How did you get involved in Timesharing.....

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

One of my first post on TS4M's was resurrected yesterday. It got me thinking about how I got involved in timesharing, in the first place. Boy, things have certainly change in the past 15 months, thanks to this site, and all it's wonderful members.

Anyway, I wanted to take advantage of an offer sent to me, to visit Atlantic City. 3 summer days at the Marriott Fairway Villas, for $199.00, plus 2 free rounds of golf.

It sounded like a great deal to me, so we went. What did we have to loose, right?

Well, we bought our first timeshare on the spot, from Marriott. Then, we purchased our second timeshare, also from Marriott, about a week, or so later. Same sales office.

So, that $199.00 weekend, really cost us $40.000 + dollars.....Sheesh, what did we have to loose, right?

[zdxlc9p6 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zdxlc9p6]

We accepted a 3 night stay at the Hilton within the Disney grounds for our 30th Wedding Anniversary trip. Emphatically told my wife that no way were we buying, but still own the HGVC at Seaworld we bought in 10/2007. Another from a developer in Cancun in 2000, and 4 more HGVC managed properties since then.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I blame it all on my younger sister who bought from the developer in Puerto Vallarta on her honeymoon.

Now younger sister would constantly make an II exchange and not be able to go. <Even later when I tried to manage her weeks for her>. But she called one day about 17 years ago and offered me SXM. Being in a new relationship my BF <at the time> and I took her up on her offer. We had a wonderful time.

We did not attend any presentations. Came home and went to a few other of her trades as well as "regular" vacations.

It really was not until we had our son and ebay and resales came along that we really persued ownership though. We are definately in the lucky minority.

Now we rarely go very few places UNLESS it is via timeshare because we like the extra room and because it is generally much more cost effective than hotel resorts.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Our story is that for years we didn't take many traveling vacations because we couldn't afford them. My wife had zero interest in camping, so we pretty much looked at hotels and eating out.

For New Years of 1999 I took three of the kids (daughter and two sons, teens to early 20's) skiing in eastern British Columbia. We stayed in a Motel 6 type of place, with two queen beds. Ate breakfast in the room with cold cereal and milk+juice out of an ice cooler. When I got back and reviewed the expenses as compared with what I had budgeted, what struck me was the amount of money we had spent on food for lunches and dinners.

***

Later that year Kay and I received an invitation to stay at the Marriott Kaua'i Beach Club - 5 nights + rental car + $75 in resort vouchers/credits. (Not a timeshare presentation - the resort was just hurting for business after the Tokyo stock market crashed.)

That was our 25th anniversary, so we decided to go. When we arrived we signed up for the timeshare tour for an additional $75 in hotel credits plus a few other freebies.

After doing the presentation, we were absolutely and totally sold on the concept of timesharing. I did the math and quickly realized that had we been in a condo and used the kitchen for our meals, we could have spent the same amount and had much more space and much nicer accommodations.

***

We bought two one-bedroom units from Marriott, and were happy campers. Later that week, we were walking through Hanalei town, and stumbled the office of Timeshare Resales Hawai'i, where we learned about the resale market and that there were quite a few other timeshares on Kaua'i. We did a quick bit of research and found that the Embassy Po'ipu was much more to our liking and suited us much better than the Marriott.

So we rescinded the Marriott and bought an Embassy Po'ipu resale. Joined TUG shortly thereafter.

****

Then, a month or two after that I was poking around eBay and saw this cute little timeshare (Winners Circle, fixed week 52), just sitting there with no bids on it. So I dropped a low ball bid on it just before we went away for the weekend. As we were driving I mentioned it to Kay, and she just glared at me. Came back home, bidding was over and someone had overbid. A week later the seller sent me a note saying the high bidder had backed out, and was I willing to buy it for the price I had bid. That was timeshare #2.

***

It didn't appear as if we would be able to get back to Hawai'i in 2000, so my next move was to try a direct exchange into Whistler for a ski week in exchange for our new Hawai'i. Looking through the vacation rental ads in the Seattle Times, I connected with a guy who was trying to rent his New Years 2000 week in Whistler. I offered him a direct exchange to Hawai'i instead of rental, and he accepted. So, thanks to TUG, my very first experience actually using a timeshare was a direct exchange!!!

Then, about a month later I was playing on line with the banked Winners Circle week that came with the unit, and reserved a 2-bedroom unit at Lawai Beach resort in April that coincided with spring break at my wife's school.

So now we had gone from taking only irregular vacations to two vacations in wonderful locations in less than six months, without breaking the bank at all.

And we vacationed happily ever after. The End.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

In 1998 we were just starting to get our feet on the ground financially where we felt we had extra $$ to take a small vacation. Then, one thing happened after another and vacation kept getting put off.........again.

We finally ended up taking a last minute charter flight/hotel combo deal out to Vegas. Of course, the "free" tickets sounded like a good deal so we bit not knowing what it was all about. What sounded good to us was owning our vacation time and, knowing that I hate to waste $$, I'd be taking that vacation time.

