This is just not true at all.
You buy the token with a credit card and then you have to sell it on the AH with all the other people doing the same.
You dont get the gold til your token sells. Whatever the market value is.
There is no added or removed gold.
Its no different than buying/selling anything on the AH with the exception of buying the token from the store.
I donāt know.
Iām not even sure what our conversation is about at this point.
Is this the topic?
Did the introduction of Tokens reduce the cost of purchasing gold from third parties?
I do not have a definitive answer for this, nor do I claim to have one. There is a lot of ācommon senseā we could apply to this or many other things, and still not know with any reasonable certainty without actual data.
Elaborate please
All of economics is based on models largely predicated on past behavior
Which substance that was formerly illegal, and still is federally, has become legal for recreational use in some states?
OK. 
Anyway, Iāve lost track of what we are discussing. Please let me know what our topic is.
If i remember correctly, illegal gold still existed in retail during legion.
It was significantly cheaper to buy however you ran the risk of: getting caught/banned; dealing with hackers/criminals; and potentially providing credit card info to hackers/criminals.
Or if you were the type to buy gold (i am not) - you just spend more for less on a safe transaction with Blizzard.
Oh I know what youāre talking about. Iād like to hear you explain how it applies to your argument here
The price is more expensive through legal vendors than it was previously.
Which appears to contradict this statement.
Anyway, again, Iām not sure what our conversation is about. I thought we were discussing Tokens in WoW.
Lets assume thatās true (in my experience it isnt, even accounting for inflation)
Like I said, about 30% of the price is an added tax at least in CA. Yet people are still more willing to buy from a legal dealer than the black market.
It could depend on area, and quantity. Although, where I am, itās significantly more expensive, so I had figured that would be well known and the same in other places (which may not be the case).
Do you ignore the cost of tax when budgeting an amount to spend on something? (this is quite an aside to our conversation, but I suppose I fail to see how or when tax is calculated to be relevant).
Ah, so this I suppose is closer to the point. Then, do we have any verifiable data that shows whether prices from illegal sources have been reduced?
Quick google search returns results like āHow legalization caused the price of āmaryjaneā to collapseā which would seem to align with expectations.
There are actually multiple studies done in CA, Co and Wa with similar results.
I suppose the results from my search with the same search string paint quite a different picture from what you are suggesting.
Iām seeing āThe high cost of legalization is killing āmjā.ā etc.
Of course, this isnāt exactly analogous to gold selling, as Blizzard didnāt make a framework for gold sellers to sell gold through WoW, while paying a tax to Blizzard.
Iāll keep searching, but thatās not what Iām seeing.
Literally seeing, āPrices Soar since Legalizationā (as headlines). And āHow legal āMJā is Heling the Black Marketā
You are incorrect. That is not how token sales are handled currently.
Check the dates on those articles. Prices spiked in a lot of areas right after legislation because the slow permitting process created a bottleneck on supply, but over time as more suppliers/vendors came online prices decreased dramatically
Do you have a source for this?
The only source I have seen, so far is:
Which states,
Yes it is.
Its always been that way. The only reason the cost of them increased was due to gold making methods in WoD and Legion that were farmed by many players.
āprices soar since legalizationā Apr 15, 2019
āblack market for ā¦ is thrivingā Apr 30, 2019
āPrice of ā¦ rose after legalizationā Jan 09, 2019
etcā¦
I mean you can go on retail right now or just google āhow do wow tokens work, lol.ā
You place the token at a static price determined by Blizzard. You are guaranteed the value of the token when you place it, regardless of what the buyer pays for it. Itās essentially like taking a short or long position on a stock.
If you place it at 100, but the price has risen to 150 by the time someone buys it, you still only receive 100, and vice versa
Sounds like it should be trivial for you to provide a source that verifies your claims then