney resort, I'll probably never own one. There's still enough residual value in those weeks, that even if one would start on an ebay auction for $1, it's likely to end up at $$$$. People looking to buy say Key West know that you'll never find one at $1, but $4000 is better than the retail price of $20k or more.

No seller is happy at selling for $1. Realize that they'd lost 100% of whatever they paid for it (many likely at the full retail price), and have been paying regularly increasing annual fees, with a good number not even having gone on any vacations. There's no exploiting or profiteering by these people. They are just looking to get out of an ongoing, unrewarding debt.

The group that is exploiting and profiteering at the postcard companies that promise, "for a fee, we can sell your timeshare". Scan the posts of TUG, and find out how many people have paid those fees, hoping to get rid of their timeshare units, with the only thing that ends up getting rid of is the money for that fee. I think TUG saw this, and said, "We're going to provide an avenue for people that need to dispose of their timeshares with as little overhead as possible."

Royal Flush, are you telling me that if you would have found the exact timeshare you bought for less (including $1 sales), you wouldn't have bought it that way? While there are some timeshares have have 'developer' perks, the reality for most is "a week is a week". While I can appreciate you being less than happy with paying full price for your resort, there's really not much you can do to slow what, especially in recession-like times, will be a good number of people looking to get rid of timeshare obligations at almost any price.

Jeff

PS - Welcome to TUG!

 

[fishingguy]

huh???

Royal Flush wrote:

I hope TUG will reconsider the goal that TUG has in mind and reassess how to be fair with others and to really help this horribly run timeshare industry by educating people and creating conditions to make a fair resale market, not a race to the bottom to see how low can you go in the timeshare resale!! How the heck can a fair (no upfront fee ) licenced reseller of timeshares compete with free?

The market is what it is, and there is nothing you, anyone else or TUG can do about that. If a timeshare sells for $1, $100 or more, so be it -- since prices are set by those willing to sell and willing to buy at a prevailing price point. It's the law of supply and demand, for those in the know.

If you came here with the intent to sell timeshares at higher than prevailing market prices, then you will likely be disappointed. Especially since the current economic climate has generally made supported prices for resale timeshares collapse -- a fact of life that anyone who bought at full retail price, shocked to learn.

In many ways one might even be able to say, that the current practices of resale [and retail sellers], has resulted in the demise of the current timeshare market. Especially given the practices of those associated with Post Card Companies, scammers, etc.! I liken it to the Tulip Bulb crash that happened in Europe during the 1700's.

Lastly, I think TUG does a good job of educating people on how to best use, evaluate, understand and buy/sell timeshares. I never assumed, read or heard that TUG should support licensed sellers/resellers in getting higher prices -- which could be an exercise in futility. The market will run it's course.

 

[presley]

I think when it comes to TS purchases, you only need to think about the value that you will get out of it. I see no benefit to comparing what other people paid for something, nor do I care. If someone buys a TS for $1 and all it is worth is $1 to them, good for them. If someone else buys the same thing for $25K and it is worth $25K to them, good for them. Happy vacations for all!

 

[easyrider]

@ Royal Flush

Totally empathic. It can be frustrating to see something of value sell for pennies on the dollar.

As you have learned at TUG, the product you purchased has very little chance of reselling for anything close to what you paid but if you needed to get rid of it, TUG can help.

If you have the time you could try to sell it on Creigslist or your local classified. If a person is looking at Redweek and other timeshare internet sites they probably have looked at TUG and Ebay.

Many folks at Tug have learned how to rent their timeshares out, maybe thats an option for you.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[gpurtz]

I'd like to do business with the person who can be happy paying $25K for the same week his neighbor bought for $1.

 

[timeos2]

Unfortunately the vast majority of timeshare weeks are only worth $1 or may even require payment of things like closing to move it. IMO and experience even the best of the best both locations and times aren't worth more than $5000 tops. Beyond that is money wasted or lost as you'll never get it back.

The real cost of every timeshare are those annual fees. For $1 timeshares it may be in the hundreds while the better resorts/locations/ times are devalued by annual fees that are often considerably higher - even in the thousands per year. Both can be good values but not if you pay too much in purchase price.

As others say TUG is not setting the price but simply refecting the market.

 

[ampaholic]

Hello!

This is a email I wrote to TUG. Your comments please.


We just joined TUG thinking that we can find out about a more FAIR and HONEST approach to Timeshares.

-snip-

Instead of such a long and tortuous rant (requiring a snip) perhaps you could organize your gripes into categories?

Cat 1: Why is the market not fair and honest?

Cat 2: Why is TUG doing ______ that makes the market _______ ?

Cat 3: Why did I fall for the hype? "We paid very big $$ for Carriage Hills (NEW! in 2003)" (actually you answer your own question) "as we knew Nothing about timeshares."

Cat 4: How can I compete with the cheap resales?

Cat 5: Why won't TUG help me compete? "I hope TUG will reconsider the goal that TUG has in mind and reassess how to be fair with others ..."

Just my $.003 (inflation)

 

[heathpack]

I fail to see how crowing over people "buying" a timeshare for $1 helps the cause (in the TUG newsletter). Now you have people who were ripped off by the developer trying to sell a timeshare that they paid so much for and TUG creating a non-market by making a big deal over all the timeshares for sale by desperate people for a $1. Is this just and fair, if so to WHOM? here.

It is best for the current owners at a resort to have the week in the hands of a person who actually wants it right now. Someone who sells for $1 no longer wants the TS & more of those owners will walk away and no longer make MF payments. Someone who picks up a TS at whatever price at least has every intention of paying MF for the immediately foreseeable future. Those owners are a godsend to the HOAs. The resale price is only one piece of the puzzle. The continued existence of each TS resort depends on having owners who still want "in" the system. Getting the unwanted TSs transferred is doing the industry a huge service, IMO.

H

H

 

[AwayWeGo]

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That.

TUG promotes the sale of timshares for $1

Shux, selling'm for $1 is greatly to be preferred over getting bamboozled out of major money by 1 of those up-front fee phony timeshare sale hornswoggles.

And for sure buying them for $1 beats paying many thousands to some timeshare company for exactly the same thing (or the equivalent or something not as good as a $1 timeshare).

Not all of those eBay $1 opening bid & no reserve timeshares actually sell for $1. For example, in recent months we won 3 of those $1 opening bid eBay timeshare auctions with winning bids in the neighborhood of $165 & $203 & $105, respectively. Plus, if you search the completed eBay auctions, you will notice that lots & lots of the $1 timeshare auctions come & go with zero bids -- i.e., nobody wants'm even for $1.

During that same period, we also gave away two -- 2 -- perfectly good timeshares, preferring to give them away for nothing than to try selling them for next to nothing. Currently, we are in the process of giving away 2 more, for the same reason.

What TUG really promotes is becoming an informed customer before buying timeshares. Ditto before throwing good money after bad by falling for any of the raw deals & borderline scams aimed at further victimizing people who paid full freight & later became desperate to get out from under the unrelenting ongoing costs of timeshare ownership.

A big part of the problem is that there is no natural demand for timeshares. The only way the timeshare companies can move inventory is by high-pressure razzle-dazzle & ballyhoo designed to get buyers to commit on the spot with no thought of researching the product & no opportunity for any comparison shopping. Hence, many if not most timeshare owners are people who leapt before they looked -- i.e., bought in haste & came to regret it.

The professional full-freight timeshare sellers know that -- & then keep on selling'm that way anyhow. In fact, that's the very foundation of their biz. plan. (Shux upon'm.)

The aftermarket bamboozlers figure that people who bought timeshares at full freight tend to be leap-before-looking types, so they'll just hit'm with as many rounds of "relief" & up-front fee hornswoggles as they'll fall for, over & over till eventually (if ever) they wise up.

Click here for a hypothetical nightmare scenario illustrating multiple overlapping layers of timeshare hornswoggle & bamboozle that are out there waiting to ensnare the unwary.

Full Disclosure: After the linked item was written, the dollar amounts involved mostly went up-up-up. Plus, for many people the multi-scam scenario turned out to be more real than hypothetical. So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[AwayWeGo]

Full Freight All The Way.

I'd like to do business with the person who can be happy paying $25K for the same week his neighbor bought for $1.

Somebody ought to introduce you to Big City Sally.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[ampaholic]

OK - I think Alan gives the OP the best answer. Give him the $3.00 and we can all go eat Turkey.

 

[Wonka]

I think the poster has a point. I suspect TUG is more influential on resale pricing (for buyers) than most of us realize. That's good for the buyer, bad for the seller. But, yes...we only reach a tiny fraction of the market. Otherwise, the upfront guys wouldn't be in business duping people (sellers).

I own several that are simply "money pits", and have no idea why I keep them and paying fees of $1000 more every single year and not using them. $1 is starting to look like a good deal.

 

[DeniseM]

I own several that are simply "money pits", and have no idea why I keep them and paying fees of $1000 more every single year and not using them. $1 is starting to look like a good deal.

You have choices - why aren't you using your timeshares, or exchanging them, or renting them, or letting friends, or family, or charities use them, or giving them away?

You have all the resources right here on TUG... and lots of people with the experience to help.

 

[MomoD]

TUG is not responsible for the $1 timeshare. TUG is responsible for allowing honest people to sell their unwanted timeshare in a safe, no hastle environment, there are no sharks here. We bought 2 of our 3 timeshares from developers and spent $$$, finding TUG was the best thing to happen to us. No-one makes you sell or give away your timeshare, this you do of your own free will. Please don't blame TUG for what's happening in the timeshare market

 

[Talent312]

I notice that RF has not replied to any of foregoing, so either his was merely a drive-by posting, or he now realizes how sophomoric his post looks in hindsight.

 

[ampaholic]

I notice that RF has not replied to any of foregoing, so either his was merely a drive-by posting, or he now realizes how sophomoric his post looks in hindsight.

I don't want to sound disagreeable but RF paid his $15 so I want to answer his/her questions as best I can ...

... I don't find his/her questions (rant more correctly) so much sophomoric per se - as just much too broad and general to be easily answered.

Sort of like "why is love so great?"

 

[pjrose]

Somebody ought to introduce you to Big City Sally.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

OMG Alan, thanks for the laughs!
:hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical:

 

[Wonka]

You have choices - why aren't you using your timeshares, or exchanging them, or renting them, or letting friends, or family, or charities use them, or giving them away?

You have all the resources right here on TUG... and lots of people with the experience to help.

First, my adult children cannot plan far enough in advance and wouldn't want the annual fee. In addition, timeshares just aren't "adventuresome" enough for them. I've offered the use to friends as well, and they aren't interested. I suspect they've heard too many negatives about timeshares and I'm not interested in educating friends or having to convince them to use something that I've prepaid. It just isn't worth effort. I'd consider giving them to a charity, but I don't think many charities still accept them. We used to have a TUG member that formed a charitable group of some kind....but, I don't remember her name and don't know if it's still an active charity, or not. Giving them to a stranger that could afford to pay a little something, but would rather have them for "free" just doesn't sit well with me. More deserving folks just couldn't afford the continuing maintenance fee.

As far as usage goes, there is potential liability in offering the usage of a week to an unknown individual.