Several companies have popped up in recent years that coordinate auctions of timeshare units. TRI West Timeshare, for instance, is a Los Angeles, California—based company that has been around since 1981 and that is promoted by the Timeshare User's Group consumer organization. TRI West specializes in timeshare resales, but also offers auction services for owners who prefer to go that route. There is a lot of good (and free!) information about auctions on its Web site, www.triwest-timeshare.com, that you can explore without having to commit to anything.

TRI West says that fully 90 percent of owners who follow the company's minimum bid recommendations and attend their timeshare auctions actually do make a sale. What are those recommendations? Perhaps not as much as you would hope, especially after factoring in TRI West's fees and commissions, but at least enough that you will walk away with a little bit of cash still in your pocket.

For example, the mid-range minimum bid recommendation that TRI West suggests for a two-bedroom, deeded timeshare unit is $2,000. This minimum bid recommendation is not necessarily the highest price your unit will bring at auction, but it is a price that you must be willing to accept if you enter into the auction process.

Now, you can subtract from that price the $225 listing fee that TRI West charges, along with the 15 percent commission the company will be due — which comes with a $950 minimum, as long as it does not exceed 50 percent of the final selling price. If you do the math, you will see that your $2,000 timeshare sale will actually leave you with a net return of just $825.

There are other auction companies out there, as well, that may give you different pricing suggestions. Timeshare Resales USA, for instance, has a site called www.timesharesforauction.com that is based in Florida, has been around since 1987, and falls under the reputable GMAC Real Estate banner.

If you like the idea of setting a minimum bid price for an auction but do not want to pay any fees or commissions, you can run your own auction on Web sites such as eBay. You are not likely to find as concentrated a group of dedicated timeshare customers there, nor will you have the benefit of a resale professional's expertise and closing assistance, but you just may luck out and end up getting the same price you would have at another auction — and pocketing virtually every penny.