RCI: Depositing two years out, does it cause a decrease in trade power?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

As one who has been Spacebanking weeks for almost 20 years, and who has recorded his last 3500 or so searches, I will say that trading power is fixed at the time you deposit it. Trading power does not increase or decrease once your week has been deposited.

Anyone who believes anything else has not done what I have done or seen what I have seen. They simply do not know how the secret trading power formula works(said as if anyone does!).

It is easy to see that when you have deposited the same weeks for several different years and then done the same searches with them. You can tell when a week is weak at the time of deposit. If a week is pulling 20 resorts and the same week for a previous year is pulling 60, it's not hard to figure out that you lost trading power.

Trading power and availability are two different things.

In this example, when you are doing the same search at the same time with two different deposits, you are seeing the difference in trading power, not the difference in availability. When you do the same search with the same week over a period of time, you see the difference in availability.

If you see more resorts available after you have had a week deposited for awhile, it is not because your trading power increased. It is because more people are depositing their weeks at that time. In my study, the maximum number of resorts are available at, roughly, 15 to 18 months out. If you deposit at 24 months, and then search online regularly, the number of available resorts will gradually increase to where it peaks, then it will gradually decrease.

There is no wild day-to-day fluctuation as some suggest.

If any one is interested, I can send them the figures that demonstrate these things.

In thousand of searches I have never seen a week pulling 20 one day suddenly see 60 the next because it had a trading power correction. From my experience with knowledgable people in customer service, that can't be done. They can't do it, no one can do it. There is no secret switch to flip.

A sudden loss of trading power in an already banked week can occur, primarily because of glitches and mistakes made by Guides. I experienced a sudden loss of trading power in a banked week in 2002. I suspected that a Guide unbanked it and then redeposited it, and it became a late deposit. Customer Service never got anyone on the tech team to respond because they were busy putting band aids on that year's new and improved RCI.com.

When I have seen a lot more resorts one day than I did the previous day, it has not been because trading power changed, it is because availability changed, say because RCI dumped a bunch of rentals they did not rent into the Spacebank, or because it was within 14 days of checkin, something like that.

In my study of Florida in January I have demonstrated declining availability over several years, with weeks that have consistently top trading power. I periodically hear from the other side that I see everything that is available. I also periodically compare with other folks' top traders to see what they see.

I don't take our good trading power for granted and expect it to go away any time. When it does, oh well. I also know that when it does, some people will be happy, some people will be unhappy, and the other 99.9999% will not care.

We are mere mortals and it is obviously not intended that we understand how any of this works. Even high-level people in RCI's customer sevice cannot get answers from the tech team. Those high-level people cannot give you answers to the things being discussed here. They give their educated guesses just like we do.

I believe that RCI has done so much tampering and diluting of the traditional exchange system that variables that used to be fairly predictable are now out of whack, and that is likely a permanent situation.

Enough timeshare time for today. I gotta get some things done.

I just came back to say that aging should not be an issue any more. It used to be that the short period between when you deposited a week and when your resort confirmed the deposit, it would not be able to see much. Now you can't even search with it during that period. When you see it online it is in a separate folder waiting to be confirmed, and you cannot search with it. When it is moved to where you can search with it, it will have all the trading power it will ever have.

If anyone feels that they have reduced trading power (and, for some reason, a lot of people seem to on recently deposited weeks), and you think it is because you deposited them too early (we are talking about two years out) then take the week back and hold onto it awhile. As long as you put it back in at least one year out it's trading power will be maximized, if we are to believe the official word on that.

Keep in mind that the problem in doing that is that you have no idea what is the cause of the reduced trading power. You have no idea if it will be better or worse when you put it back in, until you do. If it is a declining situation at your resort, and it continues to get worse, when you put it back in trading power will likely be worse.

Kinda like guessing the price of gasoline, huh? Should I fill it up this time, or just put in $10 and see what the price is in a couple of days?!

Now, if someone can report that information accurately, tell us exactly what something is going to be six months from now, that is the person we need to be listening to.

[ailin Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ailin]

I think Madge usually tells people to e-mail feedback@rci.com (with TUG in the subject line) and ask them to check on the trading power. If they don't give you a satisfactory answer, try posting the question to Madge.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

So, based on JLB's post... this would imply that the best time to bank is when people are looking for the said week! How about if we look at some examples...

I own a week 6 timeshare in Kilington Vermont.

I would betthat most people looking for a ski vacation might book their vacation in the winter when they are thinking about a trip the following year. So, if so, would the trading power of a prime ski week be higher in say December through March during prime ski time?

