I played TD with a group of friends for a couple of years pre-pandemic at GenCon. I was always excited when a whale joined our group and lent us tokens, so in summer 2019, after not getting to play at 5th level at all, I decided to buy a Fateful Ring of Heroism. I expected that to be the only big investment I made in TD, but then Covid hit, and VTD became a thing, and I became hooked. I went from spending nothing to spending $100-ish to spending thousands... but almost none of that goes to TD. I bought a lot of tokens on the secondary market, and that's where most of my build comes from. I've done a few transmutes, but the cost of doing transmutes vs. buying things has put me off a lot. I made a spreadsheet to track auction prices, and was quickly deterred. Even just seeing the prices soar this year has soured me on transmutes. At the low point on TG cost this year, transmuting a Luna's or a Muk's from the relic would've cost about $700-750 in trade goods and gold/wish ring, which is a hefty chunk, but not wildly off from what it costs to buy a legendary on the secondary market even when you factor in the cost of the relic and the extra needed tokens. But at current prices, that has soared to $1200-1250, and that's way out of line for other legendaries. The legendaries are good, but not that much better than the relics. I had started collecting to do these transmutes, and I gave up, and I'm sitting on my trade goods for future years instead.
I'm not a hardcore player compared to many - I do 1-2 runs per VTD, not 10-20. I could've been a good source of money for TD - I like having the best stuff, and the latest and greatest. But at these prices, I can't justify it. Instead, most of my money will end up going to the secondary market.