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True in some (but certainly not all) instances... (by KC):

bonniea16 wrote:

..you can almost anymore get any timeshare week from any website cheaper than owning.

That may be true in SOME locations and seasons (e.g. virtually ANYTHING in Orlando / Kissimmee FL, Las Vegas NV, Branson MO, Williamsburg VA), but it's certainly not true in ALL locations.

For specific example, prime winter weeks in coastal SW Florida can almost NEVER be obtained as an "exchange"from ANY of the exchange companies. When offered for rent (in limited supply), such weeks easily command rental amounts at a weekly price of TWICE the annual maintenance fee amount (and sometimes more than that).

In short, there is no valid "one size fits all" statement in regard to timeshare "values". Areas, resorts, seasons, supply and demand (and the variable, changing market forces) are all quite different from one another. If, just as another example, you want guaranteed annual access to specific winter weeks in coastal SW FL, a purchase (...resale, of course) can make financial sense --- and may very well be the ONLY avenue by which to actually obtain that annual access guarantee. Then again, even that situation could (and just might) quickly change. If BP / TransOcean / Haliburton continue to slowly turn the Gulf of Mexico into a giant cesspool of gushing oil, those "valuable" coastal SW FL "Snowbird" weeks may lose much (or even most) of the high value they have historically enjoyed --- before the recent oil rig disaster.