Any one else have a story to share about these?

Yeap for sure. You know when they have to sell that hard it is not a great deal. For the life of me I can't figure why anyone would lock themselves into a timeshare even though you can trade around to other locations. If you have the money for it, then your opportunity cost is what you would have earned in investment return on said money spent up front. If you don't have the money, then you have no business going on vacation anyway.

Rick you could go to all those places without paying for it in advance. It's a time value of money argument. But yes, the lovers have outlined all those points.

The Score has been running that Timeshare commercial non-stop. Basically, the service will help you get out of your timeshare.

Over the years, I have had many an argument with friends about the value of timeshares. As a financial guy, I recognize that the entire thing is one big scam. Why would you buy a lifetime's worth of vacations in advance? You don't buy a lifetime's worth of food or cable viewing in advance. Even worse, there are restrictions around the use of the timeshare, and they are so expensive that many people finance them. It becomes a simple time value of money discussion. Yet, many intelligent people are sold that these are a great idea.

But if you fast forward, these same folks eventually realize the folly of their purchase. Their initial enthusiasm can be chalked up to trying to convince themselves they made a great decision. Eventually they see that the maintenance fees and other restrictions aren't worth it. Plus you have locked in and committed yourself to taking a vacation each year, which is a luxury in good times but a big cost in lean times.

Any one else have a story to share about these?

The Score has been running that Timeshare commercial non-stop. Basically, the service will help you get out of your timeshare.

Over the years, I have had many an argument with friends about the value of timeshares. As a financial guy, I recognize that the entire thing is one big scam. Why would you buy a lifetime's worth of vacations in advance? You don't buy a lifetime's worth of food or cable viewing in advance. Even worse, there are restrictions around the use of the timeshare, and they are so expensive that many people finance them. It becomes a simple time value of money discussion. Yet, many intelligent people are sold that these are a great idea.

But if you fast forward, these same folks eventually realize the folly of their purchase. Their initial enthusiasm can be chalked up to trying to convince themselves they made a great decision. Eventually they see that the maintenance fees and other restrictions aren't worth it. Plus you have locked in and committed yourself to taking a vacation each year, which is a luxury in good times but a big cost in lean times.

Any one else have a story to share about these?

Well, the person I know who did it enjoys it for these reasons.

1) It forces them to go to new places and makes it fairly painless to go there.
2) The amenities are often better. These are basically mini-apartments with full kitchens and multiple rooms.
3) They get huge upgrades sometimes when they travel in that network. We are talking like nicest room in the whole resort if it is unused for that week.
4) The locations are basically every place you would want to go.
5) They are now retired and it makes a lot of travel really easy.

As long as you don't view it as an investment then it has benefits that can be worth it.

You seem to have had quite an extensive discussion with this "other" person about the reasons behind their timeshare purchase.

They let me use one of their weeks so there was plenty of time to discuss.

My cousin told me this great story that I can't really do justice to. You'd have to see her eye-rolling and facial expressions for it to have its full humor and effect. But anyway, she and her longtime boyfriend were in Florida and were offered a five hour fishing trip for free if they attended a one-hour timeshare seminar. My cousin found the idea ridiculous but her boyfriend insisted on getting the free fishing trip. Like a typical beaten down wife she grudgingly agreed. They went to the "seminar" and these sales dogs brought it hard. Total Glengarry Glen Ross stuff. Hard closes. All kind of technique. What else would you expect? Her boyfriend sat like a fucking stone. After an hour he began asking where the boat was. The sales guys kept trying to close. My cousin said, "Do you really want to go on a boat with these guys for five hours?" But her boyfriend was gonna get his fishing trip come hell or high water. They eventually got on the boat. The sales guys kept selling the entire time. The boyfriend just kept fishing and ignoring their overtures. My cousin was angry and miserable.

My cousin told me this great story that I can't really do justice to. You'd have to see her eye-rolling and facial expressions for it to have its full humor and effect. But anyway, she and her longtime boyfriend were in Florida and were offered a five hour fishing trip for free if they attended a one-hour timeshare seminar. My cousin found the idea ridiculous but her boyfriend insisted on getting the free fishing trip. Like a typical beaten down wife she grudgingly agreed. They went to the "seminar" and these sales dogs brought it hard. Total Glengarry Glen Ross stuff. Hard closes. All kind of technique. What else would you expect? Her boyfriend sat like a fucking stone. After an hour he began asking where the boat was. The sales guys kept trying to close. My cousin said, "Do you really want to go on a boat with these guys for five hours?" But her boyfriend was gonna get his fishing trip come hell or high water. They eventually got on the boat. The sales guys kept selling the entire time. The boyfriend just kept fishing and ignoring their overtures. My cousin was angry and miserable.

Well, the person I know who did it enjoys it for these reasons.

1) It forces them to go to new places and makes it fairly painless to go there.
2) The amenities are often better. These are basically mini-apartments with full kitchens and multiple rooms.
3) They get huge upgrades sometimes when they travel in that network. We are talking like nicest room in the whole resort if it is unused for that week.
4) The locations are basically every place you would want to go.
5) They are now retired and it makes a lot of travel really easy.

As long as you don't view it as an investment then it has benefits that can be worth it.

I went through one of these as a college student to get tickets for Disney because an ex wanted to go. They run you though the ringer for a couple of hours. A younger girl gave us the first tour, when she did not close apologized for what would happen next. Some ex-military type got in our face and called us stupid and irresponsible for not recognizing the opportunity. When I said no it don't make sense to buy one of these, he threatened to fire the girl who gave us the tour unless we signed-up. Just in your face bullshit for close to half an hour. Left without signing-up, and I could hear him bitching her out and threatening to send her back to sales training. Really though it was worth it for almost $180 in tickets and learning a lesson on how the world worked.

One thing they continued to say as if it was a positive was that the founder was a billionaire many times over and paid for all of his properties in cash. Yeah, by fleecing all of the people looking for free stuff and going home with a $30,000 "right" to have essentially a hotel room near an attraction for two weeks out of the year.

That guy in the documentary about building a Versailles in Florida for his tramp wife made his fortune on time shares

And lost his fortune on timeshares.

That guy in the documentary about building a Versailles in Florida for his tramp wife made his fortune on time shares