Buying a Timeshare on Ebay

2 timeshares on Ebay - seem to be the same company located in Mexico. Timeshare located at Tortuga Resort/ Hilton Grand Vacation Club/ Sanibel anyone ever bought on Ebay or stayed here. $1 for a Hilton, is that possible?

pamelav wrote:

2 timeshares on Ebay - seem to be the same company located in Mexico. Timeshare located at Tortuga Resort/ Hilton Grand Vacation Club/ Sanibel anyone ever bought on Ebay or stayed here. $1 for a Hilton, is that possible?

Yes, it's very possible ..... many people buy from Ebay .... don't know anything specifically about the one you're asking about though.

pamelav wrote:

2 timeshares on Ebay - seem to be the same company located in Mexico. Timeshare located at Tortuga Resort/ Hilton Grand Vacation Club/ Sanibel anyone ever bought on Ebay or stayed here. $1 for a Hilton, is that possible?

At some Mexican facilities, most notably those associated with Grupo Mayan (and very often specifically occurring in Cancun), "trade-ins" of timeshares are accepted. In essence, the developer vendor offers an inflated "trade-in" value for timeshare(s), a phony "bait" figure which is then applied toward an (also greatly inflated) purchase price of a Mexican developer-direct timeshare (...with plenty of additional buyer money required to actually complete the "deal", of course).

Problems can arise later if / when the Mexican entity fails to ever take legal ownership of the "trade-in" into their own name. In those instances, the "traded-in" U.S. resort knows (and cares) nothing at all about the previous "trade-in" action and the resort (quite appropriately) keeps billing the only legal owner of record they know of ---the name on the recorded deed in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Mexican connection, via the Power of Attorney which was executed at "trade-in" time, at some point then tries to "dump" the trade-in (usually on Ebay) for whatever they can get for it. However, be aware that there may very well be unpaid maintenance fees, accrued interest thereon and maybe even unpaid special assessments on the U.S. timeshare that will ALL need to be resolved (i.e., paid in full) before the "traded-in" resort will ever acknowledge ANY new owner. There may also be a "transfer fee" imposed by the U.S. resort for processing ownership changes. Clearing up (i.e., paying for) these matters and costs in order to gain clear title can actually end up costing you thousands of dollars, even if you "win" the original eBay bid for two cents.

My advice is to run away --- fast and far --- from ANY and EVERY Mexico-based entity allegedly reselling U.S. timeshare ownerships. Think about it for a moment --- how or why would an entity in Mexico supposedly be selling a U.S. timeshare in the first place? Then ask yourself, how can a reasonably valuable, high demand / low supply Sanibel Island, FL timeshare possibly be selling for a dollar, even in this weak economy? There is undoubtedly a "back story" involved which will be ultimately be revealed to you sooner or later --- and the convoluted details of that particular "back story" will likely be complicated, expensive and time consuming to resolve.

In short summary, CAVEAT EMPTOR --- BUYER BEWARE!