Buying Timeshares on eBay

Even with the bad economy, timeshares are selling on eBay. All the big names are there, Disney, Hilton Head, Wyndham, plus timeshares in exotic locales like Aruba and Los Cabos. Many of them are listed for less than $100. Some of them for a little as $1. Uneducated buyers are hoping to get lucky and win the vacation spot of a lifetime.

You might be as lucky as one buyer. He bought a timeshare in the Catskills for $2. What he got was a $75 resort fee, a $400 closing fee and an $800 maintenance fee. He had to pay all of that before he could use the timeshare. Then it wasn’t quite what he had in mind for a yearly vacation, so he had to pay more to join an exchange club. Now he pays over $1000 a year for a beautiful vacation spot that he doesn’t use. He’s so lucky that he will have to pay fees on this timeshare for the rest of his life or until he can unload it on another unsuspecting eBay buyer.

EBay is known for its bargains. Timeshare sellers are jumping aboard and hoping to purge themselves of yearly fees and unwanted mortgages. Right now there are over 1,700 timeshares listed. Before you go off half-cocked at the sight of a real bargain – understand that a timeshare is never a bargain, even at the unbelievable price of $1. -- M. Beddingfield