Now, when do we think people might most book a summer beach week? My guess it would be during the summer when they return from a vacation and they want to plan a vacation for the following summer. If so, perhaps a summer week banked in June through August would trade better then the same weeks banked in and off season?

I have debated about joining RCI or II for years and I may just join RCI still but all the issues with RCI and the lack of available units and exchange concerns just make me feel like renting out our week and paying to rent another with the money is a safer way to get what we expect/need.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

I think Madge usually tells people to e-mail feedback@rci.com (with TUG in the subject line) and ask them to check on the trading power. If they don't give you a satisfactory answer, try posting the question to Madge.

Would they give you a score? If so, what would that score mean? I would join RCI tomorrow if I knew our red week 6 Killington Unit that sleeps 10 with 4-bedroom would trade well enough that we can get at least 2-bedroom with loft units at decent resorts...

I would guess it should but paying the RCI fees to see just doesn't make us easy with our annual ski trip at risk.

[bigrick Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bigrick]

Do you know anyone at Kilington who owns a similar week and trades with RCI? Or someone on this board who can do a comparable trade test?

Your risk otherwise is the cost of RCI membership, the certain loss of your rental income vs the potential of maybe getting what you want...

[ailin Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ailin]

Would they give you a score? If so, what would that score mean? I would join RCI tomorrow if I knew our red week 6 Killington Unit that sleeps 10 with 4-bedroom would trade well enough that we can get at least 2-bedroom with loft units at decent resorts...

I would guess it should but paying the RCI fees to see just doesn't make us easy with our annual ski trip at risk.

I don't think they would give a score. Madge gives this advice when something weird seems to be happening with the trade power, like in OP's case. I think the most they can do is check to see if there was a mistake or perhaps an explanation of why the trade power isn't as good.

[Bobo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bobo]

Trade power is the same - exactly

I have a week for 2008 that I just deposited a few weeks ago. It has very little trading power compared to my 2007 week, the same exact week, the same usage and expiration dates for the week.

I called a VC and asked why this would be. She said the trade power is the same. It is definitely not the same. I see almost nothing with that week. I asked if our resort dropped in trade power. No, we are still Silver Crown. It is baffling.

What do the rest of you think about this one? Will my exchange power for the week improve over the next year? Has anyone experienced this phenomena?

I read your post and was concerned as I had just recently reserved my '08 weeks but did not bank them with RCI to keep my options open. These are two SoCal studio weeks that are very good traders for their cost. Being that I still have one of my '07 weeks in RCI's spacebank, I decided to go ahead and bank one of my '08 weeks and do some testing to see if the trading power went down drastically as you have posted. If it did I would be able to pull it out of RCI and do something else with it as the odds of it getting taken right away are very slim.

These are nearly identical weeks, both are on the first floor; one has a usage date of 07/07/07 and the others is 07/12/08. Both were banked well in excess of one year, which should give them their maximum potential trading power in RCI (at least according to the RCI gods). So in essence these are the same weeks, the '07 one banked last year and the '08 one just two days ago.

I ran several different tests in different time frames and areas and from what I see, they trade exactly the same, pulling exactly the same resorts in whatever test I do.
Just for the record, I am not an RCI apologist or supporter, in fact I'm more of the opposite.

It is not clear from your post that you are actually comparing your test with weeks that you have on hand right now, or if you just feel that the week you just deposited does not trade as well as it used to. It is true that there are slimmer pickings throughout RCI - so maybe that is what you are seeing. If you are actually comparing trade tests with '07 and '08 weeks that you have right now and are getting different results, then I would be on the horn to RCI and demand some answers as to why... Ask to talk to a supervisor instead of a VC.
You will not see any increase in trading power as time goes on - it is set when it's deposited - so if you're not happy with it you might pull it out before it gets taken and do something else with it; like another exchange company or renting it out.

[shopgirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shopgirl]

I had a week from last year that was almost the same date for 2007 and pulled more weeks than this one does. A lot more. The RCI rep told me that she thinks the trade power is exactly the same. No way, I just pulled a two bedroom at Fairfield Waikiki Beach with the one from last year. The 2008 week could not pull any of the Fairfields. Something is amiss.

[short Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close short]

I had a week from last year that was almost the same date for 2007 and pulled more weeks than this one does. A lot more. The RCI rep told me that she thinks the trade power is exactly the same. No way, I just pulled a two bedroom at Fairfield Waikiki Beach with the one from last year. The 2008 week could not pull any of the Fairfields. Something is amiss.

Loss of Internal resort priority?

Short