I don't know how it works as I don't paypal, but have diamond certs destabilised the game owners income so they decided to limit them?
People would buy diamonds to either buy items that are buyable by diamonds only including certificates. Some diamonds would be exchanged for gold I would presume also.
With the advent of Diamond Certificates though I see zero point in exchanging diamonds for gold as you can get 10x, 20x or lately up to 30x!! the value in gold, so there is very little reward for exchanging for gold the "old" way if at all.
Does this now mean retrospectively that people are holding on to their diamonds and/or possibly not actually buying them as often or even at all as they are waiting for a certificate event to gain WAY more for their money?
The fact the game has been pushed so intensively towards P2W in the last couple of years means a lot of - or most - new items are diamond only and as equally relevant there are a lot of items that were available previously which are also now diamond only!
, the result being that those certificates become even more valuable to people who won't - or can't afford to - pay real money but are happy to pay earned gold playing the game to buy them in auction or exchange when they do actually appear as it's the only possible way to get a lot of locked items or previously unlocked items.
Supply & demand along with the unavailability of a lot of items nowadays has pushed the value of the certificates to insane heights especially as these are also now limited.
At the end of the day, if people can't afford to pay real money for diamonds all the new locked items make no difference to them but push the diamond certs value higher and higher as it's the only way for those items to even become a possibility to most. Catch 22, offer diamond only items - offer diamond certs - prices rise - no one buys diamonds to exchange for gold in the bank - bottom line plummets.
A case of them shootng themselves in the foot but no idea how to bandage it up now.
I suppose they could offer them regularly, then the prices would level off to a reasonable amount but still be "worth" buying by the paypallers as still worth more than 1 for 1 in bank.
I don't know, just my thoughts. Current value of certs in gold is way too rich for me and likley most people. There is possibly a happy medium somewhere that would mean selling the certs at a certain regularity would keep demand at an exchange rate happy to both buyers, sellers, AND the game owners. What that happy medium is no one can work out except through trial & error
Just my thoughts - however misguided they may be. Despite my long post I still didn't articulate exactly what I wanted