After years of renting points, my husband and I finally feel ready to buy into DVC, likely within the next year at Grand Floridian. Have there historically been trends on the best time of year to buy to maximize incentives? For example… We will be sailing on the Wish in January and I’m wondering if there is any benefit to buying on board. Is it better to buy while you are actually on a vacation at one of the resorts? Should we hold out a few months because spring – or some other season – traditionally has better incentives? Do we need to be concerned that the GF will sell out soon if we know that’s the resort we want? Appreciate any insight people might have!
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Welcome to the forum!
I hope others that understand it better explain this next bit. Our use year is December (IDK if that matters) but when we bought our contract, we got double points. Our points from the previous year and the points for the current year (at time of purchase). I don’t know if they always do this or when but it was really nice having that many points to start.
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You didn’t really get double points, you got the current points.
With a December use year, whenever you buy in direct, other than actually in December, the current use year will be the previous calendar year.
If you buy a June use year in April of 2023, you’ll get the current points which will be from June 2022. But if you buy in September you’ll get the current points which will be June 2023.
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So are you definitely wanting to buy direct?
I just ask because if you want GFV and buy resale Disney are unlikely to take the contract in ROFR unless the price is crazy low, because they tend not to buy back contracts at resorts they are actively selling.
But if buying direct there is usually some incentive for new buyers, but the actual incentive depends on how many points you buy. As a new owner you must buy a minimum of 150 points in a single contract.
I don’t know about the historic trends of incentives. There is no specific advantage to buying whilst actually at WDW but I know that cruises often do have special incentives. You could always call now and ask.
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Thanks for explaining that. I’m sure I was told but forgot. It was a nice boon regardless
You’re welcome.
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Resale will be your most affordable option
Direct will be your quickest option
The cost for time savings can be substantial - some direct points cost nearly double what they cost on resale
But I’ll say that with all of the discussions going on in other threads today about price increase, you’re probably going to get some salty folks suggesting maybe it’s not the best use of your vacation dollars 
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Right. They kind of try to make it seem like you’re getting a bonus, but your contract starts with the use year you’re currently in, so they have to give you that year’s worth of points even if there are only 3-4 months left until it renews.
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And they usually pro-rate the dues for that year? Or do you pay in full? I bought some direct points and I feel like they might have been pro-rated.
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I believe so, but it would have been in with all of the other fees and the down payment so I don’t think we really noticed.
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You would only pay dues for the months left in the calendar year.
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If you go resale:
Just watching over the last few years, I’ve noticed that prices are lowest in the winter and peak during the summer when people are thinking about vacations. But that won’t always be the case, especially if there are economic downturns (like there will probably be soon). I would bet around Jan/Feb 2023 would be a good time to buy. Or now.
Here are the resale charts from the last few years on DVC Resale Market Blog
2022:
2021:
2020 (remember this was not a normal year …):
2019:
I paid them separately. And it was well after the purchase. It was strange.
I would not put a lot of weight on that GFV line because they went low with the release of the Resort Studios and it looks better than it actually is
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Thank you! These charts/info are helpful! We are really leaning toward direct for our first purchase, thinking that we might add on with resale later. I’ve read that if we plan to do both, there are some benefits to doing them in the opposite order. There’s an overwhelming amount of advice on how to do this. What sites/blogs do you find to be most helpful with info on buying direct?
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If you really want GFV I would buy direct, now, before the price increases. I believe the current price is $207 a point, plus incentives can decrease the price. Resale seems to be costing $180-185 a point. Resale generally will have fewer years of points.
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I just bought direct last month. 200 points at GF and with the incentives it came out to $193/pt. We really wanted a Monorail resort and was trying to buy another BLT resale contract. I tried 5 different BLT resale contracts and Disney bought back them all. The offers that I had made ranged from $180-$184/pt, after 6 months of coming up empty we decided to just buy direct. I was not much more and the points were in the account right away.
I got a Dec use year which I had 2 other contracts in so was able to get the 2022 points. They pro rate the dues based on when you contract closes.
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When the difference is negligible it’s the best way to go, I agree. Similar happened when I bought the OKW direct in summer 2021
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Yes, there’s an incentive that expires tomorrow, but we’re just not prepared to sign on the dotted line that quickly. I don’t want to feel rushed so I’m crossing my fingers that a new set of incentives comes back out soon.
The one thing you can always count on is that the cost per point will always go up at some point.
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