We'll that's been 9 years and 7 timeshares later. We're finally to the point where I can't afford any more MF payments and I have all of my paid vacation time accounted for. 9 years ago we were lucky if we took one weeks vacation every 4 or 5 years. Now we take vacation every other month. Many of our co-workers still take vacation the way we use to (rarely to never) and end up selling their vacation time back to the company for 50 cents on the dollar. I like our way better.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Sometime in the early 80's I had a deal to stay in Waterville NH which entailed a timeshare tour. I bought, but after a day or 2 of thinking about it, rescinded the deal. After several more tours, years and a trip to Cancun, I bought a week resale. After a second trip to the Royals for 2 weeks I came back and bought 3 consecutive weeks at the Royals (Resale). My portfolio ballooned to as many as 9 weeks, but is now down to 2 and may go to 1 (until I find a deal on something I want).

[Carol C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carol C]

The OPC made me do it!

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

I was lucky. Someone I knew had one, and told me it was the only way for us to travel as a family. She told me to buy a Marriott, and to buy resale.

I found TUG, and despite all my research ended up buying an off-season week at Cypress Harbour in Orlando. At least I bought resale. It didn't get me into Aruba in prime time, and I was very disappointed.

But I took a "trade of last resort" (pun intended) into Grande Ocean in Hilton Head, which I had never even heard of. Fell in love with HHI, sold my Orlando week (at a profit), bought a week on Hilton Head, and my happy timesharing began.

I was fine, until I found this site. Now "My name is Glitter and I am a Timeshareaholic"

[SOS8260456 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close SOS8260456]

We rarely had money for vacations other than one or two "long weekends" down the shore. We were in the process of planning our second Disney vacation in 10 years. We are a family of 5 and I was just dreading how crowded we were going to be during our stay because my mom was going to be with us also. Well, one of my tax customers came in and started raving to me about how they had just spent $14,000 on a timeshare at Silver Lake Resort. The talk about the spacious unit, full kitchen, jacuzzi tub, separate bedrooms, etc, had me running numbers thinking that $14,000 plus annual maintenance fees weren't really all that bad for a weekly vacation. Luckily, I was already an ebay addict, so I thought why not check out timeshares on ebay.....

Now I have lost track of how many times we have gone to Disney since 2002 when we got into timesharing. Who would have thought we'd become addicted and own not just one but a "portfolio" and with good management spend less each year on vacationing than we did for those "long weekends".

Lisa

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

The same as many, getting free attractions tickets in Orlando.

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

In 1999 We took a presentation in Las Vegas for free show tickets. After the presentation, the sales person said take it or leave it, so we left it. I went home found TUG and joined. We ended up purchasing a HGVC resale in 2000. Best decision we ever made. Now we enjoying Vacations that only dreamed about.

Dale

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

2000, took a TS presentation, bought a fixed week 4 BD, then rescind it because I don't like fix. Talked to a friend who own FF points, and he gave me a referral, liked the concept, then asked for the same deal he got. Get a retail one. Hook up since then.

Then in 2004 after my 2nd kids, try to buy another point. The year before, brought my 1st kids to Cypress Palm, and she made 1st sound, so decides to buy some points there. And since last visit, they try to get me to a sell presentation with a lie (they claim there is some accounting issue in my account, and then they put in something in their computer to say I decline some offer), realize it is more risk to buy from retail and more likely be mistreated, so goto bidshare, find an agent, bought from her. Then play with all the possibility, like what I have, and with 2nd kids, believe I need more points, so go to eBay, get holiday group, then go to their web site, neg. with them, and bought another contract.

Then kind of get fever, and bought 2 fixed week one from eBay in 2005, one from tug member NTHC, and two RHC point contracts in 2006 (both from post card company in eBay). I think it will take sometimes to digest it before my next purchase, and probably will involve sell some of my weeks also, but only time will tell.

Jya-Ning
Jya-Ning

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

We received one of the "free gift" letters in the mail that had a few large prizes and some small ones, so we took a drive into the mountains and picked up our small prizes. I don't remember what the others were, but I remember a silver metal turkey platter that was not supposed to tarnish being one of the gifts. Anyway, this was 26 years ago! We loved the timeshare, bought it that day for WAAAY too much money and wanted to rescind the next day, but we were told by the resort that there was no rescind process for a timeshare, unless you were sold inside your home, so we kept it. I think that was a lie!

So it was a turkey platter that lured us.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Sometime in the fall of 2005, I fell asleep. When I woke up in early 2006, I owned timeshares. I don't know how or what happened.

[SOS8260456 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close SOS8260456]

We received one of the "free gift" letters in the mail that had a few large prizes and some small ones, so we took a drive into the mountains and picked up our small prizes. I don't remember what the others were, but I remember a silver metal turkey platter that was not supposed to tarnish being one of the gifts. Anyway, this was 26 years ago! We loved the timeshare, bought it that day for WAAAY too much money and wanted to rescind the next day, but we were told by the resort that there was no rescind process for a timeshare, unless you were sold inside your home, so we kept it. I think that was a lie!

So it was a turkey platter that lured us.

Do you still have the turkey platter and if so, did it tarnish?