TOPIC: Forum Auction: GOLDEN TICKET!

I think that it is because of two factors. There is a select group of people that will pay a good price for a GT. Those people already have a GT. They will also pay more to get in on the Combat runs. Those are also filled.

At this point in the game it is rare for a GT to go for over $1000.

I'm not sure how much of it has to do with the "Combat runs vs Puzzle runs". I'd lay odds the difference is more along the lines of "How many people can afford/choose to drop $1K on GT?"

That pool of people is relatively small, and in general represents folks who also spend a lot on tokens. Since tokens help more with Combat than solving Puzzles, those people also happen to be the ones who favour Combat over Puzzle... but that's a coexisting factor, not a causative one.

The people who have cash (or tradeable tokens!) to secure a GT make it a priority to do so, so they'll be at the top of the list every year. The people who don't, cross their fingers and hope to get lucky. And many do! But if they don't have a grand to drop on a GT, they probably don't have a grand to spend on token pre-orders, so they don't find their GT's during that first couple weeks when all the big traders do.