Not sure I follow you, John. The loyalty cards don't expire so why would there be a big market for balances on loyalty cards? You'd just roll them over to the next year, and then the next. Besides, most rationale riders would look at their pattern last year and buy about the same.
I really don't have a dog in this hunt, and I'm not criticizing them for trying something new, I'm just trying to point out that for the people trying to figure out new ways to market their trackdays it sounds like a great idea, and it is until you allow people to sell to a third party.
Getting back to what you are saying the policy is though, I don't think that not having an expiration will keep these from being sold, and in fact this is what will probably hurt them the most. It's really going to be frustrating, and affect the bottom line, when they start transferring credits that are several years old.
The reasons that someone would need or want to sell their credits are too numerous to list. Life circumstances change rapidly for a lot of people, and this hobby only lasts a short period of time for a large majority of riders. Just like with many marketing ideas there are unintended consequences, and I have no doubt that an unintended consequence in this will be that a market for unused loyalty card balances will develop, and those balances will be sold at prices well under what the parent company is willing to sell new loyalty cards for.
If you are trying sell $500 in leftover credits and the trackday org. will sell a $500 card for $400 how much are you going to have to ask to get someone to buy from you? Obviously less than what the trackday org. sells for. Once this starts happening, and enough of them are getting posted up for sale, the people selling credits will start competing with each other. I need the money now so I'll take $20 less that what the other guy is selling for so I can get them sold immediately. It may take a while before enough of them are out there that this is happening, but it will happen.
Then buyers will sit on the classifieds and look for the best deal they can find, and as long as they can buy discounted credits they won't ever spend another dime with the trackday org. Where is the loyalty in that? The irony in this is the name loyalty card, because even though many will use them as intended, many more will not.
NO GATE FEE! Let's say it again, folks...NO GATE FEE!
I mean wassupwifdat?:banghead:
